Indie Archaelund: RPG that combines 1st-person exploration with 3rd-person TB combat - now available on Early Access

[Tyranicon]

I'm getting fairly engrossed in the game. According to steam I'm five hours in.

There's a nice gratifying moment after you leave the intro dungeon to see a giant landmass in front of you. The game seems to be true open world, with at least one small city, and dotted with points of interest.

Spoiler

There's a small assortment of quests in the city, with the standard purpose of beefing your party up before you can continue on your main quest: rescuing the sage kidnapped by pirates in the intro.

There's a healthy smattering of factions, although I haven't run into most of them. The lore seems to be well developed and the writing is good (with the expected typos). There's some interesting lion dudes that you and everybody else are apparently in awe of.

And then the natives, these mantis-looking people, who are existing in a tenuous peace with humans and other races who are "foreign" to the continent (there's some backstory here to dig up).

The caveat is that most of the human characters are impressively ugly. I don't mind, it's a nice laugh when I see them.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

At long last, Solasta will be displaced from its current title as CRPG with the Most Inexplicably Ugly Character Faces

 

[Sloul]

Keep in mind though, that this early access read like either an alpha test or a very early beta test. When you see the roadmap you get a clear sense of it.
From my understanding they are using free models atm, and they are going to do their in-house models at some point.

 

[Lhynn]

At long last, Solasta will be displaced from its current title as CRPG with the Most Inexplicably Ugly Character Faces

 

[Modron]

In before starfield npcs start showing up.

 

[fantadomat]

 

[Jaesun]

Played again today but completely restarted with a pre-rolled party. And made my way finally to the road that can lead to the big city. Had a blast running around and exploring (and failing a lot of checks too) while desperately trying to find weapons or armor. ANY FUCKING weapons or armor. I actually like that too. The "dungeon" part was very good in that there is a torch mechanic which I actually like. Use a torch and there's more light for you to see. Once they go out, it's pretty fucking dark and could miss a lot of stuff.

Once you find the exit of the dungeon there's a boss like battle and that was pretty cool. And with the optional companion you can bring with you that certainly helped. The more I play this, I am liking a LOT of the games systems mechanics for exploration and various skill checks. There's a good solid groundwork of systems so far, and can then be improved upon.

Also the last(?) patch now added the option to move the camera around in combat with the qewsad keys, which was very much needed.

The dialogue system works good too and has skill checks like when you take that quest from the Ork at the camp we were able to determined the item he was sending us to go get, was actually quite valuable. That I liked. Some nice touches.

 

[agris]

Use a torch and there's more light for you to see. Once they go out, it's pretty fucking dark and could miss a lot of stuff.

did you ever inspect the slug-monsters with someone who has a decent mythology skill? they're pyrophobic and taking fire damage stuns them for a round.

i'll give you 3 guesses as to whether you can wield flaming torches in combat or not

 

[Spike]

So the Codex consensus is that's it's good?

Yes but it's also unplayable for all the humans in the informal association of barbarians. Both of us are pretty pissed about that because the game hits all the right notes otherwise. Apparently.

Can I be a member of such an association if I am already in the lay paladin's guild? Paladin or Barbarian in every CRPG, forever. There are no other options.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Can I be a member of such an association

If you have to ask then you can't.

 

[Jaesun]

Use a torch and there's more light for you to see. Once they go out, it's pretty fucking dark and could miss a lot of stuff.

did you ever inspect the slug-monsters with someone who has a decent mythology skill?

I keep forgetting to click that options. Need to actually try and use that more.

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[cyborgboy95]

A Week of Adventure: Archaelund's Journey So Far
Hail, Adventurers!

It's been a week since the first of you set foot in Archaelund, and what an incredible journey it's been so far! I'm thrilled to share the best news with you all.

