Indie Ranger checked out the J-RPG Grimshade:

Grimshade is a Dark Fantasy So Close to Shining

Grimshade by developer Talerock is a classic 90’s style RPG set in a dark fantasy world filled with monsters, mad science and the balance between light and dark. Visually, it’s like playing an interactive graphic novel. Battles challenge the player to think tactically both in and out of combat. The music is awesome and does a fantastic job of creating a mood. However, despite many positives, there’s a lot that needs improvement.

[...]

Overall, Grimshade is a good start for Talerock. The art is the strongest asset looking like it was lifted out of a graphic novel but it’s lacking in quality in some respects. The music is awesome and the few bits of voice acting are really well done. It’s just a shame there isn’t more. Combat is unique and challenging but tries to do too much sometimes. The world is rich and full of stuff to do but laden with typo-ridden text that’s too small to read. The story is too big for one episode to hold and the sudden end feels premature. Grimshade is a great premise with a lot of potential but its flaws are too big to ignore and stop it from really shining. The game could be greatly improved with a little work to the technical aspects and maybe a little less text.

Score: 68/100

Grimshade has been released on GOG to a 10% launch discount.

loading...

Grimshade tells the story of the company of heroes, by a twist of fate involved in the cycle of events unfolding in the world of Ree'fah. Numerous dreadful monsters infested the forest around the city of Brann and high walls could no longer protect residents from the attacks. The menacing army of the neighbouring kingdom suddenly landed on the outskirts of the city, wreaking havoc. There is no hope for salvation — the strength of the defenders is running low, but the King and his loyal Champions had vanished.

Series of sudden events and odd coincidences force people to act. Get acquainted with each of the heroes and unite them — entirely different, sometimes bizarre and frightening, with their motives, but one purpose for all — to find out the real causes of what happened to them.

Lead the group of the adventurers on a journey and explore a varied and intricate world, meet new characters and reveal plot-related secrets. Remember, beauty is deceptive — danger lurks everywhere. Test your skills in challenging turn-based battles, adjusting your combat tactics and optimal team combinations for each foe you met on the way.

Key Features

• Seven memorable characters, including Kiba, the dark child, Charlie, the talking sniper badger, Alister, the brave guy with an Ether gauntlet, and Ruby, the princess of the thieves. Each of them has their role (sometimes more than one) on the battlefield and their own mission on a big journey.
• Character development system is based on equipment: each piece of armour, weapon or accessory gives a unique skill to a particular hero, expanding their range of attack types and defensive boosts. Find, trade for, or craft new equipment to improve your characters and make them versatile and adaptable.
• Complex tactical turn-based battles: a variety of elaborate enemies won't let you complete the whole game using a single tactic or invincible team build. Choose wisely the squad you take in a fight — proper positioning and awareness are essential to your success struggling against powerful foes.
• The vivid and diverse world of Ree'fah: immerse yourself in the hand-painted fantasy universe of Grimshade and discover an impressive history in more than 20 hours of an exciting journey.

Thanks you!

Grimshade from the Russian developer TaleRock, has been released today on Steam.

Having exceeded its 100K US$ Kickstarter goal in June 2018 for Grimshade, fledgeling Russia developer Talerock, a team of 21 gaming specialists, have since been busy developing their JRPG debut title, set in the fantastic fantasy world of Ree'Fah, which will offer RPG gamers a slice of magical immersion.

MacOS version and GoG release are coming in near future. Nintendo Switch launch is planned at the end of 2019.

Grimshade is a party-based role-playing game inspired by JRPG of the 90s, featuring a tactical turn-based combat system and a grim story of war and personal choices.

Lead the group of the motley adventurers on a journey through the world of Ree'Fah. Explore a diverse of stunning locations and varied people and reveal plot-related secrets. There are many characters to meet and places to wander, all created with hand-drawn artwork that makes the land feel lived in.
But remember, beauty is deceptive - danger lurks everywhere. Numerous monsters in Grimshade has been carefully crafted to impulse players, forcing them to learn their attack styles and build a plan on how to counter them. Test your skills in challenging turn-based battles, adjusting your combat tactics and optimal team combinations for each foe you met on the way.

