War of Ashird is a upcoming turn-based/strategy RPG from developer Igrasil Studio (Who’s previous work includes Bloody Chronicles – New Cycle of Death), or at least it hopes to be an upcoming turn-based/strategy RPG but for that to happen they’re going to need their Kickstarter Campaign to be successful.
Taking place in the titular world of Ashird, the game revolves around the return of an evil Demon King, a foe who had been previously defeated in a long and bloody war. Now the nations of Ashird must once again rise to the occasion and stop the Demon King for taking over the world, under the leadership of our unlikely protagonist, a mere peasant who fate will call into action to lead a powerful army against him.
As stated above, War of Ashird is a rather unique combination of strategy RPG and traditional turned based JRPG, merging two classic sub-genres. How does this work? Well, the campaign page explains that “normal battles” will take place on a grid with the player taking control of up to seven characters. This style of gameplay might play similar to a Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics game. Other kind of battle will play differently. Boss fights and “castle sieges” will utilize a traditional, turn based, JRPG battle style with three party members.
Other gameplay elements include story scenes reminiscent of a visual novel where you will interact with different characters and make decisions that will shape the future of the game and your army, as well as an exploration screen where you will explore Ashird and it’s cities. Making new allies, enemies, and discovering new quests. You’ll be able to choose from one of three factions: The Kingdom of Ceredia, The Free Cities, and The Prisean Empire, all with their own specialties that make them play different from one another. As you progress through the game you’ll gain rank and status, getting your own land and even a castle to manage your army from.
War of Ashird will feature a large of cast of recruitable characters, all with their own backstories and personalities. Sometimes rivalries may develop between certain characters, and by recruiting many characters the player will get to explore more of the world and it’s story through them.
Now that we got all the technical details out of the way, let’s talk reward tiers! Like most campaigns higher reward tiers include the rewards of the previous tiers:
- Pledge $30: A digital copy of War of Ashird for PC or console, a digital artbook, and access to the Backer Discord server.
- Pledge of $40: A digital copy of the games soundtrack.
- Pledge of $50: Access to all future DLC that will be made for War of Ashird and the backer exclusive demo.
- Pledge of $75: A digital copy of an additional artbook by Satchely (Perhaps best know for her contribution to Doki Doki Literature Club) featuring some rather provocative imagines of some of the games female characters. See below for a few examples of what you can expect.
- Pledge of $100: Your name entered in the in-game Hall of Fame and one item from the Backer’s Adventure Pack, a collection of backer exclusive in-game items to aid you in your journey.
Even higher tiers do exist if you wish to contribute more to the campaign. You should check the Kickstarter for a more detailed list of rewards for these tiers but they include more items from the previously mentioned Backer’s Adventure Pack, the abilities to name some characters, an exclusive piece of artwork by Satchely, and even the option of having an NPC made specially for you.
Igrasil Studio has set their goal for War of Ashird at $82,000 USD and have currently raised just over $24,000 as of writing this article. They have 28 days achieve their goal. If successfully funded they aim to have the game out on PC sometime in 2021 with a PS4 and Switch release in 2022. If you’d like you can visit it’s page on Steam right now and add it to your wishlist.
So what do you think? Does this hybrid strategy/classic JRPG approach to combat sound interesting to you? If so, be sure to checkout the Kickstarter and maybe consider backing.
