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Liege - Dare I say Final Fantasy Tactics meets Game of Thrones? (Kickstarter)

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ctothej

Member
Just found this browsing Kickstarter. Not only does it look incredibly promising, but the developer has one of the cleanest Kickstarter pages I've seen from an indie.

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http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/codagames/liege

It's a tactical RPG with hand-drawn artwork and a mature storyline, filled with political intrigue and complex characters (at least, that's what the developer is striving for). I usually lose interest in any trailer longer than 90 seconds, but I found myself totally engrossed by the six minute one on the Kickstarter page. If the game delivers on its promises, it will be the RPG I never knew I'd been waiting for.

The developer's name is John Rhee. I'm not sure if he's made anything before, but he's been working on Liege for years. The Kickstarter is at $41K right now, way past its goal of $15K. If it reaches $52K he will port the game to PS4, Vita and Linux. Of course, if he's developing in Unity I'm sure those ports will happen regardless.
 
This has been a pretty great year for turn based tactical rpg. Between this and Banner Saga I think strategy fans will have their hands full.
 
Isn't FFT already FFT meets GOT? At least as a Japanese console dev would envision it. But I'm teasing because I know what you meant. Thanks for sharing and I'd like to help fund it because I'm certainly not getting more Tactics Ogre esque games from Japan any time recently.
 
I love the art and that its inspired by classic jrpgs, always loved the top of the cliff scenes, nice hommage:

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gets a PS4/Vita port too, comes out in a year though.
 
KyanMehwulfe said:
Isn't FFT already FFT meets GOT? At least as a Japanese console dev would envision it. But I'm teasing because I know what you meant. Thanks for sharing and I'd like to help fund it because I'm certainly not getting more Tactics Ogre esque games from Japan any time recently.
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Haha the thought crossed my mind. The reason I namedropped GoT is because Liege seems low fantasy and overtly political than FFT. If I understood correctly, you also follow people from different houses and there are no clear cut "good guys" or "bad guys."
 
Hmm, liking the art aside from the characters, they don't seem to blend well with the environment to my eye but I could probably get over it. Will re-watch the pitch tomorrow and make a decision.
 
I love everything about this game. If it starts getting closer to $52,000, I'll pledge some money. I would only play this on my PS4/Vita.
 
Looks cool and interesting. Also reminds me of a game some friends of mine are trying to make, hah, dammit... :\

The character concept art is very nice, but the in-game character animation are pretty stiff, though. I realize it's just one guy, but he did boast "fluid animations", can't say I agree with him there. That said the game does look very cool. I might back my first Kickstarter...
 
Looking at the website, Liege reminds me more of Fire Emblem than FFT. Especially in terms of the environments.

Can't say I'm a fan of the art, but the game's got my interest.
 
Einbroch said:
Hot year for sRPG fans.
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Depends on what you like. Lots of it, including this game, seem to be following the same very basic and dumbed down template without much of a unique visual identity either.
 
dimb said:
Depends on what you like. Lots of it, including this game, seem to be following the same very basic and dumbed down template without much of a unique visual identity either.
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Just curious, what do you mean by dumbed down template? The game looks pretty pretty distinct to me.
 
ctothej said:
Just curious, what do you mean by dumbed down template? The game looks pretty pretty distinct to me.
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In terms of combat and statistics a lot of what I see here is kind of remedial. And I kind of feel like the very plain and suppressed fantasy look is super prevalent across a number of the SRPGs that have risen up out of Kickstarter. I guess to me stuff just seems super safe all around.
 
This blog quote from the creator regarding approval for Sony platforms makes me really, really happy to be a purchaser of Sony systems:

"Sony's been incredibly supportive during the on-boarding process, and in particular I wanted to give a quick shout to Shahid Ahmad for making this happen. He's become their main point of contact for indie devs, and he went out of his way to push this through with our limited campaign window in mind. The guy pretty much works 24/7."

It apparently isn't just PR BS, Sony really does seem to care about forging relationships with fresh, independent developers to help them realize their creative vision on a larger scale.

I'm getting a little verklemmt : ' )

Edit: This approach to gameplay also has me pretty excited:

"PushSquare: The game’s combat system is partially influenced by chess. In what way is that?

John Rhee: The main things are the heavy emphasis on spatial positioning and the minimalism of the rule set. The amazing thing about chess is that it’s an incredibly deep game, but anyone can learn the basic rules in minutes. On the other hand, I think that a lot of people get turned off by tactical RPGs because they don't want to sit through extended tutorials and learn tons of arbitrary rules. My hope with Liege is to bring some of the elegance and accessibility of chess into the tactical RPG genre, while also keeping the game varied and fun to play."

and

"PS: As you said, Sony’s generated a lot of goodwill in the indie community lately. Having now had a chance to deal with the company, are you starting to understand why?

JR: Absolutely. I really thought that working with Sony would be like working with a giant, faceless corporation, but it's been exactly the opposite. They've been working with me on a really personal level, and have gone way above and beyond to push things through with our limited fund-raising window in mind. They've really lived up to the hype, and then some."

I have adored the time spent with most SRPGs I've played, but they always seem so hard to return to and pick up after time has passed due to encyclopedic-sized rule-sets that must be re-read to get everything down. I really like the idea of a chess-like rule-set for an SRPG.
 
ironchair said:
I love everything about this game. If it starts getting closer to $52,000, I'll pledge some money. I would only play this on my PS4/Vita.
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You don't get charged until the campaign is over. If everyone holds out until their particular goal is met, the funding rises slower and they wind up with less money overall. The trick is to sign up now and pull the pledge if it doesn't get that far in the end.
 
epmode said:
You don't get charged until the campaign is over. If everyone holds out until their particular goal is met, the funding rises slower and they wind up with less money overall. The trick is to sign up now and pull the pledge if it doesn't get that far in the end.
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Done. Chose the $25 tier.
 
I'd be surprised if this doesn't reach $52k. Videogame Kickstarters almost always have a big surge in the last two or three days.
 
I don't find the art style particularly impressive (in fact I think it's quite bland), but I need another TO/FFT type of SRPG in my life. I'll give him some support. I want him to get the game on Vita.
 
The menus/UI are absolutely bland too. Transparent-black window with a generic default font. I think the game looks promising, but since an upgrade to the art assets is locked behind a stretch goal, I'll wait.
 
cheststrongwell said:
Character models look really strange.
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I agree. The concept art looks great, but he hasn't figured out how to transfer it well to the top-down sprite view. I'm sure he's opting for the big head approach because of the whole 16-bit art evolution that he was talking about, but it's actually a pretty difficult style to adapt to HD graphics. You just can't fill space in the same way. I think it would definitely work out better if he used some chunkier but better-proportioned character sprites. Given all the work it seems he's already done though, I doubt they're gonna change that much unless he hits that final stretch goal.
 
Burt said:
I agree. The concept art looks great, but he hasn't figured out how to transfer it well to the top-down sprite view. I'm sure he's opting for the big head approach because of the whole 16-bit art evolution that he was talking about, but it's actually a pretty difficult style to adapt to HD graphics. You just can't fill space in the same way. I think it would definitely work out better if he used some chunkier but better-proportioned character sprites. Given all the work it seems he's already done though, I doubt they're gonna change that much unless he hits that final stretch goal.
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Well, one of the tiers of the Kickstarter involves a complete art overhaul and upgrade, but it's pretty high up there, so we'll see.
 
Do Kickstarter projects tend to get a lot of donations just before they close, in general?

Would love to see this on the Vita, but it's going to fall short at the current rate.
 
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