The Underrail Heavy Duty DLC for  will be released on November 1:

Underrail: Heavy Duty

This DLC adds three new weapon types - grenade launchers, machine guns and miniguns, as well as a special high-level side mission that will challenge even the most hardcore Underrail veterans.

Key features:

• Grenade launchers, a area of effect type weapon, added to Guns skill
• New high-level side mission where you'll fight against elite enemies
• New feats

Thanks Couchpotato!

Mortismal Gaming checked out Spacewreck:

Check Out: Space Wreck

Thanks Couchpotato!

Couchpotato spotted the story trailer for the post-apocalyptic RPG Space Wreck:

Space Wreck Story Trailer

Darkheart spotted a Kickstarter announcement for a Black Geyser DLC:

Kickstarter Coming Soon For Expansion Pack

Subscribe to the coming soon page

Greetings, adventurers!

We are happy to announce that we are going to launch a Kickstarter campaign very soon (early October) to fund the DLC's development - its Coming Soon page is already live on Kickstarter!

We encourage you to log in to Kickstarter and subscribe to its launch notification on the Coming Soon page. Your subscription (the number of subscribers) will help us a lot in the planning of the campaign, including the stretch goals.

If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, our studio won't be forced to close, and the DLC is expected to arrive before August 2024.

You can check out this forum post for more details on the DLC and its associated Fixpack. We want to emphasize that this Fixpack will be a free Steam/GOG update to all owners of the base game, so you won't need to purchase the DLC to get it.

Backers of our previous Kickstarter campaign who haven't received their physical rewards yet (game box, lorebook etc.) will receive all items well before the start of the DLC campaign, as all shipping will be completed before the end of September.

Thank you for your support and be sure to join us on Discord, or across social media, to let us know your thoughts.

The Black Geyser Team

The Action RPG Pathogenesis: Overcome has been released into Early Access:

Pathogenesis: Overcome

A not so accidental world pandemic of 2030, that turned people to their more primal selves, has become the reason for the downfall of modern civilization. Many survived, but did all the survivors remain human? This is a story about those who survived after a global pandemic on the territory of Leningradskaya Oblast, Russia. A story about finding your place in a destroyed world, where the greatest danger does not come from the infected.

Pathogenesis: Overcome – story-driven Action RPG with hardcore gameplay, elements of survival and real-life combat tactics, wrapped in the style of modern dark realism.

FEATURES:

• Planning and tactics are more important than reflexes. Not everything can be solved by running and gunning. Ammo is rare, it weighs a lot, and has a tendency to run out. Weapons can wear down, or break entirely. You have to think twice before engaging in conflict.
• Using cover will drastically improve your chances of survival. Even one bullet from a handgun is enough the receive a deadly wound. Running guns blazing can lead to a premature death.
• Dynamic camera and non-direct controls, increase your ability to survey your surroundings and increase your maneuverability without losing control of your character. Think about the path you want to go and then concentrate on your surroundings.
• Non-target shooting and a special aim mode, give you the ability to deal damage to specific areas of your enemies. Just let the suckers expose their elbow or knee... Or you can just shoot through surfaces with armor-piercing bullets.
• A wide arsenal of real-life firearms, explosives, and ammo with proper characteristics and physically correct ballistics. Military, civilian, sports weapons from Russian and foreign arms manufacturers. Almost everything that you can find in real life.
• Modifications and tactical gear increase the ease of use for firearms but don't overdo it. Each element increases mass, to an already heavy arsenal.
• Cold weapons and hand to hand combat. In case you will run out of ammo.
• Wounds, bleeding, disease, hunger, thirst, sleep deprivation, fatigue... You will have to spend some time to provide yourself with basic necessities, in order to survive in this harsh world.

Thanks Farflame!

Shiro Games has posted two other previews of the upcoming community update #2 for Wartales:

Community Update #2 Preview: Camp & Troop Management

Community Update #2 Preview: Combat & Battles

Thanks Redglyph!

The tactical RPG Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner has been released:

Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner

Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner is a classical turn-based tactical RPG. It is set in a medieval high fantasy world and unfolds an action-packed mature political story on the continent of Xenthania. Experience the fate of an entire kingdom through the lives of the characters tied together by destiny.

The kingdom of Wendalle is peaceful but divided. It is weak and isolated. Wendalle is barely standing on one leg when it faces a new and devastating threat- an invasion by a strong and fanatic empire.

