Forsaken Realms: Vahrin’s Call – a Fable inspired, high fantasy action RPG in development
The find:
Note: I don’t yet promote neither criticize the game, as it’s still in the active development. Atm, this is just a shoutout as it hooked me personally with its aesthetics and it’s interesting to track its progress.
During certain part of my childhood, I was totally bewitched by the world of Fable series. Series popularity (together with quality, unfortunately) went down with years, so even with the announcement of a new Fable game, a lot is unclear. Imagine my genuine when I accidentally saw a trailer of game which looked inspired by it from an artistic style to even some of the animations.
At the times when AAA developers and publishers tend to disappoint us more and more, the indie segment often fills the void and tries to accomplish the best of what gamers want. So, I looked deeper and contacted the developer, who immediately confirmed my observations.
The setting:
Vahrin’s Call by Titan Roc studio is a high-fantasy action RPG, which means the world of Leyda is a fictional setting that is completely independent of the real world. The game’s world backstory sounds like this:
When a Khraiax swarm invaded the great city of Vahrin, the Combined Order of Humankind, rallied the armies of the Free Cities and marched to their aid.
For many turns, King Aldous Symme lead their armies into the depths, intent on driving the attackers, back into the darkness from whence they came.
But victory was to be short-lived, for as the Khraiax were defeated, in their place rose a far greater threat.
The armies of the Free Cities were left decimated. Abandoning Vahrin to its fate, they fled home to their own lands.
Now, only the most stalwart defenders remain, fighting desperately to reclaim their beloved city.
As a mercenary travelling toward the war-torn city of Vahrin, you are completely unaware of the role you about to play in this once great cities fate.
The gameplay:
Vahrin’s Call is an action RPG, which means the gameplays emphasis more on fast paced combat and exploration. From the game development videos we can see a “classic” mechanics for action RPGs like dodge, attack combos and so on. Developers also mention there should be a flexible class system where you can build anyone from a tank to arcane ranger. The combinations with a high fantasy setting also means combat is not meant to be “realistic” in first turn. Animations and abilities are stylish and fancy, but not too much compared with something like MMOs, for instance. At the same time, developers mention that game will be a story-driven one, though. How good the narration and plot will be – the time will show.
The main thing here is you’re looking for as much “realism” in combat as possible – like weapons and spells to take some time to switch, slower movement and animations speed, “hardcore” combat difficulty etc – that’s probably not your cup of tea. But if that doesn’t bother you much or you don’t even see the difference – then you’ll most likely enjoy the combat pace. As for myself, while I personally prefer a bit more realistic combat approach, I’ll try the game anyway because of its charming setting.
There’s also at least basic level of environmental interactivity – you can climb the rocks, explode oil barrels and so on. There’s not much more information on that matter atm, but you can follow the developers YT channel for a regular update videos.
The graphics and ambience:
Game is built on Unreal Engine 4 and uses it quite well. From what I saw till this day, developers are constantly and actively polishing the game look to make it more immersive. Lighting, flora, sounds, dynamic weather system – as for the first commercial project of a small indie studio, Vahrin’s Call looks and sounds great. If the developers will maintain the same level of attention to details and will to improve the game, it will definitely look and feel bewitching on the release.
Developers activity and communication:
Are interesting and transparent. On their channel, you can see lots of development progress videos with hours of material in total. It was quite a relaxation to me personally to just listen to those in the background during the work. They provide clear, informative and interesting intel on how the game development goes and how the game changes. That’s a behavior which many developers in general could look at.
The intermediate conclusion:
Forsaken Realms: Vahrin’s Call is yet too early to judge. Yet, if you loved Fable games or simply like the high fantasy setting combined with an action RPG, it’s most certainly a promising game to track. Atm, Vahrin’s Call has a really beautiful game world and decent level of fun in combat, judging from the developers videos. The storyline, amount of character builds, the look of surroundings, enemies, animations and FX visuals could still be changed during the development. I’ll be definitely tracking this game till its release. As for you, my dear reader, you’ve probably already decided. If no, remember that you can see much more of the game presentation on its official channel or ask them a question in Twitter. Game also has a website and a Discord server, both linked in the Twitter profile. I will also definitely play through and review it on the release.
You can see and wishlist the Vahrin’s Call in Steam. Wanna see more indie goodness or other games/movies reviews in general? Look here and here. The game trailer you can watch down below (note that plenty of things were changed and improved since then).
