Some of my more veteran readers may remember me posting about a very exciting-looking cooperative aRPG with some strong visual influences from The Secret of Mana. That was some three years ago, about a game is called Secrets of Grindea. Recently, SoG developers Pixel Ferrets reached out to me with a beta build of the game. After I finished shrieking in delight and frightening all animals within a three-block radius, I immediately decided that I must play it and record the results. My first impressions follow:

So! What’d I think?

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Remember when I posted about Deity Quest last month? David Maletz writes in to announce the game’s release.

The premise, in case you’ve forgotten:

Deity Quest is a light-hearted, pokemon-inspired RPG where you play as an ambitious young god, recently assigned to a world – Aberos – to convert followers and gain power. Your goal is to become the Overgod, the highest position among the many gods of Aberos. Develop your divine magic, support your followers in fast-paced 6 vs. 6 battles, adventure through locations, and compete with other deities in your quest to reach the top!

Though the game is inspired by Pokemon, battles are 6 versus 6 rather than the 1-on-1 affairs Pokemon is known for. You can see how this looks in the trailer:

As you progress through the game, the developers state that you’ll gain new magic based upon your character’s alignment, as well as converting new followers to your cause. (There are reportedly 128 different follower types to convert, so that should keep you busy for a good while.)

Deity Quest is available for PC in two flavors: basic and extended (the latter of which has multiplayer and trading features). You can snag the basic version for $8, or the extended version for $10, for Windows, Mac, and Linux direct from the developer. There is a free browser demo available on Newgrounds. You can also get the game on Android for $5; the Android version has a free demo available here.

Welcome once again to Back to Back, our periodic review of all that is indie, RPG, and in search of crowdfunding!

Of those games whose campaigns ended since our last edition, Apexicon succeeded, as did  Legends of Persia, Serpent in the Staglands, and (thanks to an impressive last-minute rally) Treachery in Beatdown City. Only Flying Hamster II, The Great Gaias and Prisonscape failed to hit their goals.

Already, we have a new batch of challengers up and ready to go:

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Adam Prack writes in to announce Courier, a Zelda-alike in development by curiously Biblical-sounding company Adam Creations.

The premise:

The Kingdom of Veilend (the land of Courier) has fresh memories of a war they fought against a neighboring kingdom to defend their lands. Attacks start surfacing that appear just as the attacks that led to the previous war, so tensions rise and a lowly mail carrier attempts to find the real truth behind it all.

Courier reminds me a bit of Bloom, in that the main character has no attacks, only defensive abilities. In the words of Prack, it eschews combat in favor of “environmental obstacles, puzzles, and helping people.” He specifies:

You’ll have the ability to block and dodge as the adventure goes on (both are unlocked abilities), but attacks are not available.  There are no random battles, no menu-based battles, and only a small amount of enemies.  These play out more as mini-boss or boss battles.  These range from defeating the enemies with the environment or making them inadvertently defeat themselves.

You character collects stamps to increase his maximum health, and in true Zelda fashion, these are scattered throughout the game world in hidden locations.

Here’s a trailer that should hopefully get the idea across:

Courier is currently planned for release on Windows, Mac, Linux and WiiU in 2015. Courier is on Kickstarter–Prack still plans to releasde the game if it fails to secure funding, though the development will be significantly delayed.

Gregory Johns writes in to tell me about DracinMorte, a gothic 3D action RPG in development by Mad Labyrinth Studios.

The premise:

The story revolves around the main character who is a Necromancer King that runs one factions of many in the underworlds. The other factions band together and remove him from his throne leaving his powerless and near death. The souls that he cares for being a king and a necromancer save his life and offer him aide throughout the game. He now has to forge new alliances with new undead summons, who are your companions throughout the game, as he fights to regain his throne.

Design-wise, it seems that the lion’s share of the thought lavished on DracinMorte so far has been focused on skill systems. Skills feature Diablo 2-style “synergy,” in that points put into lower-tier skills will still effect marginal improvement in higher-tier versions of that skill. Disarming traps gives you materials that can be used in crafting, and quests will have branching paths based upon dialog choices–and certain dialog-focused skills, such as Sense Motive, will give you more options in that arena.

The game can be played in both first and third person modes. The pre-alpha combat demo mostly just shows it in third person, however:

Dracinmorte is on Kickstarter; the developers assure me they’ll be sticking with development (albeit much more slowly) if the campaign fails. Given the game’s enormous $120,000 funding goal, I think it’s good that they have a Plan B in place.

