RPGFan checked out Prelude Dark Pain - the successful Kickstarter campaign ends tomorrow:

Crowdfunding Chronicles: Prelude Dark Pain

Campaign Ends: June 5th

Platform: Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch (with Switch 2 a possibility), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Sharpen your weapons and raise a flagon of mead; a new tactical RPG combining the gameplay of Final Fantasy Tactics with the aesthetics of Dark Souls, The Witcher, and Hellboy is marching a blood-soaked path from Spain to your gaming system. Quickfire Games presents Prelude Dark Pain, a stylish debut title perfect for connoisseurs of the grimdark genre, heavy metal, and really long beards.

Chaos awaits in the land of Statera, where the tyrannical Order of the Ashen Crusade runs a campaign of fear and torment; not content with merely oppressing the poor citizens, their actions have been tearing holes in the veil, allowing horrific creatures to run free. The Lord of Pain surely approves! You’ll play as Soren, a former warrior and berserker now living as a blacksmith, and recruit a team of rebels to rise up and save reality from the Order. Sigh. Soren’s peaceful retirement has been rudely cut short, as life once again pushes him onto the battlefield. Let’s hope it’ll all be worth it!

Gather a crew of over twenty allies, including a cross-wielding mage with a striking golden mask, a powerful (and jolly) fighter who may be related to God of War‘s Kratos, and a red-bearded gentleman last seen eating a rat in the game’s trailer. Not gourmet! Characters belong to one of eight classes and can develop two talent trees and many unique skills. Expect to recruit even more heroes once you get your hands on Prelude Dark Pain‘s free DLC packs, which will be released shortly after the main game.

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RPGamer checked out the alpha version of Prelude Dark Pain:

Prelude Dark Pain Alpha Impression

Even in the small number of battles shown, it demonstrates some strong variation in its encounter design, including a set piece fight taking place on top of travelling stagecoaches and a mission to destroy some bridge supports.

Developer Quickfire Games recently unveiled its dark fantasy tactical RPG Prelude Dark Pain, before beginning a currently-ongoing Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the title. The game sees players taking the role of Soren, a warrior turned blacksmith, in the world of Statera. Soren ends up leading a group of heroes trying to save the world from an ancient evil lying beyond the world’s veil, which is being torn apart by the actions of the Order of the Ashen Crusade. RPGamer was able to check out a short alpha demo on PC containing its first three story battles, plus a pair of extra skirmishes.

Prelude Dark Pain is very quick about setting up its brutal setting and comic book graphical inspirations with its opening scenes and events. It also doesn’t go out of its way to explain what’s happening, getting players to put together the pieces from the short conversations and contextual information. It begins with Soren and his family being hunted down at their home by a nefarious group. He and his son are able to fight back and are swiftly joined by some allies, though his wife — a witch — ends up captured.

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Prelude Dark Pain has been fully funded on Kickstarter:

Prelude Dark Pain is fully funded in 12 hours! Thank you for your support!

After just 12 hours, our “Dark Tactical RPG” Prelude Dark Pain is now fully funded. This project has been a long journey for the Quickfire Games team and we can’t thank you enough for your support.

However, we are just getting started! As you can see, there are several stretch goals left, including more new content and game modes. 

This is a passion project from a team that loves the TRPG genre and we hope that this Kickstarter campaign will help us connect with even more fans. We want to create the ultimate version of Prelude Dark Pain with your help.

If we can ask a bit from you, word of mouth is vital to crowdfunding campaigns, so please consider sharing the project with people that might also love it.

In the meantime, you can check the Splattercat Gaming preview!

Thank you again for your support. It means the world to us.

The Quickfire Games team.

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Splattercatgaming checked out Prelude Dark Pain, which is coming to Kickstarter tomorrow:

A Dark Fantasy Tactical RPG With Serious Potential! - Prelude Dark Pain

Quickfiregames will start a Kickstarter campaign for Prelude Dark Pain on April 29:

PRELUDE DARK PAIN - FIRST TRAILER - KICKSTARTER APRIL 29

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The Turn Based Lovers report that Prelude Dark Pain will get a Kickstarter campaign:

Exciting Updates on Highly Anticipated Tactical RPG: Kickstarter Campaign Incoming!

Undoubtedly, this is one of the most intriguing titles out there, both in terms of its premise and its pure graphical style. It’s called Prelude Dark Pain, a tactical RPG developed by the Spanish studio QuickFire Games. Back in March 2024, I published an overview, and since then, we haven’t received much news about it - until just a few days ago.

Starting in January 2025, the team at QuickFire Games has been very active on the game’s Steam page, introducing various characters from their dark RPG and announcing a Kickstarter page that is expected to launch in the not-too-distant future. So, I’d say that’s good news!

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VG247 checked out the tactical RPG Prelude Dark Pain:

Prelude Dark Pain may look like isometric Darkest Dungeon, but its influences run deeper

So far, it's got the style and substance required to make a splash.

Last weekend, I spent far less time than I'd have liked checking out cool indie games at Guadalindie 2024, a little but hard-hitting event in Malaga, Spain, which I wholeheartedly recommend if more editions are happening in the future. Coming out of this celebration of indie games and devs, Prelude Dark Pain was by far the coolest, most impressive title I could play.

At first glance, Seville-based Quickfire Games' debut may look like a straightforward take on Darkest Dungeon and its sequel, and they're more than willing to admit that influence, yet the whole packs more ideas and sticks closer to classic tactical RPGs such as Final Fantasy Tactics. Beyond that playable core also lies a more ambitious structure tying it all together.

The preview build I was able to play featured two different missions, one designed to be a tutorial of sorts and another quest which was wave-based and took place on top of two moving carriages drawn by armored tusked beasts. Prelude knows how to make a first impression, that's for sure; the art style is familiar, but also packs a number of graphical peculiarities that mesh well with the isometric view and overall design of the levels I was able to conquer.

The fact it's a dark fantasy game through and through doesn't mean it's depressing to look at either. Much like in Darkest Dungeon, Prelude Dark Pain is full saturated colors and hard lines. A common mistake among indie games going for a grim aesthetic is turning the whole screen into a grey or brown sludge with few sparks of visual joy, but that's not the case here. Personally, I was also curious about how the visuals featured in the demo translated to the larger, non-linear open-world that serves as the overarching structure of Prelude, but I wasn't able to experience that layer of the game.

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The tactical RPG Prelude Dark Pain has been announced:

 Prelude Dark Pain

Prelude Dark Pain is a TACTICAL RPG set in a dark fantasy world where you will become one of a group of heroes, determined to save reality from the evil that has afflicted it for generations. 30 playable heroes, each with three talent branches and 24 selectable skills.

Design your squad and manage both your resources and your squad of heroes in and out of battle. Set external missions, with their own mechanics, where you can send groups of 1 to 3 heroes on escort missions, search for resources, diplomacy, espionage or defense work. Many of your heroes have unique abilities focused on raids, making them special and valuable inside and outside the battle lines. You will have to manage a settlement, grow it, and expand your control and resources of the different maps as another playable part of your adventure.

With a complex non-linear open-world, the plot will lead you to unravel an incredible story that has been unfolding for thousands of years and involves the different realities of a destroyed world. You will feel the real weight of your decisions that will change the story that is being told in front of you, accompanied by a countdown that will take you to complete the adventure unifying more than 20 peoples (nations?) and cultures, 8 different playable species among all the realities and more than 120 different enemies in this exciting adventure.

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