Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond Demo

Classic role-playing games feature similar gameplay mechanics most of the time, because there are only so many ways one can innovate a genre that’s more about the story anyway. Hence, turn-based battles are the norm when it comes to isometric RPGs, although the mechanics differ from title-to-title, depending on whether you control a single character or a party of heroes.

Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond is an upcoming role-playing game in which you get to deal with the usual ruthless enemies as you try to save the world and defeat the forces of evil. In case you are not aware of it, Realms Beyond is actually the second entry in the series, so it’s more of a continuation of the first episode, Old North. However, you do not necessarily need to be familiar with it in order to enjoy this one.

The combat allows you to control a whole group of knights called the Companions of House Levant, who are on a quest to defeat the bad guys and generally make the world a better place. In case you have played the first game, you can actually use your saves to modify the beginning of this one, but it’s obviously not necessary. Thus, there’s a clear focus on the story and the characters, which is also obvious from all the cutscenes included into the game.

As mentioned before, the combat takes place in turns, and the mechanics should be familiar to the fans of the genre. Every character and creature gets a chance to attack or use a skill, so you must make sure that you make the most of your abilities when your turn comes. Naturally, your party gets stronger along the way, but so do the enemies you have to face, which keeps things challenging.

The controls are simple and to the point, given the fact that you use the arrow keys to move on the map and only a handful of buttons to control the combat aspect once you enter a confrontation. As far as the graphics are concerned, they are not impressive from a technical point of view, but the hand-drawn artwork is definitely impressive, even if the backgrounds tend to get a tad repetitive sometimes.

Celestian Tales: Realms Beyond  has all the makings of a fun adventure game with classic role-playing elements, but it might not convince everyone, unfortunately. In case you want to lend a hand, you can support the developers by participating in the game’s Kickstarter campaign.