To make things worse, the king’s closest friend and confidant betrays him and paves the path for the invasion. Since the king has no heir, the traitor plans to take over the throne by claiming that this is to unite his motherland. Is his claim true? Or is he just a puppet of the empire?

Just when all hope seems to be lost, an unknown warrior comes forth with his allies and reshapes Wendalle’s future.

Crimson Tactics is strongly influenced by games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre and yet it stands on its own as a worthy spiritual successor to those classics. It also brings in new improvements and additions to the tactics genre:

• The game features a complex class system with over twenty-five classes.
• Players can choose and use from over two hundred abilities.
• Recruit story characters with unique classes, weapons and abilities.
• Combat features an extensive weapon system where players can mix and match from hundreds of different kinds of weapons for a more epic experience.
• A unique mounting system that has mounts ranging from horses to dragons, with each having its own advantages and disadvantages.
• Battles take place on grid based maps.

You can join the beta test for Dungeons of the Amber Griffin.

A demo for the French RPG Alvara is now available:

Alvara

Alvara is a fantasy RPG with real-time exploration and turn-based combat, inspired by the gameplay of genre classics (JRPG) with a big modern twist
You play Zoltae, the hunter of a small village, who will be pushed to leave it and go explore the kingdom of Alvara to understand why the world around him is about to change...

Features:

• Explore a fantasy world made up of different levels connected by passages. Villages, places to explore, mysteries to discover...
• Third person view to explore a 3D world.
• Go alone or accompanied. NPCs will be able to help you in your quest, but be careful, you will need the skill to be able to do so.
• Quests and contracts offered by NPCs who will need your help.
• Develop your character and his companions through experience points and by improving your skills that you will have been taught or that you will have been taught.
• Rich dialogues that affect your relationship to NPCs and have a direct influence on the story.
• Turn-based combat: when you encounter an enemy, you arrive in a combat zone in which each belligerent acts according to its characteristics.
• Crafting, trade, ...
• Day/night cycle. Sleep in a bed to recharge your batteries, set up camps and chat with your team to find out who they are and what drives them.
• Backup when you find a backup book via the menu

Be aware that this game has been developed for 5 years by a single person.
The demo, lasting 1 hour, will allow you to visit the starting village and explore a wooded level. You will only do the main quest, but that will be enough to discover the gameplay and the dialogue system.
Coming soon, Early Access will allow you to travel the world around the main village and will take you around 5-6 hours. The full version due in 2025 will include the entire world to travel for a much longer lifespan. If this short demo thrills you, don't forget to put the game in your wishlist.

ATTENTION
The game was written in French and the translation automated. The translation files are made available to players who would like to improve them. Thus, some texts may be inconsistent or incomprehensible in the first versions of the game.

The community update #2 of Wartales is out:

Community Update #2 Preview: Paths & Endings

Greetings mercenaries!

Welcome to the first Update Preview, giving you a sneak peek of some of the upcoming changes to the Path system.

Stay tuned for more of these articles as we share in-depth details the new features & changes coming your way in Community Update #2.

Overview
We’ve been working on giving Paths a proper ending for quite some time now. We’ve explored several options before deciding that each Path deserved a distinctive new feature. Our goal with the upcoming update is to give you access to new content as you get further into the game, rewarding your investment not only with more power, but also with more gameplay (don’t worry though, there’ll be plenty of power too).

When you reach level 8 of a Path, you will gain access to a new activity.

Each Path has its own unique activity, and you can complete all 4.

• Power and Glory Path: The Ordeal of Legends
• Trade and Craftsmanship Path: The Trade Routes
• Crime and Chaos Path: Burglary
• Mysteries and Knowledge Path: Archeology

As you continue to progress from level 8 to 12, you will unlock new, harder steps for the Path’s activity.Upon completing one of these steps, you will be rewarded with a unique item AND a unique title for your troop (yes, you read that right). For example, by completing the 4th step of The Ordeal of Legends, you will obtain:

• The “Heroic Fighters” title, which grants your units a 4% damage bonus for the current battle each time one of them uses action points.
• The “Helmet of Legends”, which, when worn, applies Frailty to all adjacent enemies.

That’s a total of 25 items and titles. There was actually a hesitation at some point: should it be items or should it be titles? But the answer was simple: why couldn’t you have both?
Once you complete the 5th and last stage of an activity, you’ll reach the end of the Path.

