If you found the feudal festival of backstabbing that was Final Fantasy Tactics distressingly upbeat and wholesome, perhaps you’ll be more impressed by Never’s End, a new turn and grid-based RPG from Destiny‘s former lead sandbox gameplay designer Ryan Jucket with character designs from Final Fantasy artist Masayoshi Nishimura.
It takes place in a world swamped by creeping undead darkness, and casts you as a warrior spirit wrought of deathless silver. Taking charge of the last surviving village, you will possess and burn away the very souls of townsfolk in order to transform them into battlefield units. Careful, though, because the more villagers you catch in your mirrors and reduce to living weapons, the stronger the Never becomes.
If that were all there were to Never’s End, I might have given it a miss. The other source of intrigue here is that battles put a big emphasis on using spells to modify the terrain and atmospheric conditions. “Temperature, weather, wind, water level, and even the density of the earth beneath your feet can all be manipulated to gain the advantage in combat,” observes the Steam page. “Drain rivers dry or flood the battlefield. Create rain and fog to hamper your enemies, or mighty winds to hurl them over cliffs. Freeze your foes or set them aflame. Reshape earth to gain the high ground, or melt it into deadly lava.”
Sounds like a jolly time. The last tactical RPG I played that meddled with the air and soil this extravagantly was Tenderfoot Tactics, and I’ve been hankering for a similar feat of geomancy. I’m also quite sold on the art style, which suggests a handsome Dreamcast remake of a PS1 game.
Going by the launch description, the campaign will give you the choice of when to mount an assault on the heart of the Never, which pumps out fresh boglins at regular intervals. There’s an open-ended overworld full of jungles, deserts and tundra where you’ll go on hunting missions and pick through the treasures of a forgotten golden age. Very Destiny-ish, indeed.
“Cleanse corrupted settlements, awaken long-dormant temples, unearth lost technology, and then reap the rewards as civilization rebuilds in your wake,” comments the Steam page. The rebuilding theme extends to the founding of new towns, each a source of (willing?) husks for your zombo war effort.
Are you the real villain here? Well, put it this way: when you’re felled in combat, you’re reborn at HQ as a rapidly congealing pool of liquid silver. The last time I saw somebody do that it was the T-1000 from Terminator 2, and he did not strike me as promising village management material. If you enjoy the foulness of all this but can’t abide grid-based battlers, maybe check out Against The Storm.
