After a highly successful Kickstarter campaign run by women-owned game studio Astral Clocktower Studios, comes Kristala, a dark fantasy, action RPG, where you protect the world of Ailur from mutated creatures hell-bent on destroying it.

Kristala has been released into early access on Steam with the full release on all platforms expected in 2026. Sporting an extensive roadmap of new features and major updates to be released periodically through “Episodes” throughout its Early Access state, Kristala is a game that will be staying on my radar.

After The Shattering, a cosmic event that caused the six Kristal shards to settle over the aforementioned world of Ailur, the creatures of its plains evolved into highly intelligent beings and gave the gift of Kristala. Once just cats known as the Ana, they evolved into feline warriors known as Anagativas that formed into six Clans, each with a different form of magic brought to them by the Sacred Kristals.

In Kristala, you take on the role of one of the Anagativa trying to find the source of the scourge causing the world’s beasts to turn into mutated monstrosities and mastering each of the six magics to become the Ultimate Raksaka Warrior.

Starting with creating your character, the customization tool includes a whole plethora of different fur patterns that come in short or long lengths, two body types (male/female), and two distinct voice types.

There are two playable clans at this stage, the Nisarga clan which specializes in nature magic and the Myrtuna clan with the power of necromancy. The clan you choose will also determine your eye colour and your initial spell tree. There are also four starting classes: knight, battle mage, assassin, and spellblade, which determine your starting stats and gear set.

The first Episode released takes place in a biome located in the Nisarga clan territory, Dalamase, a dilapidated land that used to be a series of popular fishing villages now abandoned and overrun with horrific creatures and monsters.

After a brief tutorial to help you master interacting with the world, hone your parkour, and brush up on your combat skills, you come across checkpoint crystals called “Ellarial Fonts” where you can update your character stats with your collected XP, unlock spells with Kris pearls, and fast travel between the Fonts you’ve discovered.

The combat style is fantastic, and feels just as good, if not better, than a game coming from a AAA studio. There are many ways you can approach a fight. You can hide in the grass, or leap from above to perform a stealth assassination, or you can run in sword blazing, and give them a good old beat down.

The enemies can be difficult in numbers if you’re not well prepared, so I would recommend trying to pick them off a little bit before going in headfirst. Sometimes you can get stuck in the ground during a critical moment which can be a little frustrating, but the game picks up on that and warps you out of the spot you’re stuck in.

The sound design of this game is fantastic. After a little research, I found that some of the scoring has been written by Winifred Phillips of Assassins Creed and God of War fame, and some of the unsightlier enemies were voiced by death metal vocalists through the Kristala x Metal Voices project. I fangirled a little when I saw a couple of the names that have voiced the enemies, including Will Ramos from the band Lorna Shore.

Built-in Unreal Engine 5, even though you’re in a swamp as your first artistic impression, the graphics are vibrant, colourful, and incredibly detailed. The graphics coupled with the little sounds of squeaking rat enemies, or the screeching of the mutated beasts create an incredibly immersive experience, although it can be a little buggy at times with enemies falling into the ground, it’s not a massive hindrance in my opinion considering the state of the game.

Kristala in its current state is fantastic and very impressive, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing the first Episode of the roadmap. From the impressive graphics and sound design to the fun and intuitive combat system, and the length of skills and spells you can enquire, there is bound to be a lot to unpack when this game enters its full release.

I cannot wait to see this game in its totality if this preview is only a snippet of what we can expect from Astral Clocktower Studios.

Written by: Emily France