Fairy Tale Tactics: Dragon Fin Soup

Dragon Fin Soup's trailer plays out as if it's running to a strict time limit. There's a brief introduction to the world, via the medium of lovely painterly stills, and then we're straight into isometric tactical combat. All the while, text jumps up on the screen, telling us who made the game and why, while mining, crafting and fishing are mentioned in passing. Toward the end, dramatic music swells and pictures of meteor strikes are interspersed with menu screens and collapsing cacti. It's an strange mix and oddly edited, but there's an old-school Zelda vibe crossed with tactical combat and crafting. That appeals.

There are roguelike elements. Of course there are - this is 2014, after all. Most intriguing of the procedural elements is talk of randomised weather which will, presumably, have an impact on combat. The earthquakes might be troublesome even outside of combat.

The studio behind Dragon Fin Soup (a name that's as uncomfortable in the mouth as the foodstuff might well be) has the name Grimm Bros and, fittingly, this first game from the collective has a fairy tale theme. The protagonist, Red Robin, is a hard-drinking take on Red Riding Hood. A hard-drinking mercenary take on Red Riding Hood with a blunderbuss and a sword.

The game's coming to all of the current Sony consoles, Vita included, but following a successful (and still running) Kickstarter campaign, it has also enjoyed a spot in the Greenlight. The Kickstarter page has plenty of info, including much more detail about the world itself:

The world of Asura is dynamically generated with a large numbers of prefabricated landmarks, scripted events and random gameplay elements. Our dungeons features a wide range of compelling locations and layouts for you to explore such as Spider Forests, Ice Caves, Abandoned Mines, Scorching Deserts, Mushroom Forests, Haunted Mansions, Castles, Ancient Ruins and much much more.

Spider Forests are the worst forests.