Astria Ascending showed up at Nintendo’s E3 Direct this year with a new trailer showing off each of the playable characters and their respective combat abilities. The eight demigods hail from different classes that offer unique attacks and abilities in order to support their allies and destroy their enemies. The trailer shows off a striking art style and several of the environments players will visit as they journey through the world of Orcanon. It also revealed an innovative take on traditional RPG battles with a focus system that rewards strategic gameplay.

The trailer teases a few story elements including the revelation that the demigods are fated to die within three years. After that, the cycle repeats, and new demigods are chosen. Before their time is up they must prevent the “Noises,” an amorphous enemy race, from dragging the world into chaos.

Each of the demigods sports a different class and hails from a different region of Orcanon. There are physical fighters such as Ulan, a Captain, and magic users like Eko, a Scholar. Each of the characters looks to offer an interesting flair to the game’s combat, and you can mix and match four of them to bring into battle with you.

The game comes from Artisan Studios, a developer with studios in both France and Canada that has a focus on hand-drawn artwork and deep, RPG mechanics. The story for Astria Ascending has been written by Kazushige Nojima who is famous for his work on the popular Square Enix franchises Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. The music is being composed by Hitoshi Sakamoto, whose work can be heard in both Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics.

You can try Astria Ascending for yourself when it comes to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Steam on September 30, 2021. The game will also launch directly into Xbox Game Pass on release day.