Sacred Fire - Early Access Out

[Redglyph]

Henriquejr spotted that the Early Access of Sacred Fire had just been released.

Sacred Fire Early Access -- OUT NOW!

Hello everyone!

It has been a long time coming, but we are thrilled to announce that Sacred Fire is now available in Early Access! The journey is of course far from over, but we are so happy to have reached this milestone.

We set out not just to create a game, but an immersive story that you truly play. This Early Access release, containing the first act of the story, should already give you the deep, immersive experience we aimed to build.

Here is what you can expect from Sacred Fire in its current state:

• Act 1 of a highly branching, immersive narrative.
• Every choice counts, making the story highly replayable as you uncover all the different outcomes.
• Real role-playing reminiscent of TTRPGs. Consider your character's emotional state when making decisions.
• A cast of intriguing and living characters, each with their own wants, needs, and ambitions.
• A beautiful soundtrack that takes you on a journey to ancient Caledonia.

Thanks @henriquejr;!

More information.

 

[Nereida]

I always find funny games that claim to be reminiscent of TTRPG as a selling point and are single player scripted adventures.

There are two things that make a TTRPG a TTRPG:

1. You play with humans
2. Its not scripted (because you play with humans!)

Like, what is the point of playing a TTRPG solo. Oh well. I expect this will blast the sales and collapse the steam store

 

[crpgnut]

I didn't see any animation on the whole store page. So it's a picture book?

 

[Deleted member 18181]

Looks like renpy, so it needs some porn in it lol
edit demo is in unity

 

[Redglyph]

I didn't see any animation on the whole store page. So it's a picture book?

It seems to be almost that, but more like a puppet theatre?

See in a recent, random gameplay video:

It's quite original.

 

[Atrachasis]

I didn't see any animation on the whole store page. So it's a picture book?

Sort of. The demo plays a lot like a Visual Novel or perhaps a JRPG, but with stat and skill checks added. The dev called it an "evolved CYOA" in a thread over on the Codex, which is also a fair description. Gameplay consists, in typical VN style, of a series of static, scripted scenes with pre-rendered backgrounds and character art along a (branching) narrative, and the player selects an action/response, many of which are tied to dice rolls or give you status modifiers. No real animations, but plenty of changes of perspective and zoom effects. No free movement or exploration.

You can use certain mental resources (such as "motivation" and "control") to modify the chances before rolling, remove penalities etc. There seems to be quite a complex machinery ticking underneath the hood, but the mechanical complexity feels somewhat wasted because player agency is so constrained by the multiple-choice interface. Even combat is done in this fashion.

I was attracted to the setting and to the novelty of the character system, but the gameplay loop isn't really for me. But I give credit to the dev for trying something new, and Visual Novel and CYOA fans might find this experiment interesting.

 

[daveyd]

I tried the demo, but will probably try to hold off playing more of the game until it's complete. Assuming the acts are all the same size it will end up taking 6 or 7 hours for a playthrough. But it will hopefully have a lot of replay value.

The character building mechanics are pretty novel, largely based on the "big 5" personality traits. The developer has stressed that this game is not intended to be punishing and virtually any build should be able to complete the game. It's more about choosing the type of character your want to play than powergaming. This game will obviously not appeal to everyone and will take some getting used to anyone who is used to playing challenging RPGs that require min-maxing, careful use of resources, or tactics.

I'm not sure yet how much I'll enjoy it, but I am still curious to see what it ends up being. It might sort of like a less wordy Disco Elysium.