Story

Grimshade tells you the story of the company of heroes, by a twist of fate involved in the cycle of events unfolding in the world of Ree'fah. Numerous dreadful monsters infested the forest around the city of Brann, and high walls could no longer protect residents from the attacks. The menacing army of the neighbouring kingdom suddenly landed on the outskirts of the city, wreaking havoc. There is no hope for salvation - the strength of the defenders is running low, but the King and his loyal Champions had vanished.

Series of sudden events and odd coincidences force people to act. Get acquainted with each of the heroes and unite them - entirely different, sometimes bizarre and frightening, with their motives, but one purpose for all - to find out the real causes of what happened to them.

Features

• Seven memorable characters, including Kiba, the dark child, Charlie, the talking sniper badger, Alister, the brave guy with an Ether gauntlet, and Ruby, the princess of the thieves. Each of them has their role (sometimes more than one) on the battlefield and their own mission on a big journey.

• Character development system is based on equipment: each piece of armour, weapon or accessory gives a unique skill to a particular hero, expanding their range of attack types and defensive boosts. Find, trade for, or craft new equipment to improve your characters and make them versatile and adaptable.

• Complex tactical turn-based battles: a variety of elaborate enemies won't let you complete the whole game using a single tactic or invincible team build. Choose wisely the squad you take in a fight - proper positioning and awareness are essential to your success struggling against powerful foes.

• The vivid and diverse world of Ree'fah: immerse yourself in the hand-painted fantasy universe of Grimshade and discover an impressive history in more than 30 hours of an exciting journey.

Grimshade is an entire world filled with exciting discoveries and awesome adventures, creating an epic RPG.

Grimshade will release March 26th on Steam and later in the year for Switch.

Release Date announcement & Character Spotlight #1

8 Mar @ 10:22am - Eules

Hello everyone,

Today we can finally announce the launch date: Grimshade goes on Steam on 26 March. Yay!
Even more, we've made a series of spotlights related to the main characters and their combat performance. The first one is about Alister Garuda, the hero you'll meet at the beginning of your journey.

Enjoy the video!

loading...

Add us to your Wishlist and follow us to keep yourself updated — we also share all important news here, on the Steam page. And, of course, help us to spread the word about the game!

Cheers,

Alexandra and Talerock team

A new gameplay trailer for Grimshade.

loading...

Grimshade is a turn-based role-playing game inspired by JRPG of the 90s, featuring a tactical combat system and a grim story of war and personal choices.

Grimshade has gone into Alpha testing according to the latest update.

Hello, everyone!

Access to the alpha test of Grimshade is open! All the access keys have been sent to our Kickstarter backers' email accounts this week. If you still haven't received your email, please let us know.
- it's the Ree'Fah world, dear!

We've already played with our big team of developers and family members. It's an incredible feeling to immerse yourself for a couple of hours into the world we've built with our own very hands from small parts created over a year and a half of development. :)

We remind you that all the testers have a private Discord channel. We will be happy to hear your feedback and discuss the game. Our QA team is always ready to help you with any issue.
Not everything goes as it should be - a bug with textures and Gobak has a very glamorous look :)

Some important information:

We've begun working on the unique rewards for backers. Our artists are finishing up the assets required for choosing the visual look of backer's statues, and we will send everyone the questionnaire as soon as they are ready.
Our designers have begun preparing the next test version. Beta testing is currently planned to take place in the second half of September. We will inform everyone of the exact dates in advance - stay tuned ;)

That's all news for today ~

We've overcome our summer crunch and will go back with regular monthly updates, so, see ya all!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask us on Discord or Facebook page!

The intro trailer for Grimshade is available. The game will release September 13th.

loading...

Grimshade is a story-driven tactical RPG featuring a turn-based combat system and non-linear progression, set in a fantasy world. Lead a group of adventurers on a journey through the world of Ree'Fah.

The latest update for Grimshade explained the combat system.

