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Turn-Based Tactics Capes - turn-based superhero tactics from Hand of Fate devs

Infinitron

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https://www.spitfireinteractive.com.au





Apparently an exclusive reveal at RPS: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/hand-of-fate-devs-new-tactics-game-is-xcom-with-superheroes

Hand Of Fate devs’ new tactics game is XCOM with superheroes​

Capes will be flexing its legally distinct muscles with Marvel's Midnight Suns in 2023

If you were ever fond of roguelike deckbuilding ARPG Hand Of Fate and its sequel then you might be interested in the newly revealed superhero tactics RPG Capes. It’s in development at Spitfire Interactive, a freshly founded studio made up of former Hand Of Fate devs. None of the characters in the trailer seem to be wearing their blankets around their shoulders, but it’s worth a watch all the same.

Capes is set in a city that was taken over by supervillains 15 years ago. The aim of the game is to train up a new generation of rookie heroes and take back the town from the various, nefarious crims. Spitfire say you’ll be able to combine superhero moves to take bad guys down, while moving around levels strategically in a turn-based tactical fashion. It’s a bit reminiscent of the XCOMs, natch, and will also be going up against Marvel's Midnight Suns, recently pushed back to a 2023 launch.

Hand Of Fate’s creators Defiant Development were shuttered in 2019, with founder Morgan Jafitt crediting the closure to the games market changing too quickly for the company to adapt. Spitfire Interactive is made up of key members of Defiant’s former team who worked on the Hand Of Fate series, including Jafitt.

Jafitt previously worked on the excellent and similarly superheroic Freedom Force when he entered the industry. I rather like the sound of Capes because it reminds me somewhat of the ol’ Batman storyline No Man’s Land. Winning territory back from supervillains is something I can get behind, and an interesting concept for a tactics game.

Alec (RPS in peace) became more than a little frustrated with his character’s masked rival in his Hand Of Fate review back in 2015, but otherwise thought it was a pretty smart game. “Hand of Fate’s deepest foundations are compulsion loops,” he said, “knowingly exploiting the human hunger for more and better items and numbers and to keep on cleaning up a map/board/menu until no more options remain.”

Capes is earmarked for a Q1 2023 release on Steam, but no firm details beyond that yet. Up, up and away!
 
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gurugeorge

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Colour me very interested. It's always seemed obvious to me that turn-based tactical ought to be where the genre really shines, because you've got a potentially enormous box of toys with spectacular effects there.
 

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ERYFKRAD

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Hand of fate 2 was a solid improvement over the first, oughta keep an eye on this for that reason alone.
 

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

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Doesn't seem to have much verticality.
Pity, superhero setting might be perfect for things that Solasta: Crown of the Magister did with level design and character movement.
 

gurugeorge

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Just had a wee play of the demo. It's promising - the USP is the joint synergy effects (e.g. special abilities appear on the bar depending on who you're teamed up with, and those special abilities automatically combine powers and effects from the heroes you're with - for example, when the ninja girl is teamed up with Mindfire, she has a new ability on her bar and when she clicks it Mindfire makes the mob vulnerable before she attacks. Pretty neat.

The story is told in cartoon figures popping up on the background they're in (much like Troubleshooter for example). The models are a bit jank, which is unfortunate because missions seem to be prefaced with close-up banter, where the writing is ok but the facial animations are a bit scary. The music is a bit boring electronic, but it's a demo, and it shows some pretty good gameplay so far. Cautious optimism.
 

Sunsetspawn

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The title is missing three letters at the end ;)

but really I'm surprised it took this long for these genres to collide; seems like an obvious peanut butter cup
 

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Now published by Daedalic, demo available for Steam Next Fest:

 
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Lord of Riva

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The devloper stated there is no character creation though (not sure if that has been mentioned) and that it's not supposed to be like X-com, and if you were to compare it, it would be akin to chimera squad.

Having a specific "team" and character for the story spells all kinds of trouble, in my eyes, regarding how the story will be told, mentioning chimera squad especially. I am going to be sceptic about this one, hope to be proven wrong as it looks to have potential.
 
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If it has no full character creation then it's not worth it.
But it's published by Daedalic, so expect -90% off after two months.
 

Modron

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It's not the first time it's been attempted I remember seeing a pcgamer preview of an upcoming cool xcom looking turnbased super hero squad game sometime in the mid to late 90s that never materialized.
 

santino27

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No character creation is decline. Self-cited omparisons to the awful Chimera Squad are also decline. Hate to see it.
 

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I'm kind of curious about this.

Character creation would be nifty, but let's face it, the superhero genre is so "anything goes" that custom characters would need to have the entire game built on that foundation, which this never was. I see where they are coming from where they want to build a bunch of characters with tactical specialties that a fun game can be designed around, instead of opening the box of letting players rampage with horrific min/max builds. Basically superhero CRPGs tend to be extremely easy to break. Not desirable in turn-based tactics.
 

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I'm kind of curious about this.

Character creation would be nifty, but let's face it, the superhero genre is so "anything goes" that custom characters would need to have the entire game built on that foundation, which this never was. I see where they are coming from where they want to build a bunch of characters with tactical specialties that a fun game can be designed around, instead of opening the box of letting players rampage with horrific min/max builds. Basically superhero CRPGs tend to be extremely easy to break. Not desirable in turn-based tactics.
I agree, but instead of having pregens, they could still have general classes like Blaster, Mesmer, Brawler, Ninja, etc. But as a completely free-form game, that'd be a nightmare.
 

santino27

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I'm kind of curious about this.

Character creation would be nifty, but let's face it, the superhero genre is so "anything goes" that custom characters would need to have the entire game built on that foundation, which this never was. I see where they are coming from where they want to build a bunch of characters with tactical specialties that a fun game can be designed around, instead of opening the box of letting players rampage with horrific min/max builds. Basically superhero CRPGs tend to be extremely easy to break. Not desirable in turn-based tactics.
Again, Freedom Force did custom character generation (using a pre-defined pool of archetypes and power types) just fine. Nobody is suggesting that this be a 'whatever power you can dream up in your head, however you want it, because we'll magically be able to handle that' scenario, afaik.
 

Zombra

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Again, Freedom Force did custom character generation (along specific archetypes and power types) just fine.
I loved Freedom Force but it was not hard to break, which was fine for that format, less so for a more thoughtful tactics game.
 

santino27

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Again, Freedom Force did custom character generation (along specific archetypes and power types) just fine.
I loved Freedom Force but it was not hard to break, which was fine for that format, less so for a more thoughtful tactics game.
Sounds like a problem for the devs of this 'thoughtful tactics game' honestly. The fact that they instead just peaced out and didn't even try seems regressive, but to each their own.
 

Zombra

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Sounds like a problem for the devs of this 'thoughtful tactics game' honestly.
It is indeed their problem, and they solved it. Balance is a huge bitch when designing a game like this, so they chose to limit available units and make a game that is good and challenging, rather than spend 15 years balancing and rebalancing a huge list of unpredictable mix & match powers, or release a game that is trivial to break.

Listen man, I like character creation as much as you do - probably more - but it's not rocket science to see how much of a design nightmare it can be, particularly in this genre.
 

InD_ImaginE

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No character creation is decline. Self-cited omparisons to the awful Chimera Squad are also decline. Hate to see it.

The comparison is probably just that the fact we are going in with pre gen characters/casts instead of 10 dozens of faceless, replaceable mooks.

Understandable direction too considering Super Heroes theme usually banks on character with unique powers.

Would love to have a chargen with choice of pre-defined power I guess, but I don't really see this as much as a game breaker.
 

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