Kick Ass Kickstarters #1
Children of Zodiarcs
By Tanner Banks
2/2/2016, 3:00 a.m.
Tweet to: @Slickster_Mag
All aboard!
The hype train is officially ready to leave the station, for the 2:45 to the Toran Empire. Set up by the Montreal-based team Cardboard Utopia, Children of Zodiarcs is a tactical role-playing game that is one part RPG, one part D&D, and all parts amazing. From top to bottom, this is one of the most complete games to come to Kickstarter in a long time. As an all around nerd, this is the kind of game that will have a little bit of everything. This is the first installment of a series highlighting video games that are crowdfunding their development that get me excited. So what is it that makes Children of Zodiarcs the game I’m excited about right now? A lot.
First and foremost, this team has a some serious talent on it. Their names are credited to Eternal Darkness, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, The Warriors, and Far Cry 3, they know AAA games. The best part is that they weren’t just fetching coffee either. They were leading teams on major parts of the games. This team all has experience leading teams to get the job done, meaning they’ve all held responsibility for major parts of games like economy, user interface, combat, and the like. These guys know what it takes to succeed, and how to succeed in a big way.
It’s not just the team that’s promising either, from the gameplay footage, trailers, and artwork the game is going to be something special.
As mentioned before, at its core, the game is a tactical role playing game. However, there is plenty more to the gameplay with a very unique set of twists. Like any good game of Dungeon’s and Dragons, you need to pick where your hero’s will go and how they will engage in combat. And once you’ve got everything positioned you’ll need to bring out your sweet set of dice (in this case a set of d6 dice are thrown and not a d20) However, unlike D&D, you won’t have to worry about a petty Dungeon Master having you whiff on a 95% hit if you have a bad throw. Instead the dice mechanic “[will] not determine ultimate success or failure, but instead reflect varying degrees of success and alternate outcomes.” The symbols of the dice affect the games in different ways. And on top of that, you can actually craft your own dice to fit your play style even more. This keeps the game in the player’s control while adding a litany of ways for players to go about causing havoc on the Toran Empire.
And you won’t have to worry about the dice throw being predetermined. Instead you’ll get to shake your dice before tossing by using a simulated physics system that will give you a chance to use your own ritual before tossing the dice for a chance at a couple +1 attack swords. But the combat customization doesn’t end there. Inspired directly by the worldwide phenomenon Magic: The Gathering, the card system adds to the strategy.
“Each of your heroes has their own deck of cards for battle that you add to throughout the game. In combat you play these cards to perform attacks, use abilities, or cast spells. You can combine the effects of cards to create chain effects. Each card drawn from your deck opens up new tactics, making it a moment of great anticipation; that next card you draw may turn the tide of battle!“ – Kickstarter
And don’t worry about having to buy the cards or booster packs, either. They’ve guaranteed that there will be no microtransactions in the game, and the only way to get those cards is to beat them out of the enemies you meet along the way.
Watching more and more info about the game come out has been an absolute pleasure and the best part is how much the team has been interacting with the community. Soon after they reached their goal Jason Kim, Creative Director of Cardboard Utopia, hoped onto Twitch and did a stream, answering questions and chatting with fans of the campaign while playing some games. Their Twitter stream is full of support for other games being developed, funny gaming images, and a promise for a pizza. As a joke, they’ve added a stretch goal 20 Canadian dollars past the Hard Mode, of Art Director Erica Lahaie eating a pizza on stream in the future. Although it sounds funny, they’ve promised to fulfill the stretch goal. And speaking of stretch goals, they’re all very realistic about what they want to do and aren’t promising Robert Downey Jr. to voice the main antagonist if they hit $200,000, or anything ridiculous. Instead, there are a large amount of stretch goals that add to the gameplay for a reasonable amount. (Pizza stream aside.)
But perhaps the biggest reason why I believe this game will succeed similar to how Shovel Knight, Undertale, and the like, is because it’s a part of Square Enix Collective. As described by Square Enix, Collective is “a curated platform that enables creators to post ideas, and gamers to judge whether those ideas should become reality or not.” If a concept is popular enough, Square Enix might support the project through the crowdfunding process. Not only was Children of Zodiarcs (then called War of Zodiarcs) a success, at the time it was the most popular posting ever. As of today CoZ and its 93 percent approval rating is the fourth highest ever, and has officially gotten the support of Square Enix.
As awesome as this game sounds, I haven’t really scratched the surface about the game itself. I haven’t mentioned the great character designs, beautiful music, great storyline idea, or the really sweet backer rewards for supporting the game. Right now there are about two weeks left in the Kickstarter, and having already doubled their original goal, it’s going to be exciting to watch what happens next.
http://www.cardboard-utopia.com/press-kit/
