2014: The Year of the RPG

The folks at Strategy Informer have put together a rather interesting editorial on the RPG releases of 2014, which covers both JRPGs and WRPGs, though it mostly focuses on the latter. Here’s a snippet:

THE SMALLIES

)When the Beast’s bastard children come of age, they will bring havoc to the lands of the Sword Coast. One of these children must rise above the rest and claim their father’s legacy.)

Yes, I know (smallie) sounds slightly derogatory, but here we have potentially the most exciting RPGs of the year: the lesser known titles where any one could be a diamond in the rough. Some interesting experiments, some original titles by new developers, some long-awaited sequels to cult hits, these guys could well catch us pleasantly unawares.

Ubisoft’s Might & Magic X: Legacy (January 23rd) for example might well be the latest in a well-known series, but as the series got more and more shoddy as it went on there’s little to no respect for it left. M&MX harks back to the original and hopefully will be a return to form for one of the oldest RPG franchises in gaming. On the other hand Ubisoft’s other digital RPG out this year, Child of Light (mid-to-late 2014), is both original and striking. Its beautiful storybook art style, strategic combat, 2D perspective and poetic storytelling make it one to watch. It could be this year’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (you played that right? RIGHT?).

Then we have a couple of European indie sequels that are promised for this year but probably will slip. Almost Human from Finland is developing Legend of Grimrock 2 (Late 2014), the sequel to their glorious return to the classic days of first-person dungeon crawling, and they say it’ll be out 2014. Without even a screenshot so far I doubt it. Similarly Turkey’s TaleWorlds’ are claiming Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord will be out September, and although it has some screenshots they’re quite early alpha stuff. I’m betting both won’t be out until 2015.

How about some original RPGs from smaller developers then? Deck13’s Lords of the Fallen (Late 2014) barely has a teaser trailer to its name so also probably won’t be around until next year, but with former Witcher producer Tomasz Gop calling the shots we’re hoping for a CD Projekt rival from this project. And a 2014 release. Bound By Flame (early 2014) should actually be out this year, and hopefully developer Spiders (Of Orcs & Men, Mars: War Logs) will finally go from (not quite there) to (quite good actually) with their RPGs. Adventure game studio Daedalic has got Blackguards (early 2014) on Steam Early Access now and are hoping for a full release soon for their third The Dark Eye game, but its their first RPG so lets be gentle with them. Rounding off this list is Cosmic Star Heroine (December 2014) from Penny Arcade Adventures and Cthulhu Saves The World developer Zeboyd (which actually was a Kickstarter project but we’ve already got plenty in that section), a space-based classic SNES JRPG-style game promising (animated cutscenes from the SEGA CD era). Ironically, I hope.