Video Games Archives - Thread of Souls

Video games are as great an escape as reading a book. They let you become another character and play out an adventure. Games allow you to discover new lands, save the world, or go on a side quest. Very much like a fantasy book, you join along in the adventure to see what happens in the end.

And like a book series, games can have several in the series. That’s why we split our list of the best video games to design your character into two posts. Sequels are popular. Everyone wants more of what they enjoyed. It worked for Avengers, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and it’s how we’re building Thread of Souls.

If you missed part one of building a character in a video game, check it out here.

6. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire quickly became one of our favorite games. Inspired by Baldur’s Gate, you build a party of characters in an attempt to stop a god from wreaking on the world. You can make a party of five custom characters, each with their own voice and skill line. It’s another great example of a D&D party in video games. You can outfit characters with armor, weapons, and choose a color unique to them to make them stand out.

7. W2K22

WWE is a big part of our lives and W2K22 is one of the best games when it comes to designing a character. From their looks, clothing, and attitude, the game offer plenty of options when it comes to design. You can choose any skin color, select from hundreds of outfits or clothes, and give your character a specific fighting style. It’s one of the most fun games we’ve found when it comes to building a character. Characters are restricted to how tall they can be. So if you play a shorter or taller race, you are limited to height.

8. Neverwinter – Free

Neverwinter’s character creator is the best choice for free games to choose from. It pulls directly from the lore and official D&D books, so those familiar with the mechanics should find it simple to build a character. If you have a drow paladin at the table, you can build them in Neverwinter and get them pretty close to how you imagine them.

9. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is robust. There are 25 classes and 12 races to choose from when you build a character. Classes have their own unique look — rangers wear a hood, paladins wear heavy armor — but you can change certain elements by giving them armor during the journey.

10. Dragon Age: Inquisition

Elves, humans, dwarves, and Qunari make up the characters you’ll be able to choose from in Dragon Age. While it isn’t a lot when compared to other games, it fits the lore of the world. One of our favorite things about the character customization options for Dragon Age is the clothing. There are so many outfits to find and equip in the game and you can customize the color and style of them as well. You can tailor outfits to fit the personality and skill of your specific character.

Seeing your character come to life in a video game can give them more life in your writing. Watching them move around the map or interact with objects and characters can give you new ideas in roleplaying them at the table. Give it a thought the next time you sit down to play.

What is your favorite video game?

D&D / TTRPGs, Misc Posts, Video Games

Best Video Game Character Creators to Build Your Characters

August 28, 2022January 8, 2023 Thread of Souls

Visualizing a character in a book series or tabletop game is all up to the imagination. Authors, readers, and players have an idea of how a character looks but they both may be entirely different from one another. No two will see a character the same, and that’s a good thing. As long as the author describes how they look, the reader forms a complete image in their head.

Yet, as authors ourselves, we like to see our characters come to life. To get a better picture of them, we turn to art and video games. Along with Talia’s original art of each character, making them in video games is a great way to take them from our imagination.

Whether you’re an author or a reader, here are some of our favorite video game character creators.

1. Elder Scrolls Online

Elder Scrolls Online is a game where you’ll spend plenty of time with your character. The world is massive and you’ll spend hours adventuring across Tamriel so having a character you enjoy playing is key. Even more so, having one that is nice to look at is a bonus. The game is beautiful and provides so many customization options for your character.

From their height, build, muscles, and race, there is plenty to choose from. There are even accessories to go through and several hairstyles and colors to choose from. Though we’ll count off a few points for not having dwarf as a race but that’s more related to lore than a problem of the creator. For those who want to play a dwarf, as we do for our character Ruuda, we suggest making a dark elf and roleplaying them as a dwarf, or dwemer in Elder Scrolls lore.

Once you’re through with customizing your character, the next best thing is selecting their clothing. Which can be done an unlimited amount of times throughout the game.

2. Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of those games that just keeps giving. While the first two came with character creation, they were halted by the era in which they were released. Characters were little more than pixels on a screen, and while you could tell what class and race they were, it was difficult to make out finer details.

The technology of today allows for a wider range of character customization options. You’ll be able to build just about any book character you can imagine in the game — even more when it’s fully released. However, for those who want to make their character taller or smaller, you’re out of luck, at least for now. One day it would be nice to see drow women taller than drow men. One of our favorite additions is the ability to have two-toned hair. A great option for characters with wild hair such as Ruuda.

3. Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Solasta is what Dungeons & Dragons looks like when taken from a tabletop game to a video game. It’s a near exact adaptation and it works rather well. Its character creation is simple when compared to others but it’s no less worthy of being on our list. When you make a character, you choose their race and class, the class is the important part we’re focusing on here.

Classes come with their own clothing and weapons. So, if you are wanting to build an archer character from a book series you like, go for the ranger. Or perhaps you want to see what a thief may look like, select the rogue class to get a character with dual daggers and light armor. You can even give them a tattoo or face paint to hide their identity.

4. Elden Ring

You’ll spend a lot of time dying in Elden Ring, but its character builder is a worthy rival for stealing your time. It is one of the most dynamic creation systems we’ve come across. You can make characters any color you wish, which is great for making dark elves, dwarves, gnomes, and dragonborn-type characters. Everything is so in-depth, from your character’s hair to their eyes, nose, and mouth.

Choosing your starting class also gives you fun clothing and weapons. So, a mage will start with a staff and robes while a fighter will have armor and a weapon like a sword. Once you’re in the game properly, you can find several weapons and clothing to choose from to better equip and detail the specific character you are building. The one major downside is there isn’t a slider for height.

5. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur is one of Dorian’s favorite games. Well before Thread of Souls was conceptualized, he made characters just for fun, never having one that was his own. That is until characters such as Ruuda, Taliesin, or Jasita came along. Now, in every game he’ll build a character from Thread of Souls. Kingdoms of Amalur was one of the first that comes to mind.

You can choose from race, skin tone, eye color, makeup, hairstyles, facial hair, and tattoos. From there, you’ll play a bit of the game to unlock class options. Classes are based on abilities and your choice of weapon rather than a specific class. You can also multiclass and choose to be a fighter and wizard if you wish. So, you can make a character who specializes in melee and magic.

We’ve got plenty of other video games to choose from as well! This is merely part one of the best video games to build your characters in. Stay tuned for part two!

D&D / TTRPGs, Opinion, Video Games

How to Build a Homebrew Hades Dungeon in Dungeons & Dragons

September 15, 2021January 5, 2023 Thread of Souls

We create a homebrew version of Hades in Dungeons & Dragons

Hades is a roguelike action dungeon crawler video game. You play Zagreus; son of Hades, who seeks to run away from Hell. It’s a game where you will die several times but each death allows you to learn grow and get better and faster. Along the way, Zag will gain the favor of his cousins on Mount Olympus to help him escape.

It honestly could be its own Dungeons & Dragons campaign guide. Theros is the closest official content available to craft your own Hades-style world. We’re going to take a look at that concept and build our own homebrew version of Hades you can play with friends or solo just like the game.

Plot

We need to start at the beginning; how does the game begin? What sets you on your quest? You could play it one of a million different ways but we’re going to present the main storyline to set the focus.

Instead of playing as Zag, you can play as a prisoner trapped in the Nine Hells. But how did you get there?

You were killed on a quest and devils dragged your soul down to the Hells.
You were sent here to retrieve an artifact or soul but ended up getting trapped yourself.
You are a devil yourself; either a tiefling or some other fiend who seeks to explore the Material Plane.
You’re a celestial who ended up there on a mission from your god but things didn’t end well.
You are a traveler who slipped through a portal to the Nine Hells and are presented with a trial to get home.
You heard about the escape room in the Nine Hells and just had to try it out.

No matter what it may be, you’re here now and the only way to escape is to make it through the gauntlet. The god of the Nine Hells, Asmodeus or Erebos sets up the challenge to prevent anyone from escaping so easily.

Generic Hero

If you want to play as Zagreus we recommend choosing a Gladiator from the official D&D ruleset.

Dungeons

As you escape from the Hells, you must pass through small dungeons or rooms. Each room contains several enemies, items, or NPCs to help you on your path. Exiting to the next room rewards the character with a blessing they can use to help them combat future encounters.

Enemies

There are several enemies in the game that you can pull right from D&D. Creatures such as the Erinyes are the first boss you come across. You can pull their stat block right from the Monster Manual and call it good.

Of course, some creatures may be too powerful for lower-level characters but there are some things you can do to balance out encounters. Taking the Erinyes for example, you can reduce the number of attacks they make if you’re character is low level.

It’s all about balance and knowing what creatures to throw at your characters. Though Hades is challenging there are difficulty settings you can mess with to make it less frustrating.

