Trials of Cascadia First Impressions

Developed By Lunesis Studios

Story

The game takes place in the world of Cascadia. A world that spans multiple continents and is filled with humans and elves. Two races that are at war with each other and that use light magic and dark magic respectively. The story begins with the player taking control of a character named Isaac, a boy who is coming of age, whose dream is to become a great paladin. Paladins are the heroes of man who fight on the side of the light. It isn’t long before Isaac, and his party, are sucked into the world's secrets, politics, and dangers. I found the narrative to be very engaging and by the end of the demo I truly wanted to know more. Throughout the story there are also optional side quests that I found to be really fun to explore. Overall, I think the story is shaping up to be very good and I’m looking forward to learning more about the world of Cascadia.

Gameplay

One of the best things about playing indie RPGs is being exposed to the unique takes the developers have on turn based combat. Trials of Cascadia is no exception. I found the combat in this game to be very fun and strategic. What I found most intriguing was the use of the Power Bar mechanic. In the game, each character has a standard attack and skills. Both of which are enhanced when the character’s power bar is filled. The character’s power bar is filled by landing attacks on the enemy and lowered by taking damage from an enemy. I found it to be a good strategy to save my TP, which is used to execute skills in the game, until my power bar was completely filled. Another thing I found interesting was the elemental debuff system. As opposed to their being a weakness component to enemies it is better to use an element that is most needed in that battle. Fire burns, Thunder causes paralysis, ice freezes, light debuffs enemies' physical attacks, dark debuffs enemies magic attacks, earth lowers physical defense, water lowers magical defense and wind lowers accuracy. Devising your strategy around these elemental debuffs is vital to defeating boss battles and elite enemies. The game’s combat is very fun and is accentuated by the flashy animations of the special skills. I think fans of turn based combat will really like it.

First Impressions

I think that fans of SNES era RPGs would feel right at home playing Trials of Arcadia. The combat system is nuanced and brings a new spin to turn based combat and I think people will have a lot of fun developing their playstyles. The character art and backgrounds are stunning and really brought the game to life. My personal favorite design is that of an enemy named Mimic. I definitely think you all should give the demo a try which I will add a link to below.

Game: Trials of Cascadia on Steam (steampowered.com)

Social: Trials of Cascadia (@LunesisStudios) / Twitter