The Paths

Power and Glory: The Ordeal of Legends
An ultimate arena in which you will fight bosses from every region.

[...]

Thanks Henriquejr!

RPGamer reports that the Fallout inspired RPG Space Wreck will be released on October 10:

Post-Apocalyptic RPG Space Wreck Fully Releasing in October

Developer Pahris Entertainment announced that its Fallout-inspired post-apocalyptic RPG Space Wreck will exit Steam Early Access and fully release on October 10, 2023. The game has been in Early Access since December 2022.

[...]

Rat Tower posted an update on Monomyth:

Monomyth - July/August Update

State of the Game: Video Devlog 6.0 | Performance Improvements

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

It's time for another project update! This month's video is a little more technical since we are talking about performance improvements. There have been a few problems with the audio recording at the beginning - sorry for that! Anyway, please, enjoy:

As always you can find the transcript below.

Best wishes,

Michael

-------------------------

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

Another month, another update! There has been a lot of progress during the last few weeks, especially in terms of performance. As such this update will be a little more technical and I hope you don’t mind. I think it is worth documenting a few of these things and letting you get an impression of what the current workload looks like. Basically, I decided to pull some tasks from the polishing phase into beta update 4. Next time we will get back to level design, game systems, and similar. So let’s take a look at it.

The current problem with performance could be described as the legacy of prototyping. It’s not uncommon in this phase of development. Basically, I am trying to bring the environments into their final shape while cleaning up unnecessary and inefficient structures.

The main focus here is on draw calls and lightmap memory.

For draw calls, you need to understand that for every frame that’s shown on your screen, every visible element has to be “drawn” by the engine, or rather your hardware. More precisely, what is drawn is a so-called material - a material is simply a surface, consisting of different texture maps and shader functions.

[...]

Thanks Redglyph!

Henriquejr spotted the test branch 0.7.007a for The Iron Oath:

Public Test Branch (0.7.007a)

Hello mercenaries,

The Tales by the Fire update is now available on the public test branch!

To opt in: Go to your Steam Library, right click The Iron Oath and select Properties. From there, go to the Betas tab and select "Public test branch" from the drop down menu.

You can use your current save on the test branch, but you will need to first copy over the file. Navigate to: "C:\Users\Your Name\AppData\LocalLow\Curious Panda Games\The Iron Oath", and copy your save file from the "saves" folder into the "testBranch_saves" folder. When loading an old save from within a dungeon, you will be kicked out of the dungeon (but not penalized with fatigue or anything).

With that said, we do recommend testing on a fresh campaign for now, as there are still some things we need to clean up (such as balancing the frequency of the various dungeon events).

There are still some remaining bugs that we're working on, but in the meantime it is playable and ready for testing, so we'd appreciate as many eyes on it as we can get! We have been fairly thorough, so hopefully there aren't too many bugs that we haven't discovered. We expect it to remain on public test for at least a week, but it'll depend on how many new bug reports we receive.

Here are the changes and additions with this update:

