Tahira - Review @ Kritiqal

[HiddenX]

Kritiqal has reviewed the tactical RPG Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire:

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire recalls history’s recursive war for equality

Near the end of the 16th century, Portugal, after being contested by Britain and France for control of the current slave trade along the West African coast, turned their attention toward Luanda (capital of modern day Angola) as a new source of black bodies to enslave. After settling a fort within Luanda, the Portuguese attempted to open a dialogue with then king Ngola Mbande to negotiate peace (a rather haughty gesture given it was they who had invaded). Rather than attend these peace meetings himself, Ngola sent his sister, Nzinga, who despite going so far as to convert to Christianity and be baptized failed to appease Portugal’s increasing demands. This eventually led to Ngola committing suicide and Nzinga taking the throne herself, a turn of events that would ultimately lead to Angola’s freedom as Nzinga outright refused to surrender her people as slaves to the Portuguese.

Nzinga launched a war against the Portuguese, uniting with prior rival states and allying with the Dutch for a 30-year conquest, during which she personally led troops against the Portuguese army and laid a foundation that would eventually lead Angola to independence from Portugal by 1975. She was an intense warrior and a brilliant queen, a captivating figure in history who fought tooth and nail against slavery and despite all odds prevailed. She was, to be blunt, nothing short of a badass.

[...]

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is neither the most expansive tactics game nor the most intrinsically satisfying. When taken in context with its thematic goals and narrative sobriety, though, Tahira easily ranks as one of the most captivating. It is a game personified not by hit points or XP bars, but by a fighting people who refuse to submit to enslavement. Tahira draws its characters as flawed and multifaceted, giving them space to laugh and cry and die as a person, not a statistic. Whalehammer Games have gone to great lengths to humanize a struggle all too similar to those found in history books and museums, and often still, on the nightly news, and in doing so created a game that is not only that much more engaging but its own small step toward some sort of progress.

Score: 9/10

More information.

 

[Fluffyhotep]

I gave this game a try, but I'm afraid I have to say this is very much a 'Poor Man's Banner Saga'. Combat's not too bad (but not great either), heroine is pretty flat (ideal goody-two shoes heroine), same with the few heroes I ran into. Enemies are onedimensional vaguely (very, very vaguely) Roman pseudo-Nazis, visuals are pretty bland (the style isn't bad per se, but what is actually represented is a vaguely Middle Eastern Blandsville).

The setting itself is supposedly post-apocalyptic SF, but basically it looks and sounds vaguely Medieval Middle Eastern: characters have Arab names, placenames are directly taken out of Middle Eastern history and cultures but completely divorced from their original context.
The Kingdom you're supposed to save is called Avestan (the Avesta being the Zoroastrian holy writings, har har), there's a place referenced called Mazdak (a heretical Zoroastrian religious leader from the 6th century), a neighbouring major kingdom is called - wait - Babylon! Etc. etc. It's not exactly 'thoroughly researched worldbuilding respectful of the original inspirational material' kind of stuff.

By and large it looked and felt kinda cheap and simultaneously gave off a somewhat pretentious vibe. Two hours were enough, asked and received a Steam refund. If you really loved The Banner Saga's combat I think you might enjoy it - though in that case, better wait for a sale.

 

[ElderGnome]

This is one of those games that looks interesting to me and will sit in my Steam wishlist until it goes on sale for the cost of a sandwich or somesuch.

The Steam reviews are kinda all over the place. Some people complaining of bugs still, etc. I really like the idea of no filler combat.

 

[TomRon]

I backed this but can't even manage to get myself to start it up. That's kind of embarrassing. Maybe when I'm finished with Halcyon 6 I'll give it a try, but Fluffys post makes me doubt I'll get far...

 

[Fluffyhotep]

This is one of those games that looks interesting to me and will sit in my Steam wishlist until it goes on sale for the cost of a sandwich or somesuch.

The Steam reviews are kinda all over the place. Some people complaining of bugs still, etc. I really like the idea of no filler combat.

I did not encounter any obvious bugs in my couple of hours. Some of the positive reviews are, hmmm, suspicious. Others seem more legit (particularly when they clearly loved Banner Saga and like this kind of ‘tactical’ game).

I don’t know your definition of ‘filler combat’, but in the couple of hours I played this I definitely ran into my definition of it. Last encounter I played was 1 location, 3 waves of the same enemies (just increased numbers).

What irks me most about this game, I guess, is the ‘bait and switch’. Here’s a game that supposedly lures with ‘wonderful’ art, music and an unusual setting, and then you get very bland derivative stuff.
The creators are apparently three guys from Oz who travelled a bit in India and the Middle East and wanted to convey something of the feeling of being in an ancient land, etc. etc.
Sadly, they totally failed in my opinion.

@thomasp3n: Well, if you backed it, just give it a try (when it's convenient to you). YMMV and all that. I tend to be quite critical at times

 

[TomRon]

I suppose I'll HAVE to try it out at some point, and I did enjoy the banner saga. But my serious PC gaming days feels like they are pretty much over sadly. I simply don't have the time anymore, most of my gaming today is on the phone because of the fact I can get that in whenever I'm on a break at work.

And with the limited PC time I actually DO get, I have to prioritise. Torment? Hell yes. Tahira? Probably not.

 

[daveyd]

Considering the obvious similarities in the visuals to The Banner Saga and the fact that the developers cited it as an inspiration, I understand that comparisons are inevitable. However, aside from both TBS and Tahira being turn-based SRPGs I think the gameplay is quite different.

I didn't care much for TBS and never finished my first playthrough due to boredom and dislike for the mechanics. I didn't like that turns always alternated between player and enemy regardless of how many units a side had, as it led to the odd unconventional tactic of needing to keep weaker enemies alive so the strong ones didn't get more frequent turns. Tahira doesn't have this. Whereas TBS often put you on so close to enemies on small battlefields that left little room for positioning tactics, Tahira battles tend to be on larger maps with terrain you can interact with (for example, during battles on top of a cliff, you may have the opportunity to knock enemies over the edge).

Tahira also lacks the random filler encounters that TBS has; every fight is a bit different and introduces new tactics. I think the main downside is that the game has a fairly slow start, with the first few battles basically feeling like a tutorial (although I think they can still provide a bit of challenge on the higher difficulty settings). I can understand not being impressed in the first couple hours, but then you can't really get a good feel for the game in that time… There's different unit types and tactics that won't be introduced until later battles.

While I'd prefer a more stat-heavy SRPG (i.e., Blackguards), a think Tahira is a pretty solid turn-based tactics game. It's a shame many will probably dismiss it as a Banner Saga clone because of superficial similarities without really appreciating it's very important differences. Game-play wise it seems more similar to Telepath Tactics than TBS.

I hope the game sells well enough for the developers to make another game. The narrative choices have been pretty infrequent from what I've seen, but they're supposed to have significant consequences in battle scenarios. Maybe we can hope for a full-fledged CRPG next time.

 

[joxer]

If you really loved The Banner Saga's combat I think you might enjoy it - though in that case, better wait for a sale.

I found why I refused to back the project on Kickstarter:
https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1061305915&postcount=2

Besides, everyone knows what I think about Bannersaga style games where phonedesigns are called an art by mainstream media while there's not even an "a" in that art. IMO.

While there was still a chance I buy the final product if they drop the phone style, this is not a game I want in my collection.
So I'll join daveyd here, if they dare to make crpg next, I'm in.