Coming from three-person studio Korugen, Koruldia Heritage is an unusual little take on old-school JRPG tropes that might well be worth a deeper investigation, promising non-linear progression, sequence-breaking as a standard feature, and an option to resolve combat peacefully that might not always be the best option.
Read on and check out the official Square Enix Collective teaser trailer for the game, featuring gameplay and a demonstration of the developer’s home-grown ‘Pixel Impasto’ art-style.
Whether or not you’re offering your vote for the project, make sure you check out our shortlist of the best PC indie games out today, and remember that almost anything can happen in this strange industry.
Koruldia Heritage promises an interesting blend of thematic and design elements. The setting of the game is initially fantastical, but rooted in high sci-fi concepts, with bioengineered life making up a lot of what you’ll encounter over your adventure.
The structure of the game also sounds especially interesting. Rather than offering a purely linear path through the game, Korugen promise a more Metroid-like, with your explorations gradually branching out wider as you gain abilities to let you access new zones.
The developers promise that combat can be avoided in many cases (which makes me wonder if there’s a non-XP-based progression system), and battles don’t always have to end with bloodshed, with opportunities arising to de-escalate or even befriend combatants as the situation befits. Depending on who you talk to and spare will also affect the flow of the story – while it’s not an explicit inspiration, it’s hard not to see a little Undertale shining through here.
The game is being developed using RPG Maker MV, the latest iteration in the long-running game development platform line. Unlike previous versions, MV is significantly more flexible and designed to support custom systems and interfaces more elegantly than previous RPG Makers, which often caught flak for it’s stiff systems resulting in overly similar-feeling games.
If you’re interested in seeing more of Koruldia, check it out on the Square Enix collective site and throw it a vote. You can also keep up with the game on the (now largely redundant) Greenlight page, and its official site. There’s no planned release date at present, although the game is ambitiously aiming to come to all flavours of PC, tablets and Switch.