• New Class, the Balladeer: The 8th class in the game fills the role of a pure support character, buffing allies and debuffing enemies
• Job System: Characters can now be assigned jobs within the company. Each job has its own unique bonuses that assist the party during dungeon exploration.
• Dungeon Exploration: We've made some pretty significant changes to dungeon exploration, and each dungeon's layout is now fully visible. Tiles that have events are marked as such, but the identity of the events (aside from boss locations) are not revealed until you move to or scout the tile. We made this change to allow the player to make more informed decisions when navigating a dungeon, instead of blindly moving along a generally linear path as it was previously.
• New and Reworked Dungeon Events: We've introduced a number of new event types such as Shrines, which allow you to sacrifice something to receive a blessing. We've also reworked many of our old events to better synergize with the new job system, and most events can now be revisited if you did not complete it the first time (so you can choose to hold off on interacting with a Shrine, and still come back to it later if you wanted to)
• Dungeon Time Meter: The time threshold for new dungeon modifiers has been significantly increased to 48 (on the default difficulty). Moving to an unexplored tile costs 2 Time, while backtracking costs 1.
  Dungeon Modifiers: All dungeons now start with 1 Positive and 1 Negative Modifier which is displayed in the party select screen. It's important to pick classes and jobs which best suit the modifiers at play! With that change and the aforementioned changes to Time, players will now accrue less dungeon modifiers via the passage of time (max of 2), but the ones that are applied will be more potent. We've removed many of the old trivial modifiers, added a few new ones, and tweaked a few existing ones.
• Specialized City Offerings: Cities are now more specialized in what they offer to the player. Certain gear and classes will be more common in specific cities (eg. Valkyries and Icebinders are commonly found in the Northern Hold, but you'll still be able to occasionally find them elsewhere too)
• Character Trait Quantity: We've reduced the starting number of traits each character has. They now spawn with 2 combat/physical traits and 1 personality trait. The previous number of traits was too high, making it too hard to keep track of while also making characters feel less unique since there was a high chance they shared traits with your other characters. In the future, characters will be able to "grow" and acquire more traits as you play the game through dungeon events and company moments.
• New and Modified Difficulty Levels: We've added two more difficulty levels and adjusted the default difficulty of Battle-Hardened to be slightly easier. If you played on and enjoyed one of the three previous difficulty levels, you'll want to move up 1 level from where you were (eg. If you played Adventurer, you should now play Soldier, if you played Battle-Hardened, you should now play Warlord). The difficulty levels are now: Adventurer, Soldier, Battle-Hardened, Warlord, Emperor.
• Morale effects on combat: Your characters' Morale now affects them in combat, making it more important to manage properly. If a character has 75+ Morale, the duration of negative conditions applied to them will be reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1 Round). If characters have 25 Morale or less, there is a chance (it's a dice roll which takes into account their current Morale) on their turn that they will delay their turn until the end of the round. Once their turn comes up again, if their Morale is still below 25, another roll will determine whether they skip their turn entirely for that round.

[...]

The RPG Codex checked out Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness:

RPG Codex Review: Black Geyser

During its seven years of development, Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness was widely considered vaporware or a joke title from a completely unknown indie developer from Hungary and Austria. But, lo and behold, it did get a release last year on March 17, as the Codex reported. After giving them time to polish up the game with some updates and bug fixes, let us now take a closer look at it.

Black Geyser was inspired by both the Baldur's Gate and the Pillars of Eternity series – which was also the main selling point during its Kickstarter campaign in April 2018. The UI is almost an exact (and some say, rather shameless) copy of the user interface in Pillars of Eternity, while almost everything else is very similar to Baldur's Gate. But more on that later.

[...]

Conclusion
For those who were disappointed with Pillars of Eternity (or are now disappointed with Baldur's Gate 3) as far as delivering a traditional "Baldur's Gate"-like experience is concerned, this game comes closer to it than any other RPG in the last 10-15 years. It does not stand out as great in my view, but still delivers a fun and enjoyable experience – once you get past the first few hours.

Wanderbots checked out Arcadian Atlas:

Art Noveau Tactical RPG! - Arcadian Atlas

LT Gaming checked out the tactical RPG Crimson Tactics: The Rise of the White Banner:

Crimson Tactics: The Rise of the White Banner - Early Access Quick Review

Couchpotato spotted two reviews for Arcadian Atlas on RPGFan and RPG Site:

RPGFan: 

A fulfilling RPG experience that doesn’t require a 50+ hour time commitment is always welcome for those of us with busy schedules. The 13 or so hours I spent on a single playthrough Arcadian Atlas was time wonderfully spent. With its expressive sprites, fun gameplay, robust writing, and jazzy music, it is clear that Arcadian Atlas was crafted with lots of heart and is definitely worth a look.

Score: 81/100

RPG Site:

Aside from several gameplay design decisions that irked me and a mediocre story didn’t do anything for me, my time with Arcadian Atlas was pleasant and admittedly insignificant. I don’t have any strong feelings for what I played. It took me roughly 12 hours to finish with all the sidequests done. The music had a nice jazz-infused flavor that made it more memorable than I expected. If you’re looking for a new strategy RPG and are willing to give a new independent studio’s first shot a genuine chance, this one is alright.

Score: 5/10

The tactical J-RPG Arcadian Atlas has been released:

Arcadian Atlas

Description:
Arcadian Atlas is a 2D isometric tactical RPG set in the richly detailed pixel art world of Arcadia. Watch your footing & mind the elevations as you traverse the maps -- A turned back or tumble on the battlefield could cost you a friend’s life. Let the moody jazz soundtrack carry you through a thought provoking & ruthless story of love, deceit, murder, companionship & war. Meant to be a modern go at the Tactics Ogre / Final Fantasy Tactics game style, Arcadian Atlas was designed from the ground up to incorporate more challenging battle strategies, new & balanced job classes, and darker subject matter for a more mature audience.
 
