Astral Throne high fantasy SRPG roguelike coming April 4 to Steam!

Ontario, Canada – March 20, 2024. The team at Zero Sun Games is thrilled to invite all strategy and RPG fans to dive into the realm of Astral Throne with an all-new demo launching on Steam on April 4, 2024!

The upcoming demo will focus on Act I of Astral Throne, showcasing its unique blend of roguelike progression, turn-based battles, and epic fantasy narrative. The announcement is accompanied by a new trailer that offers a glimpse into the enigmatic universe of Astral Throne and the twist it puts on the familiar genre.

Watch the new Astral Throne trailer:

Dubbed ‘the roguelike Fire Emblem’, Astral Throne merges grid-based combat of classic SRPGs (Strategy Role-Playing Games) with the exhilarating randomness of roguelike adventures. Every playthrough offers a strategic challenge and peels back another layer of the game’s overarching narrative puzzle. Developers draw on the rich legacy of legendary titles like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics, blending it with genre-defining roguelikes such as FTL and Slay the Spire to craft an experience that feels equally nostalgic and novel.

In Astral Throne, you step into the boots of a Hero on a journey through a mysterious island kingdom. Ever since the realm was struck by a falling star, it has been shrouded in mind-warping fog. The few explorers lured to the island’s mystery seldom survived. Those who did share fragmented visions of a cult that took over the royalty and embraced the worship of the Fallen Star.

Since its inception in 2022, Astral Throne has been generating excitement among RPG and strategy enthusiasts, drawing comparisons to titles such as Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Zero Sun Games also achieved praise at last year’s Indie Cup Canada festival, with the jury commending Astral Throne’s in-depth mechanics and handcrafted combat scenarios.

Once the demo is available on April 4, developers will invite the players to share their feedback on the game, helping Zero Sun Games shape Astral Throne into a true genre landmark. The Fallen Star awaits!

Key Features

• Strategically Rich, Deceptively Simple. Engage in grid-based battles that evolve from straightforward confrontations into intricate strategic puzzles. Master the synergy between units, the arsenal at your disposal, and the abilities of each hero to secure your triumph.
  

• A World That Never Stays the Same. Your choices lead to significantly different outcomes, shaped by random skills, characters, loot, and story events. True to its SRPG heritage, Astral Throne features permadeath for every unit, adding weight to every decision and battle.

• Handcrafted Tactical Encounters. Developers meticulously designed every battle scenario to present a distinct strategic challenge. Though the path you take through the island is random, no two encounters ever feel the same.
  

• A Puzzle-Like Narrative. Each playthrough is an individual ‘what if’ scenario that shakes up character relationships and narrative arcs, revealing pieces of a grand, overarching mystery you have to solve through replay and exploration.

• A Realm of High Fantasy. Step into the world of a fallen kingdom veiled in Stardust Fog, a land of lost memories and faded glory. Accompanied by a stirring orchestral soundtrack, Astral Throne invites players on an epic, emotional journey.

Factsheet

• Developer: Zero Sun Games

• Platforms: PC

• Genre: Roguelike SRPG

• Planned Release Date: 2024

• Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2560500/Astral_Throne/

About Zero Sun Games

Zero Sun Games is a video game development studio based in Ontario, Canada. Co-founded by a group of talented and passionate friends, the studio is focused on creating a diverse range of games in various genres for a wide audience of gamers.

Links

• Website: zerosungames.com

• Twitter: @ZeroSunGames

• YouTube: @ZeroSunGames

• TikTok: @ZeroSunGames

• Discord: discord.gg/c9BAb7mBAT

Article by: Susan N.

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Ed-0: Zombie Uprising Slices, Stabs, and Slams onto PC and Console - D3PUBLISHER

Players to Traverse a Perilous Edo-era Japan as a Samurai, Sumo Wrestler, or Ninja and Defeat the Zombie Horde in This Rogue-like Action Title

OAKLAND, CA - July 13, 2023 - It’s time for OEDO-ZOMBIE! D3Publisher Inc., a leading Japanese games publisher, along with developer LANCARSE Ltd. today launched their zombie-filled survival rogue-like action title, Ed-0: Zombie Uprising for PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Originally in Early Access on Steam starting in April 2022, the full global launch of the game comes with numerous new content additions and updates resulting in over 100 gameplay hours. Ed-0: Zombie Uprising is available for purchase digitally for a MSRP of $29.99 / €28.99.

