Ravenswatch Preview: Fairy Tale Heroes Are Reborn As Dark Fantasy Adventurers

ign.com:

Ravenswatch is a particularly unique take on the familiar conceit of an action roguelike RPG, which puts its cast of heroes at the forefront. Pulled from the pages of classic fairy tales, and given a dark fantasy twist, these heroes band together to vanquish an encroaching force of powerful nightmare creatures – or die trying. Coming from the developers of the action-RPG sleeper hit Curse of the Dead Gods, Passtech Games’ Ravenswatch left me intrigued after some extended hands-on time with the closed alpha, which put a hero-centric spin on the good ol’ fashioned dungeon crawler.

Playing as one of six hero characters – pulling from stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Beowulf, and The Snow Queen – you’ll freely explore an overworld filled with demons and other opportunities to amass power to face off with powerful demons ruling the land. Throughout this adventure, you’ll learn the ins and outs of your chosen hero as they unlock their latent abilities to purge the land of corruption.

Ravenswatch sticks close to the formula of a dungeon crawl, but it hones that focus more into an adventure game that has a larger goal to accomplish. With each chapter taking place across five days, the main goal of your multi-day jaunt is to build up enough power to be on equal footing with the stage’s end boss, allowing you and other party members to take them down and move on to the next phase of the quest.

What impressed me most from my time with the closed alpha was the cast of heroes, and how their unique skills and personalities add flavor to their adventures. Along with adding new abilities and buffs, you can also unlock special ultimate attacks that can deal heavy damage, such as Beowulf’s super which calls in his pet dragon to rain