Featuring innovative job classes, character driven narratives that leave you invested & intrigued, strategic grid-based battles and a jazz infused soundtrack, Arcadian Atlas is a lushly handcrafted 2D isometric tactical RPG that takes the rich history of the genre and makes it modern.

History:
Twin Otter Studios is an independent game developer started in 2015 by siblings Taylor & Becca Bair. After ranking in various game jams, creating their 5 hour indie RPG "Genesis" together & working professionally in the gaming industry as a writer & freelance artist (respectively), the brother/sister duo decided to make their work official with an LLC & logo.

Our goal is to craft lovingly handmade games with a fusion of modern elements & classic aesthetics that we ourselves would want to play. We have brought together some of the freshest & most innovative talent in the industry to bring you unforgettable gaming experiences.

Features:

• Hand-painted character art & a pixel perfect world designed by artist Becca Bair (Vidar, Dreamblazers). A labor of love!
• Detailed battle system provides limitless strategy & challenges.
• Epic storyline and 3-dimensional characters fleshed out by writer Taylor Bair (Business of Indie, Planet Destiny) will leave you intrigued & attached. 
• Grid-based tactics play style hits all the right nostalgia chords
• Retro-style sound effects & modern, chilled out jazz tunes by Moritz P.G. Katz (Fort Meow, German
• Wahnsinn) bridge the gap between yesterday & today.
• Innovative job classes with zero filler skills will keep you chasing that AP.
• Marries tried & tested classic tactical RPG gameplay with new customizations & exciting mechanics that help innovate the genre.

Indie Retro News reports on an RPG inspired by Wizardry 7 and Eye of the Beholder called Mystic Land: Search for Maphaldo. You can check out some new screenshots from their Instagram page.

[...]

Also according to the team behind the game "Mystic Land is an open world retro RPG. A true spiritual successor of Wizardry 7, Eye Of The Beholder and Might and Magic. Old-school dungeon crawling, party creation and turn based movement/combat with a bit of "extra" added. For example : different forest areas don't look the same and aren't using the same graphics, so each area you explore will be unique and special. Furthermore the possibility to add animations to everything - walls, objects, floor, ambient... like the animation of a rat crawling all over the dead Shkra warrior in the dungeon. This opens up lots of possibilities".

And that's we have on the game so far, but for further information make sure to check out the website link, or the twitter page above, we can't wait!

The tactical RPG Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner will be released into Early Access today:

Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner

Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner is a classical turn-based tactical RPG. It is set in a medieval high fantasy world and unfolds an action-packed mature political story on the continent of Xenthania. Experience the fate of an entire kingdom through the lives of the characters tied together by destiny.

The kingdom of Wendalle is peaceful but divided. It is weak and isolated. Wendalle is barely standing on one leg when it faces a new and devastating threat- an invasion by a strong and fanatic empire.

To make things worse, the king’s closest friend and confidant betrays him and paves the path for the invasion. Since the king has no heir, the traitor plans to take over the throne by claiming that this is to unite his motherland. Is his claim true? Or is he just a puppet of the empire?

Just when all hope seems to be lost, an unknown warrior comes forth with his allies and reshapes Wendalle’s future.

Crimson Tactics is strongly influenced by games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre and yet it stands on its own as a worthy spiritual successor to those classics. It also brings in new improvements and additions to the tactics genre:

• The game features a complex class system with over twenty-five classes.
• Players can choose and use from over two hundred abilities.
• Recruit story characters with unique classes, weapons and abilities.
• Combat features an extensive weapon system where players can mix and match from hundreds of different kinds of weapons for a more epic experience.
• A unique mounting system that has mounts ranging from horses to dragons, with each having its own advantages and disadvantages.
• Battles take place on grid based maps.

Game Rant interviewed an Arcadian Atlas developer:

Interview: How Arcadian Atlas Charts Its Own Course in the TRPG Renaissance

One Arcadian Atlas dev talks to Game Rant about the resurgence of tactical RPGs, inspiration from genre classics, and how the new TRPG stands out.