Watch the Ed-0: Zombie Uprising launch trailer above

Designed for brutal strategic battles in a rogue-like format, Ed-0: Zombie Uprising takes place in a fictional Edo-era Japan where hordes of hungry zombies have raided the isolated country. No dungeon run will be the same, so players’ judgment will be of the utmost importance, having to face “once-in-a-lifetime” challenges with a wide variety of random elements amid dangerous foes. Ed-0: Zombie Uprising includes various undead enemies, ranging from “newly interpreted” Japanese zombies to foreign invaders born after the “Zombie Industrial Revolution.” Players will unlock more as they play (and succeed) with an increasing number of possibilities to customize builds to their liking—with the option to bump up the level of difficulty to test one’s capability.

Launch Features

The launch of Ed-0: Zombie Uprising adds a suite of new content including the Ninja as a playable character, five new stages and additional challenge stages and side quests, new bosses and enemy types, Blessings, in-game events, additional character-build options, and more. With the release of version 1.0, D3PUBLISHER has also taken time to address community feedback and implement quality-of-life updates to make for a better overall gameplay experience. The team has improved the overall rogue-like and action elements, strengthened the utility of Charms, Secret Arts, and items, and added new difficulty options (+Hard, Hell, and Edo) to give players even more flexibility in how they play. Lastly, the team has added an “EDO Shader” option that adds a fun twist to the visual style.

For additional information on Ed-0: Zombie Uprising, please visit the official Discord, the community page on Steam, and D3PUBLISHER Inc. to keep up with upcoming content and news. Fans eager to fight back against the zombie horde can also visit the official strategy guide website. This title has been rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB.

About D3PUBLISHER, Inc.

D3PUBLISHER, a member of BANDAI NAMCO group, is a Japanese video game publisher. Established in 1992, the company has published console and mobile/online games from some of the industries most beloved franchises and series, including EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 5, Onechanbara, the Simple series, and more. For more information, visit https://www.d3p.co.jp.

©2022-2023 LANCARSE ©2022-2023 D3PUBLISHER

©2023 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. “PlayStation Family Mark”, “PlayStation”, “PS5 logo”, “PS5”, “PlayStation Shapes Logo” and “Play Has No Limits” are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Microsoft, the Xbox Sphere mark, the Series X logo, Series S logo, Series X|S logo, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X|S are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

©2023 Valve Corporation. Steam and the Steam logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved.

Article by: Susan N.

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Roguebook from NACON is Out on Stadia!

Lesquin, France, June 28, 2022 – Soon, the adventure will have no boundaries: the critically-acclaimed roguelike deckbuilder Roguebook will be available on Stadia Pro and the Stadia Store on July 1st, 2022. Thwart the evil book’s traps on your phones, tablets, or computers!

Developed by Abrakam Entertainment, the developers of Faeria, and co-designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering™, Roguebook takes place in the enchanted world of Faeria. In the game, players choose 2 heroes amongst the 5 available and form a team to take on the legends of the Roguebook, a cursed book whose existence threatens all living creatures.

Upgrade your deck: you can boost the effects of cards by adding gems. You can also transmute your cards to create completely new effects!

Collect as many cards as possible: unlike other games of this type where refining your deck is one of the most common strategies, Roguebook encourages players to build as big a deck as possible to unlock unique skills for your heroes. These skills can be crucial to the success of your quest!

Explore the world in your own way: the chapters of Roguebook are told in a non-linear way. Reveal areas of the map with the ingenious ink system and explore as much of the map as possible to unearth all its treasures!

Every run counts: in true roguelike fashion, you must start from the beginning after a defeat. But you become more powerful with each run thanks to the new cards, skills, and permanent upgrades you have unlocked!

Roguebook is now available on PC, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo SwitchTM, and Stadia

Roguebook is on Facebook, Twitter, Discord, and YouTube.

All NACON Games and accessories are here: nacongaming.com

About Abrakam Entertainment

ABRAKAM ENTERTAINMENT is the AA Video Game Developer of the successful PC strategy game 'Faeria,' which launched in 2017 to 85% positive Steam reviews and praise from critics and major influencers. With their own tools and a very dedicated team, ABRAKAM has the ability to develop innovative strategy games efficiently. Roguebook, a roguelike card game, is their next major title to be launched on PC and Consoles.