Firstly, the response from you, our players, has been nothing short of phenomenal. Reading so many positive reviews means the world to me, after five long years of developing a classic RPG with so many unique angles. Always wondering if, outside my head, it still sounded like a good idea. The question was always there, hanging. "Yeah but... will it be fun?" and finally I got my answer!

Having said this, please know that I won't fall into complacency. No one sees more flaws and shortcomings than myself, and in case I miss something, I have your invaluable feedback. You have already made the game so much better in just seven days!

Sales have been good, and I hope they'll hold; I certainly want to give the game a more unique look in some aspects, and make it as beautiful as possible. But what's even more astounding is the surge in wishlists – they've doubled in just one week, reaching over 40,000! This surge in interest is very reassuring about the future of the game once it comes out of Early Access.

But I am using too many words, when just one suffices: thanks.

Looking forward, I'm more motivated than ever. Archaelund is going to get much bigger, it is going to get much better, and it's going to be for you to enjoy, forever.

You can check what's ahead in our Roadmap, or see the insane progress of game updates in the Changelog[www.exiledkingdoms.com].

Take care, and watch out for those spike traps!

David.

 

[Spike]

A Week of Adventure: Archaelund's Journey So Far
Hail, Adventurers!

It's been a week since the first of you set foot in Archaelund, and what an incredible journey it's been so far! I'm thrilled to share the best news with you all.

Firstly, the response from you, our players, has been nothing short of phenomenal. Reading so many positive reviews means the world to me, after five long years of developing a classic RPG with so many unique angles. Always wondering if, outside my head, it still sounded like a good idea. The question was always there, hanging. "Yeah but... will it be fun?" and finally I got my answer!

Having said this, please know that I won't fall into complacency. No one sees more flaws and shortcomings than myself, and in case I miss something, I have your invaluable feedback. You have already made the game so much better in just seven days!

Sales have been good, and I hope they'll hold; I certainly want to give the game a more unique look in some aspects, and make it as beautiful as possible. But what's even more astounding is the surge in wishlists – they've doubled in just one week, reaching over 40,000! This surge in interest is very reassuring about the future of the game once it comes out of Early Access.

But I am using too many words, when just one suffices: thanks.

Looking forward, I'm more motivated than ever. Archaelund is going to get much bigger, it is going to get much better, and it's going to be for you to enjoy, forever.

You can check what's ahead in our Roadmap, or see the insane progress of game updates in the Changelog[www.exiledkingdoms.com].

Take care, and watch out for those spike traps!

David.

God bless! It looks awesome.
EDIT: I just noticed...1.0 is 2.5 years off. Well that will give me time to catch up on the classics!

 

[Tyranicon]

Looking forward, I'm more motivated than ever. Archaelund is going to get much bigger, it is going to get much better, and it's going to be for you to enjoy, forever.

The world map for this game is huge for a solo dev, and right now we only have access to the first square (unless someone discovered another area that can be entered).

 

[fantadomat]

The jungles are too small,shold have been the whole south part and tharkul to be a jungle town lol.

 

[Reinhardt]

so is it gud?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

so is it gud?

Humans can't be barbarians, game is unplayable

 

[Nortar]

so is it gud?

Just looking at the map, they have a lot of mountains - Spear Mountains, Ironwall Mountain.
The whole central part is covered with the nameless moutains range too.
They have places like Stonefell Keep and Mines.
But there are no dwarves.
I hope it weill be fixed soon.

 

[Tyranicon]

Humans can't be barbarians, game is unplayable

ERYFKRAD, do you have a book of grudges?

If so, how high up on the list is this game?

 

[Reinhardt]

book? is that the thing with many samey striped pictures?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Humans can't be barbarians, game is unplayable

ERYFKRAD, do you have a book of grudges?

If so, how high up on the list is this game?

I don't keep books, that's for civilized people. I remember though.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I don't keep books, that's for civilized people. I remember though.

 

[Alienman]

"book makes Grok angry"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I don't keep books, that's for civilized people. I remember though.

I said nothing about reading books. Bookkeeping on the other hand.