With recent releases like Diofield Chronicles and Persona 5 Tactica on the horizon, tactical RPGs are in the middle of a new golden era. One of the games making up this modern trend is the upcoming Arcadian Atlas from developer Twin Otter and publisher Serenity Forge.

Arcadian Atlas follows two lovers in an era of political intrigue, civil war, and powerful magical artifacts. The familiar notes from genre-defining games are where Twin Otter’s owner, Taylor Bair, found the inspiration and grounding of this new game. Though, as he told Game Rant in an interview, Arcadian Atlas charts its own path. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: TRPGs are enjoying something of a renaissance lately. What do you think is driving that?

A: The resurgence often seems to correspond with age–those of us who grew up playing some of the classics of the genre like Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics are now adults, seeking out a creative way to express ourselves. So you see those influences start to seep in as those who were once players are now developers and have the chance to pay homage while crafting something new and adding their own special mark on a genre they fell in love with.

Q: What inspired Arcadian Atlas?

A: While the inspirations are too numerous to list here, much of them hearken back to the SNES and PS1 era when pixel art really came into its golden age, not just in the absolute sprawling beauty of still images and seamless tilemaps in games like Secret of Mana, but in animation work expressing itself so potently in Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. These worlds were limited by the hardware at the time, but those constraints gave birth to revolutionary techniques with light, movement, and character emotion. Our love for those characters inhabiting those worlds really drove our passion for Arcadian Atlas–and we think that comes through in the animation work, the gorgeously rendered battlefields, and the rich story.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Edge Of Eternity got a new update:

New Beginning Update is Out Now!

After the last update in April, we are very proud to announce that the New Beginning Update is now available. This update brings a new procedural dungeon and the beginning of the adventure has been revamped.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Hey Poor Player interviewed Twin Otter Studios about their upcoming J-RPG Arcadian Atlas:

Get to know a little bit more about Arcadian Atlas—and the people behind it!

2D isometric SRPGs are an absolute treasure if you ask me. There’s something about games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and the like that—between their engaging combat, endearing stories, and charming artwork—have always held a special place in my heart. Unfortunately, they’re also part of a bygone era… or so I had thought! Despite not being the most popular thing around anymore (were they ever, though?) the world of old-school SPRGs is very much alive and well—with the upcoming Arcadian Atlas being the most recent example (and a very exciting-looking one to boot!).

Maybe you’re wondering just what, exactly, Arcadian Atlas is about, though? Or perhaps you’d like to know a bit more about the development process? Well, you’re in luck, because we here at Hey Poor Player recently got to sit down and pick the brain of Taylor Blair—one half of the brother-sister duo sitting at the helm of the development studio behind Arcadian Atlas, Twin Otter Studios!

Hey Poor Player: To begin, could you briefly give us a synopsis of Arcadian Atlas in terms of both story and gameplay?

Twin Otter Studios: Arcadian Atlas is a tactical RPG in the spirit of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, and more modern interpretations of the genre like XCOM and Fire Emblem. We wanted to craft interesting and powerful classes that have different strategic usage in our gorgeous isometric battle maps – using some of our favorite skill tree features from games like Ragnarok Online and Diablo II to make each class further differentiated through wild and powerful abilities.

On the story front, the land of Arcadia is embroiled in civil war when the eldest surviving heir to the throne, Lucretia Belneive, is declared illegitimate by her stepmother, Queen Venezia. Lucretia raises the peasantry – the destitute and downtrodden – to resist and reclaim her throne. The ensuing war, driven by these two cold, calculating tacticians, forces the entire continent to choose sides, including our heroes: Vashti Dahlman and Desmond Rhines. But as the world around them burns, our characters find the bonds of love and family fray and snap. Arcadian Atlas is the story of that burning – and of what can be saved from the ashes.

HPP: Based upon what we can see in the Release Date Reveal Trailer, Arcadian Atlas seems to have PS1-era retro-ness about it. Was that done on purpose? If so, were there any games in particular that you would say helped to inspire you during this game’s development process?

TOS: The retro-quality of Arcadian Atlas existed from the very beginning and was born from our love of the SNES/PS1 era. Growing up in the ‘90s, we lived during the golden age of pixel art, when Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, and Chrono Trigger pushed the artistry of these tiny pixels to their most endearing. We fell in love with these 16-bit characters. We felt their pain and rejoiced in their triumphs, even though they were just a collection of dots. Because we saw ourselves in them. We wanted to bring that depth of visual storytelling to Arcadian Atlas, and the retro style let us do that as a small team.