Other bosses include the Minotaur and Champion. As for the final boss, we recommend using the stats for a pit fiend. As for standard enemies we recommend using the following: Lemure, Manes, Dretch, imps, nightmare, shadow demons, succubus, and barbed devils. Basically, any creature that is considered a fiend.

Upgrades / Blessings

Blessings are a major mechanic of the video game and can be added into the D&D version in a couple of ways. Characters can gain access to blessings by completing one dungeon and moving on to the next.

Items. By glancing through the guidebook or online you can find a number of items to benefit your playstyle. They can be put into a random roll table and you’re good to go.

Spells/Abilities. Spells and abilities are another simple blessing system you can add to the game. Each room offers a chance to learn a different spell or skill that you can use to combat enemies.

That’s the groundwork for building a Hades-like encounter in D&D. We’re working on building a more detailed one for our homebrew game and will talk about it in greater detail when it’s complete.

Character Tips, D&D / TTRPGs, Fantasy Topics, Opinion, Storytelling Tips, Video Games, Writing Tips

How Adding A Neutral Party can Enhance your Story

August 5, 2021January 8, 2023 Thread of Souls

We look to series like Dragon Age and Pirates of the Caribbean see how adding a third neutral party can help you tell more engaging stories

It’s typical storytelling to follow the protagonist versus the antagonist. But what if there was a third party introduced to the mix? One that got in the way of both others. One with their own agenda. How would that change a story? We’ll use Dragon Age and Pirates of the Caribbean as examples of how you can use a third party to develop your story.

Story Example

The next Dragon Age game may be a ways off but the stories and characters of Thedas span more than just video games. There are several novels and comic books you can sink into until the fourth game’s release. The most recent comic being Dragon Age: Dark Fortress.

SPOILER WARNING: Content may spoil events from the games. You have been warned. We will avoid major spoilers.

Dark Fortress follows fan-favorite character Fenris as he hunts down the son of his former master Danarius. Throughout the three-issue run, we learn that Tevinter mages are creating another powerful warrior like Fenris. It’s something the Qunari aren’t huge fans of either so they show up to put an end to it. Fenris teams up with characters from previous comics and they work together to track down the mages.

Towards the end of the run, events collide and the three groups end up facing off against one another. It’s a story that is familiar to the Dragon Age series and plays out many times throughout. Yet it never feels overused: Quanri vs

Things are going rather well for the protagonist when all of the sudden, the Qunari arrive and they have to rethink their strategy.

How You Can Adapt it

It’s an example that can be used in any TTRPG or novel for that matter. It is a great way to increase tension and build lore in your world as well. Your characters may think they are the only ones hunting down a specific enemy, item, or person but what if they weren’t? Perhaps a third party shows up at inconvenient moments to get in their way. Plots like this are a great way to develop your story and add suspense and action to the mix.

Just when the characters think they’ve got the upper hand, the third party comes in and trips them up. This third group can be evil, good, or neutral. Their motivations can vary from stopping the other two parties, stopping one party, or just adding a little chaos.

Take the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie for example. On Stranger Tides follows Spanish and English soldiers as they search for the Fountain of Youth. The third party consists of Jack Sparrow and the crew of the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The climax sees English troops fighting the pirates over control of the fountain before Spanish soldiers arrive and destroy it. After their task is done, they just walk away without fighting anyone.

Introducing a third party to the story can change the flow of the narrative. It’s interesting, adds detail to your world, and gives your payers a reason to think of new ways to handle situations. Although, don’t overdo it.

So, give it a shot the next time your characters are after the BBEG or magical artifact. You never know how it will change your story and keep everyone on their toes.

D&D / TTRPGs, Fantasy Topics, Opinion, Video Games

Tabletop Games Deserving of a Video Game Series

July 30, 2021January 8, 2023 Thread of Souls

We take a look at tabletop role-playing games that would great make video games

Symbaroum

Symbaroum from Free League Publishing is a dark fantasy setting full of intrigue and mystery. The land is dangerous and full of undead, creatures, loot, and adventure. The main area players explore is the forest of Davokar. It’s mainly uncharted and is a great area full of potential quests. One aspect of Symbaroum is based around exploring and characters must purchase a license to venture into the forest.

The video game could be either an RPG or a real-time strategy game. The RPG would be similar to Baldur’s Gate and Solasta where you take a party of four to six and explore the forest. The main quest may involve searching for a forgotten city, finding a missing warrior who ventured out before you and, or destroying an artifact that is bringing destruction to the land.

While the RTS could work by having you take control of the adventuring guild and hiring adventures to go into the forest. All while you construct a town and keep up its resources.

