Fantasy Flight Games has published Legend of the Five Rings for several years, offering players an opportunity to dive into a well-established Eastern RPG setting filled with samurai, dark magic, politics and more. It’s been released as a board game, an RPG novels and more. Now the universe will get its first video game rendition with Shadowveil, a rogue-lite auto-battler.
The game’s publisher, Palindrome Interactive, sat down with The Fandomentals at Gen Con and shared a demo of the game for the media and the public to test.
What is Legend of the Five Rings?
Legend is a fictional setting published in 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Media and ISOMEDIA around the feudal empire of Rokugan. This world is primarily influenced by the ideas of feudal Japan, with influences from other East Asian cultures appearing throughout the source material. While it initially launched as a trading card game, it eventually became a TTRPG and is currently on its fifth edition.
Shadowveil will be the first video game in the setting, and will help expand the story around Hida O-Ushi and Hida Sukune, a pair of siblings from the Crab Clan. The game begins when the two siblings learn of a great threat withinthe Shadowlands, a nightmarish wasteland corrupted by the Realm of Evil. Players will have to venture out into the Shadowlands with the siblings and their allies in hopes of stopping the threat before it can breach the rest of Rokugan.
While players will have to choose which sibling they play, they will have very similar campaigns with the same conclusion.
Trying Shadowveil
Gameplay is simplistic in nature. Players will move characters around on a grid and allow them to battle the opponent in a series of battles. Each battle can provide the player with cards or upgrades to enhance their fighters. The goal will be to defeat all of the enemies and defeat the evil threatening the continent.
The game felt very similar to an auto-battler like Hearthstone Battlegrounds or Teamfight Tactics, in that the micro-actions of the player’s units were automated. I was able to move the units around inbetween fights, but there was little I could do to affect combat. Players also maintained their health between battles, which added a roguelite mechanic. Once all your heroes died, the roguelite would reset the player’s progress. There will be options to resurrect characters or restore them in the full game, but these functions were unavailable in the demo.
The game relied on a class system, several card options and a number of upgrades. The game sessions are intended to be short, Palindrome game director Filip Andersson told The Fandomentals, and encourage multiple playthroughs.
The gameplay appeared fairly easy to learn, and it was fairly clear that there was a learning curve. The two siblings, who Five Rings fans would be familiar with, would not be the only character cameos from the game’s lore. Players can expect to see more iconic characters from the story in the future.
While I am not personally too familiar with the Five Rings setting, the short demo I tried made it fairly clear that the game’s designs and story would offer a lot to long-time fans of the setting.
Shadowveil is still in development, with no immediate release date available. The game will be available on Steam.
Images via Palindrome Interactive
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