It’s a harsh world with weird monsters, harrowing landscapes, hard people, and very deep lore. The lands that once resembled a flourishing, Romanesque empire (albeit with magic and fantasy races like Elves and Dwarves in the mix) are now devastated ruins and has become a wasteland. The setting, the Riven Realms, for sure is one of the unique elements that sets Vagrus apart. These parts all mix together to – hopefully – provide a memorable experience.Ĭan you tell me a bit more about the story of the game and the world behind it? Also, it is a cRPG where not every character is superb in open conflict, and so some characters will have a rather surprising set of skills.Īll in all, what sets Vagrus apart, in our opinion, are the unique setting, the balance between branching narrative, combat, and resource management, as well as the open world exploration aspect. Positioning on the battlefield is paramount. It’s true that we opted for a fairly similar visual presentation of the combat with 2D sprites and two sides hacking at each other in a JRPG format but we also feel that we tweaked that concept enough to create a different kind of combat experience. Vagrus is also more stat heavy, even than Darkest Dungeon.
The main difference in approach will become apparent as we open up the ‘vanilla’ content where our goal is to create an open-world experience with the players choosing which way to travel, which tasks and quests they take on, which enemies they fight and avoid, and so on. The Banner Saga games are more akin to the Prologue of Vagrus, where they play through a set story told by an old wanderer, albeit one where you can choose how you approach things. Banner Saga is a great example how such mix could work really well, though in comparison, Vagrus aims at a much less linear experience. Vagrus is also story-focused while trying to bring up the combat and management aspects to be almost equally in focus. If we looked at the last three specifically, Sunless Sea is narrative-heavy, putting less emphasis on combat, with ‘fatally important’ crew and resource management. All of these games are brilliant, so we are naturally thrilled with the analogies. Even old classics like Heroes of Might and Magic, Disciples, or Oregon Trail are sometimes mentioned by players as inspiration for Vagrus but more recent games like Sunless Sea, Darkest Dungeon, and Banner Saga are even more common examples.
What will set Vagrus apart from them and what aspects will remain similar? The game seems to be influenced by classic tactics games. We opened our indie game development studio to start working on Vagrus. Then, in 2017 fate presented us with an opportunity (both of us had enough of our corporate jobs) and we took it. While both of us pursued careers outside of the gaming industry, we often daydreamed about sharing that world somehow with others, be it in form of an RPG campaign or a comic book.
Geri and Gabor, the two main founders of Lost Pilgrims Studio, have been playing tabletop role-play for over two decades, mostly in our own campaign setting, the Riven Realms, using AD&D, then later on D&D systems (with a lot of home rules to match the unique setting). What inspired you to start working on Vagrus ? But I wanted to know more, so I contacted the devs and had an interview. Developed by Hungarian indie dev Lost Pilgrims, Vagrus – The Riven Realms, looks so promising, that I added it in my 2019 Indies to Look Forward category in my Indies of 2018 article. One of my favourite accounts to follow on Twitter, is one about a dark yet beautiful Strategy/RPG game, based on an unforgiving world.
Official links: Homepage / Steam / Twitter/ Facebook
0 kommentar(er)