[...]

The Turn Based Lovers report that Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner will be released into Early Access on July 25:

HIGH FANTASY TACTICAL RPG CRIMSON TACTICS IS READY TO ARRIVE ON PC

The highly anticipated tactical turn-based RPG, Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner, developed by indie dev Black March Studios is ready to release on PC via Steam Early Access on July 25, 2023. Set in the immersive medieval high fantasy world of Wendalle, this game offers players an action-packed political narrative filled with desire, destiny, and demise.

The kingdom of Wendalle teeters on the brink of disaster, riddled with ideological divides and awash in mistrust. A raging civil war spurred by a power-driven siege risks disrupting the kingdom’s stability as dukedoms fiercely vie for the throne. Amidst this turbulence, players will navigate the sinister schemes of Duke Arsenio Duran of Swozalta, an antagonist with a relentless ambition for power, and aid a dwindling rebellion fighting against his oppressive reign.

Crimson Tactics: The Rise of The White Banner puts players at the heart of this power struggle, pushing them to make critical decisions. Will they value the lives of their comrades or exploit them? Would they help those in need, or succumb to their own ideals? The choices made will shape not only the course of Swozalta but the entire kingdom of Wendalle.

Taking inspiration from iconic games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre, Crimson Tactics introduces innovative twists and enhancements to the genre. 

Key features include:

• A unique mounting system featuring horses and dragons
• Challenging tactical gameplay with aggressive and adaptive enemies
• A dynamic difficulty option that adjusts according to player performance
• Tactical grid-based maps promoting a broad range of playstyles

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Henriquejr spotted the June update for Monomyth:

Monomyth - June Update

State of the Game: Video Devlog 5.0 | The Inner Fortress

Hi, dungeon-crawling fans!

The latest video devlog is finally ready! This month we are taking a look at the last beta area and we will be listening to a short snippet of the combat music. If you keep your eyes peeled, you can even catch a glimpse of the game's crime system and its (currently minimal) implementation. But we will get to that in another update. Please, enjoy:

As always you will find the transcript below!

Best wishes,
Michael

[...]

Couchpotato spotted a new update for Black Geyser:

Italian Translation Released

Localization News and Recent Changelog

Greetings, adventurers!

We are thrilled to announce that Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness is now available in Italian! Our heartfelt thanks goes to Giacomo Falconi from Wordbridge for the Italian translation of the game.

In March, we informed the community about serious issues regarding the current and future operation of the Black Geyser team. We are still working on these issues and will come to a final conclusion in August that we will share with you immediately. Thank you for your patience.

Since our last update, several fixes and improvements have been implemented as well. You can read their list below.

Latest Changes

• Added Italian localization
• Black Liquor's icon now appears properly
• It's no longer possible to kill Bartender Ruflodac in Castle Alastor before he summons his illusions
• It's no longer possible to attack Deron-Guld soldiers in the Guild Hall during Fair Winds and Foul quest without them fighting back
• It's no longer possible to skip the enemy soldiers on the battlefield and go directly to their leader during the Only Who Is Left quest
• Funnel Aura now properly updates effects each turn based on the number of nearby enemies
• Subcontainer weights are now calculated correctly
• Isla no longer asks about the Pendulum if the player has already talked to her about meeting him
• Traps no longer sink into the ground in the lower level of Deron-Guld mine
• Looting Bent Journal Page no longer increases greed
• Vile ancients during Sephtys bossfight now correctly have their emerge animations and selection circles
• Vile ancients now properly emerge during Sephthys bossfight even if the player started it after finishing Catalyst
• Potion of the Frost Giant and it's recipe are no longer obtainable
• Modified the recipes of Weak Potion of Exhiliration and Potion of the Raging Tempest
• Potion of Invisibility no longer scales with player level, it now gives invisibility for a fix 10 turns
• Removed healing effect from potion of invisibility
• Removed Fortified effect from Strong Potion of Heroic Defense, it now cures poison instead
• Increased Shady dealings and Theology check limits in Zornilsa's dialogue at Castle Alastor
• Covetous Pendant becomes unusable if player refuses to serve Zornilsa at Castle Alastor

If you like our work, you can support the project by posting a review on Steam.

The Black Geyser Team