About NACON

NACON is a company of the BIGBEN Group founded in 2019 to optimize its know-how through strong synergies in the video game market. By bringing together its 10 development studios, the publishing of AA video games, and the design and distribution of premium gaming devices, NACON focuses 20 years of expertise in the service of players. This new unified business unit strengthens NACON's position in the market, enables it to innovate by creating new unique competitive advantages, and achieves its ambition to become one of the world's leading players in gaming. https://www.nacongaming.com/

Article by: Susan N.

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Sword of the Necromancer - XB1 Review

Sword of the Necromancer by developer Grimorio of Games and publisher JanduSoft—Microsoft Xbox One Review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Sword of the Necromancer is a solid offering that doesn’t necessarily do any one thing great, but it is a Rogue-Lite action RPG that does most thing very well. Just about everything I expected from an entry into the genre is here, with the titular sword adding a nice gameplay wrinkle to the mix as well.

Things start off pretty basically, as our protagonist (Tama) is found in a large empty room in front of a sunlit pedestal upon whom is a woman (Koko) that you can only assume is very important to our character. My oldest is a tremendous fan of Shadow of the Colossus, and she happened through the room when I had this screen up and immediately piped up at the similar vibe presented in more pixelated form. I had to agree.

From there, you enter a passage that introduces you to the game’s basic mechanics while leading up to Tama finding the necromancer’s sword. Ranged, melee and charged attacks make up the bulk of what you’ll be doing in combat, while relying on movement / dodging to avoid being hit or jumping across gaps in the procedurally generated floors as you work through the labyrinth. It’s the sort of top-down affair we often see in this genre, and by and large it works pretty well. Loot is found along the way that might give you new weapons ranging from bows to swords and magical tomes that possess different attack ranges, speeds and elements.

This loot mechanic is one of the core gameplay hooks to keep you coming back for more, as well as earning experience that boosts Tama’s overall stats. Like most Rogue-lite / like games, there are penalties for dying. You lose levels, you go back to the start (so you get very familiar with the bosses you’ve already beaten, as you’ll encounter them again) and you lose whatever items you were carrying on your person (the Sword of the Necromancer is always with you and is never lost, but there are three other inventory slots mapped to face buttons on the controller that will be lost to you when / if you die). You can return to the hub with Koko after beating bosses, allowing you to deposit the other items you are carrying if you like (to a point – inventory space is limited).

These inventory mechanics create a nice risk vs reward tug-of-war as you progress. When venturing into an all-new stage with a yet-to-be-experienced boss, do you risk your most valuable items by taking them with you, knowing that they give you your best chance at success – or do you stow them and learn the ropes with the understanding you are more likely to die without them but will gain knowledge and a higher likelihood of success next time? Also, with only three inventory spots, those spaces get used up pretty quickly as well, especially if you leverage the game’s primary gameplay wrinkle – the necromancy.

Once you kill a non-boss enemy, you can stand next to their corpse, hold your dark sword aloft and bring them back to life as your own minions. There’s about a couple of dozen general enemy types, and most of them bring certain benefits and disadvantages to the table. A spider may effectively slow your opponent, but doesn’t necessarily deal much damage itself. A living suit of armor may hit hard and have solid defense, but it is slow and often out of position if you are in a wide-open area fighting. Magic-users deal high damage from range but are incredibly squishy. Like items, each of these summons take up one of your three precious inventory slots. I will admit that more often than not, If found myself using the monsters as unleashing one or all when dealing with a lot of enemies at once or a challenging boss helps to create some distractions that keep enemies from swarming Tama. They can also gain experience and become more powerful – assuming they don’t die first. As a primary gimmick / gameplay hook, I found this to be an interesting one that often left me experimenting to find the perfect combination for my style of play.

The pace of gameplay is not going to be for everyone. While it sort of looks like and roughly plays similar to the top-down 2D Zelda games from years past, the entire experience is basically one long dungeon crawl without the sense of open world exploration. Combat can be a little sluggish feeling at times, especially when you are trying to open a chest or resurrect a dead enemy, and holding down that button and being completely motionless feels a half-beat too long. I’m also not a huge fan of having to restart from the beginning each time I die – but that’s a personal preference and one of those things that tends to irk me about the Rogue genre in general. There are many people who enjoy that particular gameplay loop, and they should feel right at home with this particular aspect of the game.