Mad Labyrinth hope to have the game out for Windows, Mac and Linux by late summer 2016. In the meantime, you can play the game’s pre-alpha demo to try it out yourself.

Geoff Dunbar of Merry Prankster Games writes in to announce development of a new party-based isometric wRPG called Temple of the Abyssal Winds. The premise:

Twenty years ago, the demoness Urgoroth rose to power from the depths of the Temple of the Abyssal Winds. She was defeated, but your parents were lost in the conflict. Your aunt and uncle have raised you in the small village of Tomm’s Crossing, where life has been mostly peaceful. Until now…

Whaddaya mean, “Until now…”?! I…I get to keep living a peaceful life as a villager, don’t I? It’s not like I’m gonna have to rally a party and lead it into the temple to slay the demon or anything, right? Oh gawd, I hate it when game developers don’t tell me what’s going to happen next!

Temple of the Abyssal Winds employs a real-time-with-pause combat system reminiscent of Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights, which you can see in action in the trailer below:

Dunbar’s previous release, 10 Fantasy Fights, seems to have been something of a tech demo to prepare the engine for Temple of the Abyssal Winds. It’s available for free, if you’re curious to know what combat in this game is probably going to be like.

Temple of the Abyssal Winds is due for release sometime in 2014 for Windows and iPad.

Welcome back to Back to Back, where we take a look at all the world of indie RPGs and crowfunding.

The success rate for the last round of games was unusually high. Of the games we looked at last time, Celestian Tales: Old North, Chaos Reborn, Dragon Fin Soup, Earthlock: Festival of Magic, Serpent in the Staglands, and Toby’s Island were all funded successfully! Only Arrelia and Dungeon Bash failed to meet their goals.

So what’s new? I’m glad you asked! It’s a relatively small slate of games this time around, but there are some really interesting ones in here:

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David Maletz writes in to tell me about Deity Quest, a Pokemon-inspired jRPG in development by two-person outfit Fancy Fish Games.

The premise:

you play as an ambitious new god recently graduated from the Ethereal Academy. Despite being assigned as a simple lower deity of the world of Aberos, your goal is to become the Overgod, the most influential god of all. To get to the top you’ll have to convert followers to fight for you, support your followers in fast-paced 6 vs. 6 battles, develop your divine magic, and compete with other deities, including your cheeky school rival. The game also features large procedurally generated locations to explore, challenging dungeon-crawler-esque quests, and multiplayer arena battles/trading.

Here’s a trailer showing how this actually looks in practice:

And here’s the feature list:

• Convert Followers – Discover 128 unique follower types throughout the land of Aberos, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and skills.

• Develop as a Deity – Gain powerful magic unique to your alignment to support your followers and smite your enemies.

• Explore Aberos – Travel through locations and quests, finding items and secrets, solving puzzles, gaining experience and discovering new followers.

• Fight 6 vs. 6 Battles – Use strategy to manage and support your followers as they fight, and get the most out of their individual skills.

• Become the Overgod – Race your rival, battle other deities and solve a murder mystery as you strive to become the Overgod of Aberos!

Deity Quest is due for release on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android sometime in the next few weeks. Maletz says the game will cost $10, or $15 for a special “extended edition.”

Jan Lachnit writes in to tell me about The Wizard, a free turn-based dungeon-crawler in development by Hypnotic Owl (i.e. himself and his friend Hannes Flor).

The premise:

You play as the exceptionally handsome, but uneducated wizard Kevin and your good looks have just been stolen.
To get them back you are forced to learn various magic spells on the fly and pursue the mysterious thief through the dangerous dungeons underneath the wizard academy.

You’ll be in charge of a single character–the titular wizard–with a book of spells that you can cast by drawing patterns around the wizard himself. You will also have the ability to upgrade those spells yourself.

Here is a goofy little trailer that should give you the gist:

Jan says that The Wizard is most likely a few months away from release, at which point it will be released as a browser game.

Steven Peeler of Soldak Entertainment, steadfast developer of quality Diablo-style aRPGs with interesting procedural generation techniques, has announced that three of his past titles–Drox Operative (reviewed here), Din’s Curse (reviewed here), and Depths of Peril–are now available for Linux for the first time.

You can snag Drox Operative here, snag Din’s Curse here, and do likewise for Depths of Peril here. (The Demon War expansion for Din’s Curse is also out for Linux.)

All of the games now have Linux-compatible demos available as well: here for Drox Operative, here for Din’s Curse, and here for Depths of Peril.