THEY WERE GREATLY MISSED
You might remember Joe Madureira or “Joe Mad” as the co-founder of Vigil games and creative director for the Darksiders series of games. You’ll almost certainly have seen his artwork for either game floating around. One of the questions he’s commonly asked is when he’ll return to “Battlechasers” which was a comic series he started back in 1998 that featured stories told in a more high fantasy setting which differed from the focus on superheroes at that time.
The series was a great success but drew criticism for its production pace which saw an interval of about 6 months between issues. Nine issues were published in four years with the 9th issue ending on a cliffhanger that was never concluded as Madureira had left to pursue a career in the gaming industry, placing the comic series “on hold.”
The series had nonetheless developed a huge following and despite never being released, issue #10 was ranked 14th in the Top 300 comics list in 2001 with pre-orders estimated at 60,860 that year.
Fast forward 14 years, two great Darksiders games and one bankrupt publisher and Madurerira has finally returned to the world of Battlechasers with the intention of not only creating a great game but continuing the long dormant comic series as well.
To do this, he and a handful of Vigil Games vets have turned to Kickstarter as a new studio; Airship Syndicate.
Nightwar met its funding goal of $500k in mere days which pretty much squashed any lingering doubt there might have been about audience desire for a return to the Battle Chasers universe which isn’t surprising given the pedigree of talent behind it.
“Nightwar has the most flawless translations so far of my concept art into 3D”
FEATURES
As described on their Kickstarter page
- Plan for survival. The desolate town of Harm’s Way is your only place to prepare. Choose three of the many heroes you’ve unlocked, fill your travel backpack with items from your stash, make sure you’ve chosen the best equipment and abilities for each hero… and then strike out.
- Explore an overworld presented in classic form, peppered with hidden dungeons, rare bosses and randomly appearing friends and foes.
- Old-school combat inspired by the console RPG greats, with a unique two-tiered mana system and turn-based initiative, featuring random buffs and debuffs on initiative slots
- Action oriented, randomly-generated dungeons loaded with traps, puzzles and secrets. Use each hero’s unique dungeon skills to survive!
- Non-linear story driven by the discovery of lore on items, landmarks and secret elements in the world. Discovering these will both provide deeper insight into the mysterious Lost Vale, and also reward lore points, which are used to upgrade the heroes’ different abilities
- Truly key story moments will be depicted in gorgeous, traditional 2D animation from Powerhouse Animation Studios. For these, sit back and enjoy.
I’m personally really excited for this one. I grew up primarily playing JRPGS of various types (Tales of Symphonia is probably my favorite JRPG of all time) and I absolutely fell in love with Madureira’s art work when I saw it featured in the Darksiders series so this particular title ranks pretty damn high on my wishlist at this stage.
Their Kickstarter page dives into much greater detail about the game so I highly recommend you all give it a once over. Even though it’s funded there’s still plenty of time to back it if for no other reason than to benefit from the exclusive Chaos Eater sword skin.
The game is being developed for PC & Mac, the Xbox One and the PS4 and is slated for release in December of 2016.
-Kevin Ryan
Broken Glasses 