Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a unique RPG created by Airship Syndicate, based on the comic series by Joe Madureira. It’s set to be a companion story to the well loved series, allowing old fans of the comics to recognize the world and characters without alienating starting with the game. It was well received on Kickstarter, and is fully funded and coming to Xbox One, Steam, GoG, and apparently now PlayStation 4.
Nightwar puts a heavy emphasis on exploration and story, with character progression tied to finding new things. Backgrounds are painterly and beautiful, and cutscenes at key story moments will be traditionally animated by Powerhouse Studios, which Madureira says are “a great way to see the characters from Battle Chasers come to life”.
Airship plans to put a spin on the old JPRG formula, with turn based combat, and a loss of items on death. All characters have special skills in dungeons, so party management and set-up is very important for whatever play style the player chooses.
With the successful funding, Airship’s CEO praises Kickstarter as a wonderful tool for indie developers, as it allows for a new degree of communication with fans, to allow the creation of things things that would not have been created otherwise. As Madureira says in the Kickstarter video, “This game, I don’t think, is a game that we could do any other way, to be honest. It’s kind of old school. It’s not the hot new thing. It’s games that we loved growing up, and games that we believed a lot of people still want.”
The success of more “old school” games on Kickstarter has been leading to some great new works in gaming recently, and Battle Chasers: Nightwar coming to PS4 is another step in the right direction for indie games funded by the fans.