Forbidden Lands

Forbidden Lands, also from Free League, is more similar to Pathfinder. While there is a Pathfinder video game, we feel Forbidden Lands would make a far better one. Its world is rich and detailed with history. The gods fled their previous land and ventured into a new one, hence the name. The new region saw war and greed and is covered in a terrible mist called the Blood Mist.

The mist corrupts and kills anyone who steps foot in it, spawns monsters, and is even alive if some believe the rumors. There are several factions and established characters within the world that can make random appearances from time to time to surprise the party. Like the Rust Brothers or a walking set of armor possessed by the soul of a forgotten warrior.

A video game would be fantastic and we could see it being a hack-and-slash like The Legend of Zelda: Age of Calamity. But it would be perfect as a turn-based RPG, too.

D&D / TTRPGs, Reviews, Video Games

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance Review

July 17, 2021January 8, 2023 Thread of Souls

An entertaining beat ’em up set in the world of D&D

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is like rolling a d20 to attack or attempt a skill in the TTRPG version of Dungeons & Dragons. You aren’t quite sure what the outcome will be before you roll but there’s that feeling of no matter what, everything you do will be fun. D&D is simply fun and Dark Alliance reflects the joy you get from sitting at a table whether digital or physical and rolling dice with friends.

The game follows the story of the Companions from R.A. Salvatore’s book series the Legend of Drizzt. Instead of creating your own character, you control either Drizzt, Bruenor, Catti-Brie, or Wulfgar. The plot involves searching for the artifact known as Crenshinibon and fighting different factions of goblinoids, duergar, and cultists as they attempt to find it first.

Story

The story isn’t the bread and butter of Dark Alliance. The writing is bland and character dialogue feels oddly placed as well. It’s tough to tell if Dark Alliance is canonical with the books as it changes a lot of what happened throughout the series. As somewhat fans of the novels, it can be difficult to connect with the story if it shifts from canon.

You don’t by any means need to have read any of the books to understand the plot as the game does well at telling its own tale. That being said, the overall plot is straightforward and simple. Fight hordes of monsters and level up your character.

Combat

As a smash and loot game, Dark Alliance is all about combat. You can either play with friends or by yourself and there are multiple difficulties to choose from. Adventuring alone at higher difficulties is challenging but rewarding. Whereas joining with other people remains challenging but introduces new ways to fight as a team. Defeating creatures and completing levels rewards you with gear and money that you can later upgrade at the shop. Loot works like a typical MMO and is scaled by color rating. There’s grey, green, blue, purple, and gold.

Unfortunately, combat doesn’t always connect. Like in D&D there are times when you will fail an attack roll but it’s all up to the dice. However, in Dark Alliance oftentimes attacks just don’t hit even when they should. It works both ways and attacks that go wide, even way wide, do end up hitting. Enemies also seem to do way more damage than necessary and can one-hit kill any character.

It’s a challenging system to work around but when it does work everything ends up being enjoyable.

Sound and Sights

The soundtrack is one of the greater parts of the game. Composed by Vibe Avenue, the OST is a perfect backdrop for any D&D game.

The sound mechanics also stand out throughout the game. For instance, Wulgar’s armor clinks and clanks when he runs and Bruenor’s heavy footfalls echo through caverns and strongholds.

Sure, the game may not have AAA graphics but it is stunning to look at nonetheless. Environments and backdrops stand out with colossal giant skeletons, sparkling caverns, and massive citadels.

Classic Dungeons & Dragons back in print! - Available now @ Dungeon Masters Guild

Verdict

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance may not be your typical D&D game. It isn’t about building your own personal character, the combat is great when it works and bad when it doesn’t. It’s like that one d20 that has a mind all its own but just so happens to be your favorite. It rolls well occasionally and has a very low crit percentage but you just love it. It’s shiny and sparkly and you can’t help but roll it even when you know it may betray you. Dark Alliance is that d20.

We give Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance a 7 on a d10.

D&D / TTRPGs, Video Games

Third Baldur’s Gate 3 Panel from Hell Announced

July 1, 2021January 5, 2023 Thread of Souls

Dungeons & Dragons is everywhere this year. From partnering with Magic the Gathering, the release of Dark Alliance, the bard class in the MMO Neverwinter, and D&D Live 2021, it’s been a rather busy time to be an adventurer. The latest news to hit is the announcement of a third Panel from Hell stream from the creator of the game Larian Studios.

