Published by Prime Matter, 1C Publishing EU, Koch Media, Deep Silver, 方块游戏 (China) this epic, fantasy RPG has a fresh twist on combat, coupled with a top-down D&D battle system that allows you to use your heroes’ abilities during your turn. If you haven’t already, you can check out the preview I wrote here.

This turn-based strategy system really brought out the tactician in me. Instead of just hurling headfirst into battles and button-mashing until I emerge unscathed and victorious, I had to carefully plan my actions, identify the biggest threats and eliminate them first. Simple right?

Well, it was easier said than done and I sent an astonishing amount of troops to Valhalla. Fear not though, you can simply travel back to a town and purchase more to aid you in your travels; with every merchant selling different styles of troops, choose to command the undead, elementals, man or beast. Be wary, however, as each troop has its own faction and can cause moral unrest among your ranks.

The team has created an absolutely mesmerizing and stunning world within Nostra, filled to the brim with ancient ruins, stunning castled cities, and fantastic, magical astral planes like something straight out of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones. As a fantasy nerd, this had me encapsulated and never wanting to put it down, exploring every nook and cranny for valuable loot and equipment, checking every trader for new and improved troops, staring into the distant landscape, and planning out my next attacks on my enemies.

Freely exploring the world of Nostria was tedious at times though, as you cannot sprint, only jog, which meant walking around towns turned into a boring task. I don’t want to jog to my destination, I wanna get there as fast as I can to get all the loot and explore. You do have a horse to travel around on as well, but that cannot sprint either. I don’t know if in this epic, fantasy world people don’t know if they can sprint, or if there is just a law against it, however, the deep stories and rich lore I discovered on my journeys made up for it.

Searching every small space for treasures did prove to be my undoing though, with boundary/collision issues popping up. I found myself getting stuck often, and with your character being athletically challenged and not being able to crouch, jump, sprint or roll, I found myself having to reload the game from the previous save which meant losing valuable time and progress.

Traveling the world and listening to NPC’s conversations was hilarious, with quite a few arguments going on and insults being thrown around like calling someone a “mangey rooster” (I’m pretty sure that’s a synonym for something else). The world just felt so alive. Although the beaten path was empty and void of most life, the journey was accompanied by a soothing harmonious track filled with synth and harps/ lyre tones.

Adding random encounters along the paths would add to the immersion and help sidetrack the player from the current quest they are trying to complete. I’m not saying there aren’t enough quests to journey through though, just like the Elder Scrolls or Witcher games, there are too many to count and every man and his dog seemed to want my help. Queuing the battle scenes, the intense war drums were enough to get the blood pumping and apply stress whenever I started to become overrun by the enemy and start losing my expensive army.

This being said the audio was amazing and the soundtrack was the highlight, although the voice acting let it down, with some of it feeling emotionless and flat. Also, I noticed that the speech animations on some characters within the game looked like a badly dubbed, Japanese kung fu movie.

But in saying all this, I still really enjoyed playing through the game, exploring the beautiful surroundings of Nostria, and controlling my armies/ sending them to their deaths. I highly recommend this epic, fantasy RPG to any RPG fan.

Written by: Bigfoot