Sacred Citadel the Action game inspired after the Sacred RPG's is now available on steam.

Sharpen your axe, string your bow, brew your potions! Ancaria needs heroes like you. Grab your friends to join the resistance! The once peaceful land of Ancaria is in grave danger. The evil Ashen empire has enslaved its population and is using the orc-like Grimmoc to wipe out the Seraphim, who swore to protect it.

Gamasutra had the opportunity to talk to Fredrik Bronjemark, producer and managing director from Southend Interactive the developer of Sacred: Citadel to learn more about the game.

"One approach could have been to simply add in a silly amount of different combos or skills that would then be unlocked throughout the game. We did however feel that in most cases, players tend to just learn a few combos, and then use them throughout the game. If there's nothing else going on except new unlocks, that doesn’t really solve the problem."

Instead, he says, Southend experimented with making the combat and controls less rigid, with a larger focus on speed and skill.

"Instead of just taking influence from other games in the genre, we looked at more modern action games such as God of War, Darksiders and Super Smash Bros," he explains. "Here, combat is fluid, fast and explosive. When a player is skilled enough, he will occasionally be in 'the zone' where he fluidly lands one perfect attack after another and counter or dodge each incoming attack."

Here are some previews of Sacred: Citadel, the side scrolling brawler, of which I am not sure it has that many RPG elements, but it might be fun anyway.

Xbox360achievements:

The key for the team was creating an over the top set of characters and art styles that not only fit in with the Sacred brand but also provided something that they could have fun with. Emphasising fun combat, exaggerated moves and a sense of humour throughout was key to making a game that lived up to the lineage of past titles according to Toplansky. ”I’d like to believe we’ve really followed through on the promises set up many years ago on delivering a really stylish game.”

The Verge:

Apart from the game's uniquely cartoonish aesthetic, that class-based gameplay is really the only aspect which stood out as the feature which Sacred Citadel brings to the table that other modern beat-em-ups lacked. It's too soon to tell if its walloping gameplay will possess the satisfying retro charms of Scott Pilgrim or Castle Crashers, but adding traditional RPG classes would add a layer of strategy that could really add something special to the genre.

Forbes:

Players can play as the Safiri Warrior, the Ancarian Ranger and the Khukuri Shaman, each with their own specialized combat style and weapons. The game supports drop-in/drop-out co-op, and will be available sometime in 2013 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. How deep the RPG elements actually go, and how varied and interesting the combat truly is, remain to be seen.

Meanwhile, the game will serve to further the story between Sacred 2 and upcoming Sacred 3. I didn’t play either of the Sacred games, and while Sacred 2 scored just over 70% on Metacritic on each platform, it still looks pretty fun. Though not necessarily as fun as Citadel.

G4TV have a preview of the new Sacred side scroller named Sacred: Citadel.

In our first taste of the game, we got to see what the warrior, ranger, and shaman could pull off in this epic bawl fest. Taking place in a future time of the Sacred series where the battles of the first two games are little more than whispered legend, you'll join together with several of your friends to take on a new menace threatening civilization as you know it. Call it a bloody Castle Crashers or a Ye Old Streets of Rage, either would be fitting and still not yet encompass everything that's behind Sacred Citadel.