Legends Of Aethereus' Combat Looks MEATY
We've not posted about Legends Of Aethereus before, because THERE ARE TOO MANY GAMES. But coo, the RPG looks like it's trying to do something interesting with its combat. Physics-based, no auto-lock-on, real-time choppy-chop action. And where improving attributes actually affects the fights you experience.
So what is Legends Of Aethereus? Gosh, they're obtuse about explaining that on their website. But the best I've worked out is that it's an online RPG, with a focus on up to four-player co-op, with story-based quests and procedurally generated "exploration quests" (which sounds great!), along with PVP somehow. It's a muddle, but it sounds interesting. There's also an awful lot of lore in place of a useful explanation of what the game's actually about - "The recent unearthing of The Gauldron Tablets has revealed the existence of The Seven Ancient Skyfall Relics" - that sort of thing.
But ooh, they successfully Kickstarted last year I've just spotted. Maybe the pitch video explains.
Kinda.
It's interesting to note what we accept as normal, just by seeing the abnormal. As you'll see about halfway through the video below, increasing your character's strength actually has a noticeable effect on the combat, rather than just meaning you don't die when fighting a higher level enemy. Certainly I've often lamented that so many RPGs see levelling your own character as the way to keep everything identical when fighting tougher baddies, but I've not given much thought to the idea that I should at least get to see my increased strength demonstrably. Now I just have to wait for a game in which enemies actually get weaker the more you damage them - imagine if any game ever actually flipping did that. Anyhoo, here's the video explaining the combat in great detail:
The game's inevitably on Greenlight, and there's a $25 pre-order that allows instant access to the beta.