Tahira: Echoes of an Astral Empire is an up and coming turned based RPG by indie developer Whale Hammer. The setting of the game is intriguing, taking place after the collapse of a civilization that had achieved space travel. Instead of turning into a cyber dystopia, the world in Tahira has fallen into a medieval era. Inspiration for the setting of the game is based upon the developer’s travels to Central Asia and features a soundtracked with instruments purchased on that very trip! Having a civilization that has fallen from the space age into medieval dark ages is interesting setting I’ve not seen done in games before.I’d love to see “magic” in the game being some technological device from the old world.
The story in the game revolves around Tahira, a young princess, saving her people from the threat of annihilation from the Astral Empire which seek to wipe out her people. Players will be able to control Tahira and up to 20 different characters at once to fight up the Astral Empire in massive multi-stage battles. Players will have to use guerilla tactics in order to achieve victory against overwhelming forces.
Initial impressions of the game is it reminds me of Banner Saga from a visual and aesthetic standpoint. It’s hard to tell how in-depth the guerilla tactics will be, but I’m imagining something like XCOM. In XCOM you always feel pressured, and every battle is hard fought, but victory seems all the sweeter because of this. If Tahira borrow elements from Banner Saga and XCOM, two very good tactics games, it’s bound to be a hit.
Tahira: Echoes of Astral Empire will release on Steam for PC, Mac, and Linux August 31st!