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Tags: Critical Forge; Forged of Blood
August has begun, and its first day brings us an unprecedented number of indie RPG releases. Coming in first is Forged of Blood, the turn-based tactical fantasy RPG that failed at Kickstarter but came through anyway. The game had its closed beta in June, so hopefully its release today means that it's in pretty good shape. The developers have published a few more videos since then, including a two part official gameplay preview and an official trailer which I'll post here along with the release announcement:
We are so pleased to welcome you to the world of Attiras. A world, Forged of Blood, is now yours for the taking.
As you take on the role of Prince Tavias Caenican, you will be presented with a world of grey moral choices and difficult decisions in the war ahead. The forty-two regions of Attiras are yours to claim in conquest, and the three varied faction arcs will place the fate of this world in your hands.
Forged of Blood is a complex and expansive game. As you recruit and build characters in your retinues, you will have at your disposal an array of 10 Weapon Categories and 6 General Ability trees. Each weapon has a place on the battlefield, and various synergies with the General Ability trees are available for you to discover as you explore and experiment our character systems.
Beyond the confines of the medieval armory are the unending mysteries of magurite - our vast system of magical energies. Here, we put at your fingertips one of the largest spellcrafting systems ever made in a video game and empower you with freedom to experiment and explore to your heart’s content. In Forged of Blood, players will wield 3 “types” of energies, and 2 energy “states” for each that add up to 6 unique “primordials.” Each of these 6 “primordials” will have 8 unique effects, with each spell able to contain 5 effects at any single time. Each of these effects can then be modified through the use of the 12 “effect modifiers” before the entirety of the spell can be shaped through the 12 “global modifiers.” All this is to say that there will literally be an almost incalculable amount of spell combinations for you to play with.
Finally, in keeping with our general theme of choices and consequences, we come to the philosophies that will drive the narrative and endgame mechanics of our game. Gone are the binary good and evil tropes of old, and in its stead we present the Tri-axis Philosophical Index. Choices throughout the game will move you along three axes that follow the world’s philosophies of Altruism, Hedonism, and Rationalism. Your movement and placement in this index will have narrative, gameplay, and endgame consequences as you conduct your war in Attiras, and the outcomes of your campaign are myriad.
As gamers and game makers, we lean into the complexities we’ve built in Forged of Blood. Through the complex depth of our mechanics we’ve found freedom in gameplay, and we are extremely proud of that. However, we do know that it is not for everyone, and we have gone to great lengths to make sure that everyone can play and enjoy our game. For our weapons, we have provided two archetypes that will auto-level your characters as they gain ability points. With our spellcrafting we provide a selection of pre-set spells that will scale in power as your character grows more powerful. And finally, we provide gameplay sliders that will give players the freedom to play our game the way they want to.
It had taken us three years, five months, and seventeen days to get here, but the studio and I are by no means “done with this game. In the coming weeks and months we will continue to refine and tune the game. In the immediate days that will follow our launch, we will be watching, listening and reacting to your feedback and we hope to smooth any rough edges as we go. Internally, we have our own back-log of refinements that we will be taking on and we will share these updates with you as we go.
From all of us here at Critical Forge, I welcome you to Attiras and hope that you will enjoy our game.
Forged of Blood is available on Steam now for $30. Congratulations to the guys at Critical Forge. Hopefully the game will do well enough that the absurd snobs at GOG will agree to sell it as well.
August has begun, and its first day brings us an unprecedented number of indie RPG releases. Coming in first is Forged of Blood, the turn-based tactical fantasy RPG that failed at Kickstarter but came through anyway. The game had its closed beta in June, so hopefully its release today means that it's in pretty good shape. The developers have published a few more videos since then, including a two part official gameplay preview and an official trailer which I'll post here along with the release announcement:
We are so pleased to welcome you to the world of Attiras. A world, Forged of Blood, is now yours for the taking.
As you take on the role of Prince Tavias Caenican, you will be presented with a world of grey moral choices and difficult decisions in the war ahead. The forty-two regions of Attiras are yours to claim in conquest, and the three varied faction arcs will place the fate of this world in your hands.
Forged of Blood is a complex and expansive game. As you recruit and build characters in your retinues, you will have at your disposal an array of 10 Weapon Categories and 6 General Ability trees. Each weapon has a place on the battlefield, and various synergies with the General Ability trees are available for you to discover as you explore and experiment our character systems.
Beyond the confines of the medieval armory are the unending mysteries of magurite - our vast system of magical energies. Here, we put at your fingertips one of the largest spellcrafting systems ever made in a video game and empower you with freedom to experiment and explore to your heart’s content. In Forged of Blood, players will wield 3 “types” of energies, and 2 energy “states” for each that add up to 6 unique “primordials.” Each of these 6 “primordials” will have 8 unique effects, with each spell able to contain 5 effects at any single time. Each of these effects can then be modified through the use of the 12 “effect modifiers” before the entirety of the spell can be shaped through the 12 “global modifiers.” All this is to say that there will literally be an almost incalculable amount of spell combinations for you to play with.
Finally, in keeping with our general theme of choices and consequences, we come to the philosophies that will drive the narrative and endgame mechanics of our game. Gone are the binary good and evil tropes of old, and in its stead we present the Tri-axis Philosophical Index. Choices throughout the game will move you along three axes that follow the world’s philosophies of Altruism, Hedonism, and Rationalism. Your movement and placement in this index will have narrative, gameplay, and endgame consequences as you conduct your war in Attiras, and the outcomes of your campaign are myriad.
As gamers and game makers, we lean into the complexities we’ve built in Forged of Blood. Through the complex depth of our mechanics we’ve found freedom in gameplay, and we are extremely proud of that. However, we do know that it is not for everyone, and we have gone to great lengths to make sure that everyone can play and enjoy our game. For our weapons, we have provided two archetypes that will auto-level your characters as they gain ability points. With our spellcrafting we provide a selection of pre-set spells that will scale in power as your character grows more powerful. And finally, we provide gameplay sliders that will give players the freedom to play our game the way they want to.
It had taken us three years, five months, and seventeen days to get here, but the studio and I are by no means “done with this game. In the coming weeks and months we will continue to refine and tune the game. In the immediate days that will follow our launch, we will be watching, listening and reacting to your feedback and we hope to smooth any rough edges as we go. Internally, we have our own back-log of refinements that we will be taking on and we will share these updates with you as we go.
From all of us here at Critical Forge, I welcome you to Attiras and hope that you will enjoy our game.
Forged of Blood is available on Steam now for $30. Congratulations to the guys at Critical Forge. Hopefully the game will do well enough that the absurd snobs at GOG will agree to sell it as well.
