Divinia Chronicles: Relics of Gan-Ti announced

Martin Sander of Chinese German indie developer Team Monkey writes in to announce work on a 3D over-the-shoulder action RPG called Divinia Chronicles: Relics of Gan-Ti.

The premise:

A long time ago at the peak of the High Kingdom of Pandura, a group of seers looked into legends of a powerful force believed to be the origin of life; this they called ‘Gan’, though modern peoples know it as ‘Divinia’. The ancients sought to utilize Gan as a weapon; in doing so, their perverse intentions spawned the malignant ‘Gan-Ti’, or ‘anti-life’. Infusing Gan-Ti into artifacts, the godlike High Kings ruled the Panduran Archipelago with an iron fist. Eventually, rebellion arose and the Order of Archkeepers was formed of the most noble warriors to free the people. They managed to capture the relics of Gan-Ti and cast them into the fiery pits of Mt. Suvius near the shores of Oria island. With the evil power of the relics suppressed, the monsters that terrorized the countryside were slain and the old Kings overthrown. Peace had come. As of late, however, rumblings have been heard from Mt. Suvius, and the wise have come to fear an eruption. With a reckless young King having just assumed the throne of Oria, will the powers of Gan-Ti again fall into the hands of the most powerful, or can a new force arise to combat the inevitable?

Divinia Chronicles is being built in the Source engine. As you can see in the teaser trailer below, Divinia Chronicles features some lovely stylized graphics and combat reminiscent of 3D Legend of Zelda titles:

If this all looks strangely similar to another indie game, that’s most likely because up until recently, Team Monkey had been calling the game “Saga of Pandoria.” According to Sander, they switched the game’s name due to trademark concerns.

The developers state that Divinia Chronicles features proper character leveling and magic, and that the combat system features such niceties as a Zelda-style lock-on capability and the ability to block and evade attacks.

Divinia Chronicles: Relics of Gan-Ti is being developed for Windows–though there is no estimated final release date yet, the game is due to show up on Steam Early Access by the end of 2014.