Piecake Productions have launched their campaign for their ARPG-Visual Novel hybrid title Realm of Divinos on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter with a playable demo and promise of a full, epic action RPG to follow.
Realm of Divinos follows a story of dark forces and a potential conflict returning to plague a world that found peace long ago. The Kingdom of Crystal Light, and the Kingdom of the Crimson Moon, once deadly enemies, united to combat a greater threat, a dreaded entity known as the Lord of Shadows. His defeat, and the need to repair the damage he wrought, brokered a lasting peace between the nations, but not all are entirely happy with that state of affairs. A resurgence of violence seems poised to overtake the Kingdoms once more.
The game seeks to hit a balance between an ARPG, with exploration and real-time combat, and a visual novel, with the sort of dialogue options and character busts one might expect from the latter genre. Rather than dialogue being mostly a means of talking NPCs into giving the protagonist what they want, Realms of Divinos seems to seek to make interaction with party members, and possibly romancing them, an integral part of the experience. It is set to utilize Unreal Engine 5, and the graphical capabilities therein.
The demo is a small playable area of a mystical forest, where the player takes control of the long-eared, long-tailed forest guardian creature Azure. As Azure, a player can collect fruit, fight poachers, and attempt to be smooth with newly-arrived companion character Samayra. There are also winged deer-donkeys, a very good-natured dragon, and flower-raptors.
The campaign offers several rewards to incentivize potential backers, ranging from getting named in the credits, to exclusive player outfits, to designing an NPC for the finished game. As of writing, the Realm of Divinos Kickstarter campaign currently sits at $6,064 of its $28,000 funding goal, courtesy of 55 interested backers. It has 17 days left to go.
Realm of Divinos, depending on its Kickstarter success, is planned to release on Steam in 2024.