14 DAY TRIAL // Ekuator Games, an Indonesian game developer, has launched a Kickstarter Campaign for a new take on Japanese role-playing games during last year's summer, and they weren't met with much success, missing their goal by a large margin.
Now they have returned stronger than ever, and this time around the Celestian Tales: Old North Kickstarter campaign is almost funded, with 23 more days to go.
The revamped version of the Kickstarter pitch informs that Celestian Tales: Old North is a role-playing game that features a moral choice driven storyline that follows six different points of view and multiple character arcs, all rendered in beautifully hand-drawn art.
The world of Old North is one of both fantasy and realism, where the utmost evil to be faced is not an awakened godlike creature of ancient myths, but the darkness that lurks in each of our hearts, and where peace and compassion stand side by side with hatred and jealousy.
As such, questionable justice, blind faith and grey morals are among the main themes of Celestian Tales. The story spans thirty years and each character grows and evolves during this time, the player's choices modeling their future.
From a more functional point of view, the game will follow each of the six playable character's own point of view, overlapping with other characters' personal storyline or converging with them, with combat becoming an integral part of the story instead of just filler to pass time.
Purposefully avoiding or chasing enemies is integrated as part of the story, for instance not fighting any fey creatures when passing through an elven forest will raise your standing with them, deeming you a friend on nature, affecting your persuasion when dealing with the elvenkin who may otherwise distrust you.
When it does occur, combat will be a turn-based affair that relies on broad options of character customization and team composition that allows players to develop their own personal combat style.
The team has also assembled a prototype build to showcase the exploration, combat and dialogue system, as well as the various hand drawn environments and animations, available on the Ekuator Games website.