Harmonia Online announced

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Hello, everyone! With Labor Day behind us, it’s back to laboring at the old Indie RPG News mill. To get us back into the swing of things, here is a little nugget I’ve been sitting on: Harmonia Online, described as “an MMO with the strategic interplay of a turn-based strategy game.”

The plot is a bit wordy, and seems to be something of an anti-knowledge take on the whole light versus dark thing. The feature list is the real star of this one, in my view. To wit:

Harmonia blends the style and mechanics of several genres together.  There’s a lot of Shining Force, a little Warcraft, and a little Nethack.  Each player commands a small band of heroes and collaborates with other players in massive tactical battles to defend (or destroy) the kingdom of Harmonia.  Positioning and management are key to victory; each of the 8 basic character classes fulfills a vital role on the battlefield.

  • Soldier – The leader of the group, a proficient swordsman, but also provides valuable support effects to the troops
  • Knight – Highly mobile lance-wielding centaur that specializes in melee combat and crowd control.
  • Warrior – Stalwart defender, able to take hits and protect other more vulnerable characters.
  • Birdsoldier – Nimble flying unit with the ability to penetrate the enemy’s squishier back ranks
  • Magician – Slow and vulnerable, but if properly protected can lay waste to large areas of the map.
  • Priest – The all-important healer & supporting spellcaster
  • Archer – Ranged fighter with little in the way of defense but packs quite a punch from the back row.
  • Monk – Holy melee fighter with lesser healing ability and powerful buffs/debuffs.

Each main class undergoes two promotions during the course of the game, resulting in a whopping 56 total classes for a huge variety of skills and play styles.

The developers tell me that each player will control 1-4 heroes during play. They also state that Harmonia Online will be fully moddable, with a built-in scripting language and an official map editor so you can run a server with your own variations.

The game’s engine already exists in ASCII form, and is in the process of being retrofitted with a rather more accessible look. As you can see from this video of Harmonia’s latest build, they’re going for something of a Shining Force 3 look, with chunky sprites projected onto low-res 3D backgrounds:

I’m still a little unclear on the combat mechanics they’re going for, as things look decidedly not-turn-based in all of the footage I’ve seen. That said, there is actually a playable demo available where one can presumably test this for oneself. Why not give it a try and see what you think?

Oh, also: Kickstarter. The developers want money to improve their servers, get extra art, and work on Harmonia full-time. They have only a few days to raise a significant amount, so if you want to help out, now’s the time. One way or another, this game will be seeing a Windows, Mac and Linux release at some point in the future.

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1 Comment »

 
  • Chumpy says:

    This looks pretty cool, even in its half-finished state. Can’t wait to see actual combat!

    The website link doesn’t work though.

 

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