The previous Panels from Hell showcased new information from the upcoming RPG. It’s been a hot minute since the last one way back in February. The third panel will be showcased on July 8 and will discuss Patch 5 and feedback from Patch 4. It will also revolve around larping or LarPG ( (Larian-LARP-ARG) with the subtitle “Twitch Plays: A Most Noble Sacrifice.”

The Dungeons & Dragons event will include a cast of actors and the developers of Baldur’s Gate 3 acting out scenarios chosen by the Twitch chat. Sure, what could possibly go wrong? It sounds like more of an escape room setting as well with the team teasing traps of the lethal variety and puzzles all leading to a fantastical object.

Of course, if it’s anything like the Panel from Hell 2 event, there should be some reveals for what’s to come. The last stream introduced the Dungeons & Dragons Druid class to the game so here’s hoping for something else.

Panel from Hell 3 will stream on Larian Studios’ Twitch channel on July 8, 11 a.m. PT!

D&D / TTRPGs, Video Games

The Homebrew Guide to Photo Mode in Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance

June 28, 2021January 5, 2023 Thread of Souls

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is consuming our daily lives. Ever since it released on June 22, we have played it night after night. It’s full of lore, history, and stunning landscapes to explore and stare at for hours. We often find ourselves lost gazing at the world around us between goblin, verbeeg, and giant fights. So, we decided to take some pictures to remember our time with the game.

While Dark Alliance doesn’t have a built-in photo mode, we uncovered a way to make it ourselves. It’s a simple process that anyone playing can do themselves. By the end of our guide, you will be able to capture Dark Alliance in all its D&D glory.

HUD: Bring up the option menu and go to HUD
Settings to Turn Off: The HUD can be confusing at first but the following list will help streamline the process. Make sure all of the following are clicked off:
- Player Meters
- Threat Indicators
- Mission Objectives
- Objective Markers
- Buff/Debuff Icons
- Usables Icon
- Abilities Icon
Opacity: Unfortunately, all of this won’t get rid of the charge ability meter. So, to solve this problem you will have to turn the HUD opacity all the way to zero. It’s simple but takes about 10 seconds to do so.

Once all of the above has been done, you can set up your shot. From there all you do is use the built in Xbox or PS4 capture button or take a screenshot on PC.

It’s also a great way to make combat more challenging as you can’t see any of your stats.

Hopefully, Tuque Games and Wizards of the Coast add a true photo mode to Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance in the future.

Indie Feature, Video Games

Diving into the Development of Dark Deity

June 16, 2021January 5, 2023 Thread of Souls

E3 did not disappoint when it came to showing off indie games and one in particular that stood out is Dark Deity. It didn’t just get one moment to shine, it actually got two standout moments during E3 over two days. The first during the Freedom Games Showcase and the second at the GameSpot Play For All closing event. Not bad for a creative team of five friends who got together to make a game.

As fans of all things fantasy it was one of the best looking fantasy games revealed at the event and we just had to learn more about Dark Deity and its development. So, we reached out to the team to find out more about its production.

Dark Deity launched as a huge surprise the final day of E3. It is a strategy RPG with 30 playable characters and 54 classes that is very much inspired by classic RPG games of the 90s and early 2000s. We sent our questions off to the team and here’s what Game Director Chip Moore had to say about Dark Deity.

Inspiring Creativity

For Sword and Axe having their first game featured at E3 multiple times was an exciting opportunity for the entire team. Dark Deity was made with five people including Game Director Charles “Chip” Moore, Business Manager Dylan Takeyama, Composer Sam Huss, Map Artist Jonathan Kinda, and Narrative Designer Nick Solari. But it all started with the desire to just create.

“Dylan and I [Chip] had dreamt of getting into game development together for years, so in large part it was a manifestation of that goal – we were both approaching the end of college and realized this may be our last good chance to give game development a real shot. Our love for games like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics obviously played a huge role in the genre we chose to develop in, but the game also has influence from a wide variety of other genres.”

The inspiration from other games can certainly be felt and seen in the trailer and gameplay of Dark Deity. But developing the game, let alone any game, isn’t without it’s challenges. To ensure Dark Deity saw a release and was produced at all, the team put it on Kickstarter in August of 2020. That decision ended with the game being fully backed in just seven hours.

We want players to feel powerful and like their choices matter

“Given that Dark Deity is our first game, there were a lot of bumps early on as we learned different skills and figured out our strengths and weaknesses. Reigning in scope and learning to know when something is out of our range was a tough lesson to take early on, and something we really focused on doing well.”