There is another small element of progression that sees you picking up scraps of enhancement materials that can be used to forge additional effects onto your items, like increased health or damage. For the sadists out there, you can also put weaknesses / vulnerabilities / stat decreases on your items as well if you want to make this game even more challenging. To those of you who go that route? Hats off to you… you nut jobs. The game’s challenging enough as it is, at least for me. It seldom feels unfair though. You learn enemy attack patterns and eventually know how to deal with them without hardly ever receiving damage unless you just get sloppy. Bosses have a bit of a learning curve, and could require some trial and error, however.

If the gameplay is a bit too challenging, there are a couple of ways to relieve the pressure. If you die three times in a session, there is a settings option that gets unlocked that allows you to customize a few things like negating the loss of experience or items upon death. There is also a code entry system (that sort of looks like a QR code) that allows you a limited number of unlocks during your gameplay. That can certainly tweak your initial experience if you give yourself a particularly useful item or two for the trek, and is a neat idea from the dev team as they encourage people to jump into their discord to have these codes shared from time to time.

Lastly, there’s actually a nice bit of narrative to be had here. The story of love shared by Tama and Koko is a charming one, two people of very different backgrounds that forge a bond that is slowly laid out when progressing through the game. It’s a predictably sad tale told from Tama’s perspective as she finds herself willing to do whatever it takes to resurrect Koko.

Summary

Sword of the Necromancer is a solid Rogue-Lite action RPG title that has a clever resurrection mechanic, but otherwise doesn’t do much new and different. That said, what Sword of the Necromancer does, it does pretty well and makes it one of the more enjoyable enters into the genre.

Score: 7.5 / 10

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New Rogue-Lite Launching This Year From NACON

Lesquin, France, February 21, 2020 – NACON is pleased to announce Rogue Lords, a new rogue-like game co-developed by Cyanide and Leikir Studio. Rogue Lords takes place in a gloomy 17th Century New England where mortals and diabolical entities walk side by side.

The game inverses the usual tropes, with the player taking on the role of the Devil who, weakened following a terrible defeat, is seeking to regain his powers. His goal is to once again spread corruption throughout a world left destabilised by his absence. To achieve his dark designs, he directs a team comprised of illustrious Disciples of Evil, such as Bloody Mary, Dracula, the White Lady and Baron Samedi.

In Rogue Lords, the player explores a 3D map and chooses how he will sow chaos during numerous interactions with other characters. He also launches his Disciples of Evil into difficult turn-based combat and uses their skills as best he can to overcome adversaries. If he loses, it’s game over. The player then loses all character progress and has to start a new run. He will have to choose wisely in order to find a balance that will enable him to avoid defeat. As a last resort, the player can call upon the Devil's special powers and cheat via the game interface in order to turn the situation on its head in a brand-new way!

"Rogue Lords is a game we came up with several years ago with Jérémie Monedero, the Game Director", said Camille Lisoir, Artistic Director at Cyanide. "We are delighted to see the project become reality. We have fantastic synergy with the talented team at Leikir Studio and we can't wait to reveal our diabolical world."

The equally macabre and poetic Rogue Lords will be released this Autumn on PC, PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™.

Find us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

About NACON

NACON is a company of the BIGBEN Group founded in 2019 to optimize its know-how through strong synergies in the video game market. By bringing together its 8 development studios, the publishing of AA video games, the design and distribution of premium gaming devices, NACON focuses 20 years of expertise at the service of players. This new unified business unit strengthens NACON's position in the market, enables it to innovate by creating new unique competitive advantages and achieve its ambition to become one of the world's leading players in gaming. https://www.nacongaming.com/

About Cyanide

Cyanide is a French video game development studio created in 2000 and based in Nanterre. It has two subsidiaries located in Montreal and Bordeaux. The studio is known for its sports games, such as the popular PC series Cycling Manager and its console version, Tour de France. Cyanide is also the author of Blood Bowl (Sport/Fantasy, 2009), the adaptation of the famous Games Workshop board game; Game of Thrones (RPG, 2012); Styx: Master of Shadows and the sequel Styx: Shards of Darkness (Infiltration, 2014/2017); and Call of Cthulhu, a game adapted from the tormented world of HP Lovecraft (investigative RPG, 2018). More information can be found at www.cyanide-studio.com

About Leikir Studio

Leikir Studio is a cross-media company. Its objective is to deploy original worlds on all media platforms. Today, the studio is made up of a web team and a video game development team, creators of the brawler Wondershot and the platformer/bullet hell Isbarah.

Article by: Susan N.

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