Back to Back: indie RPGs to fund

Boy! It sure been a little while since we last checked in on the world of Kickstarter, eh? Let’s see what’s new!

• Arrelia – a jRPG with pre-rendered 3D graphics and a choice of at least 8 playable characters. The developer seems somewhat fixated on the fact that he’s spent his own money on producing graphics for the game in advance of the Kickstarter campaign. It’s 10% of the way toward its $3,000 goal with two weeks remaining on the clock.

• Celestian Tales: Old North – previously covered here, Celestian Tales is on Kickstarter for about two days more if you want to continue pushing it past its funding goal.

• Chaos Reborn – a reimagining of Julian Gollop’s classic multiplayer turn-based tactical combat game Chaos, helmed by the man himself. Importantly, Chaos Reborn is going to feature a single player strategy RPG mode where you can explore the world and get into wizard duels against AI-controlled enemies. (For those of you who don’t know who Julian Gollop is, he’s the guy who designed X-COM; which is to say, I love the man. He’s going indie with this game, and I will be appalled if it doesn’t get funded.) As of the time of writing, Chaos Reborn has raised $108,000 or so out of its $180,000 funding goal, with 16 days left to make up the difference.

• Dragon Fin Soup – in all honesty, I can’t really tell you what this game is, since the developers have tried to appeal to everyone by throwing in every possible catch word and mixing it all into a nonsensical salmagundi. It’s an “SNES style” RPG, as well as a “tactical action RPG” “with roguelike elements.” (Frankly, “tactical action RPG” alone is giving me the urge to go on a rant.) The developers do clarify the “roguelike elements” part a bit: “You will encountering a custom blend of procedural content, scripted events, crafted story quests and procedurally generated missions.” That sounds promising; also, the graphics are lovely. It’s been funded more than twice over, with 10 days left to go.

• Dungeon Bash – a “tactical squad roguelike” that puts you in charge of a randomly generated team of three fantasy characters, then sends them through a procedurally generated dungeon with turn-based battles. Dungeon Bash has about a week and a half left to raise $15,000 or so.

• Earthlock: Festival of Magic – this one escaped my gaze upon my initial posting, but I’m adding it in now! Earthlock is just Festival of Magic, the 3D FF-style jRPG I checked out a few months ago. They’ve already raised twice what they raised last time they tried, which is encouraging, but they have about $67,000 more to go within the next 9 days.

• Serpent in the Staglands – a party-based isometric wRPG with real-time combat and some really nice 2D pixel art. From Whalenought Studios, the same duo that brought us the prehistoric Diablo-alike Isle of Bxnes. Serpent in the Staglands is close to fully funded with 26 days left to go.

• The Great Gaias – if this game’s name looks familiar, it’s because I posted about it in a Back to Back last July. The Great Gaias remains a 2D fantasy jRPG with 100% custom tiles, portraits and sprites; numerous original characters; and 14 character classes. Now, however, it has a more modest $8,500 funding goal as well. The Great Gaias has 39 days left on the clock and about $7,500 left to raise.

• Toby’s Island – a jRPG with charming 2D graphics where you field a party of customizable monsters and collect resources. This one’s just about fully funded with less than a day left on the clock.

Also, it looks like I just barely missed the window to mention Koe, a jRPG set in Japan that teaches you Japanese as you play–but it was successfully funded, so I don’t feel too guilty about it.