The crew taught themselves coding and learned to develop the game all their own using GameMaker Studio 2. Development was going rather well for Sword and Axe but they still needed a publisher. They struck a deal with Freedom Games in 2021, just three months before the games release.

Fallible Characters in a Living World

When it came time to design the world of Dark Deity building the land of Terrazael began with the characters. Since players would be spending a lot of time with them, the team wanted to make each one unique and realistic. This helped build one central theme to Dark Deity, that failure is normal and even characters fail.

“Overcoming adversity while staying true to your ideals was important to us to explore. We’ve found that many stories have an infallible hero or don’t touch on just how hard it is to deal with loss and fear.”

In creating heroes that may not succeed at everything, the game feels more realistic. It’s difficult to connect with a character that constantly overcomes all odds. Having characters who struggle to complete challenges imitates life. Players are able to establish a connection with them knowing that they too may have the same difficulties. That idea is something that can be found within the game’s conversations.

Having an extensive framework for where characters are from, how they grew up, and how the culture of where they’re from shapes them was key to building our characters.

“Our bond system and the extensive conversations in it really allowed us to explore many of the characters and their relations to the events of the story on a deeper level. Having some of our characters showing vulnerability to their closest friends really allowed us to dig into their motivations in an authentic way.”

When it comes to the characters themselves.

“We spent a huge amount of time building out the world of Terrazael and trying to craft a place that feels real and caters to characters that have genuine motivations and backgrounds. Having an extensive framework for where characters are from, how they grew up, and how the culture of where they’re from shapes them was key to building our characters. We didn’t want to just take an archetype and make characters to fit a role – we really did start from the ground up and build a person first, character second.”

It’s an idea pulled from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It’s a way to interact with the characters and adds way more detail and life to the game. Yes, it may be about fighting and defeating enemies but at its heart, Dark Deity is more than just 2D sprites on a stunning background. The characters are living and breathing and feel like people you’d come across in everyday life.

Impactful Decisions

Dark Deity is also built specifically for fans of the RPG genre. The passion the development team have for nostalgic games of the past is alive and well in every aspect of Dark Deity. It’s designed for players with that same passion for turn-based strategy games and fantasy fans alike.

“We want players to feel powerful and like their choices matter – there is so much potential for amazing late game builds that allow the player to bring out their creativity and have fun with the systems we’ve created. Along with the randomizer and campaign customization, we’re hoping that getting to play it countless times while really having a different experience each time is going to bring out that creativity.”

Throughout it’s more than two dozen chapters, players can expect a lengthy story with hours of playtime and replayability.

“The game has 28 “chapters” and we’ve seen the average playthrough take between 20 – 30 hours over. Obviously once you get familiar with the game, you can plow through maps a bit faster, but if you want to consume every dialogue in our bonds system, you’ve got hundreds of conversations to listen to.

Dark Deity is a spiritual successor to popular SPRGs and feels every bit as exceptional as Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics. It’s got an adoring fan base and a passionate development team that understands how to create heroes players can connect with.

Dark Deity is available now on Steam.

News, Opinion, Video Games

Nintendo Direct E3 Fantasy Game Reveals

June 15, 2021July 17, 2021 Thread of Souls

The final day of E3 2021 saw the Nintendo Direct and along with it a lot of upcoming fantasy games. We chose a few of our favorites and ones perfect for any fantasy fan.

Hyrule Warriors Expansion Pass

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a hack-and-slash game where characters from the Legend of Zelda series fight hordes of monsters. The prequel set 100 years before Breath of the Wild is getting two DLC’s called Pulse of the Ancients on 18th June and Guardian of Remembrance in November. There was a new short trailer highlighting what to expect.

Sequel to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

One of the biggest announcements was a trailer for the Sequel to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It included the first gameplay footage of the upcoming title and a vague reveal date of 2022. It showed off a bit of the open world which contains familiar landmarks but also features new ones. There are floating islands like Skyward Sword and it appears Link – or someone- may lose their hand at some point during the game.

Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda

Nintendo also announced a Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda handheld. While not a major announcement it’s still in the realm of fantasy as it includes the original Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and the Game Boy version of Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

Astria Ascending

Astria Ascending is a turn-based JRPG from Artisan Studios and Dear Villagers. It’s set to have around 50 hours of gameplay so it will take up a good amount of time. There will be eight characters to play and 20 classes to choose from. Aria Ascending releases September 30 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox Game Pass and PC.