Combat system

Hello, dear friends. Today we want to tell you about the combat system in Grimshade. We were inspired by classic JRPGs and games like HoMM, Darkest Dungeon, Final Fantasy, etc.

Battles take place on a battlefield, which is split into two parts that are 3x4 cells in size each. Each side belongs to either the player or the opponent, and movement to the other side is restricted.

Each turn is based on the conditional turn-based battle system or CTB. The position on the CTB scale before the start of battle is determined by the actions of each character. During battle, each character uses skills, which are tied to the speed indicator. Any action—be it moving, waiting, or using a skill—spends a certain amount of speed and moves a unit on the CTB scale by this amount.

The skills of the characters and monsters are determined by which row on the battlefield they are in, and on which row of the opposite battlefield they are acting on. Therefore, skills that move enemies on the battlefield are highly valued. For example, you move an archer to the first row. What will that do? First, he can be attacked by melee units. Second, the archer won’t be able to shoot arrows at point-blank range. Other control skills can take a unit’s ability to move away or change his position on the CTB scale.

Each unit in the game has two indicators: HP and tension. They (or one of them) determine the damage of each skill. With HP, everything is simple—if the indicator falls to zero, the unit dies. Tension knocks out monsters, pushing them back on the CTB scale. It’s a bit more difficult with characters because the mechanics of game characters are attached to tension. For example, Alister should be calm in combat, but high tension prevents him from using skills. Ruby is the opposite, though: the higher her tension, the better she fights. And if Kiba’s tension is above 50, then it changes his set of skills.

After the battle, all of the characters’ tension is reset to the base value and life is fully restored. However, during battle, any hero can get injured. A character is injured when he has very low health reserves or when he receives huge damage. Injuries reduce the basic characteristics of characters, including their damage and combat potential. You can only get rid of injuries in safe zones, but getting to one is not a simple task when you are in the middle of a hostile location.

Moreover, each unit has avoidance tokens in battle. The token completely absorbs one hit and restores over time. Every character has different ways to get and restore tokens, as well as to get the maximum number of them. This encourages you to think of a strategy of getting your opponents’ tokens. For example, use quick and powerful blows to take them away from your opponent, and then deal a powerful blow to finish him off before he has the time to get new tokens.

Thanks Farflame!

Grimshade has been funded on Kickstarter.

$100,000! We reached our goal!

Hi backers! We’ve raised the money we needed. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Now Grimshade has the financing it needs, and our little elves are hard at work putting together your bonuses and gifts.   

There are only a few days left until the official close of the campaign, so if you want to support our game, increase your pledge, or purchase some kind of “delicious” add-on, you still can!  

Thank you again! You’re the best!

• Facebook  
• Twitter  
• Instagram 
• Discord

OnlySP takes a look at Grimshade, which is currently running a Kickstarter campaign that is almost half-way towards its goal.

Grimshade was born as a story-driven tactical role-playing game with turn-based combat and non-linear progression. The game is divided into two distinct phases: Adventure and Combat. During the adventure phase, the player has the option to progress the storyline, tackle side-quests, explore the location they are currently in, develop relationships with party members, trade, craft equipment, search for treasure, and engage in combat encounters.

At its core, Grimshade is a turn-based tactical combat game.

Our game is not unlike the myriad of Japanese tactical RPGs, but with a significant twist. While most tactical RPG games will lock a character with a specific role (or set of roles) with little growth outside of stat gains, Grimshade allows each character in the party collect and switch between a large variety of equipment that changes the way they work in combat, rather than improving their raw power.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Talerock started a Kickstarter campaign for the story-driven tactical RPG Grimshade:

Grimshade

loading...

Grimshade is a story-driven tactical RPG featuring a turn-based combat system and non-linear progression, set in a fantasy world. Lead a group of adventurers on a journey through the world of Ree'Fah. Each decision you make has a profound influence on the characters, the game's story and the way battles are fought. Explore a varied and intricate world, meet new characters, reveal plot-related secrets and go treasure hunting; the world around changes as you advance and directs you further through the story.