Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown

Inspiration:

Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown is a classic western RPG inspired by the games from the 90s. Basically, it’s the kind of game I personally find missing nowadays. Light, fairy tale, epic, heroic and slightly humorous. One that does not take tons of hours to complete or require an endless grind to progress. Something that caters to players like me who don’t have tons of hours to beat one game but still like to play and have a sort of nostalgia for the way games were made in the old days.

It was inspired by Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder 2, Might & Magic 3-5, Crystals of Arborea (a lesser-known prequel to the Ishar series) and the Gold Box series (Champions of Krynn, Dark Queen of Krynn, etc.).

Core Design Choices:

1) Classic, turn-based, first-person RPG with tile movement and 90-degree rotation.

2) Party-based (7 heroes, either predefined or manually assembled upon new game).

3) Open world with a big overworld to explore.

4) Fast-paced combat. Quick travel. Easy inventory management. No grind.

5) Light, fairy-tale-like fantasy, an epic story about heroes on a noble quest.

Mechanics:

Mechanically, it’s 100% turn-based (so you can go and make tea in the middle of a fight) with grid movement and 90-degree rotation. All this is very fast-paced: both combat and travel are really fast. The goal was to cut down the boring parts and flesh out the fun parts.

Overall, the mechanics are pretty traditional and straightforward, with modern additions like a weightless bag combined with an equipment encumbrance system.

World and Storyline:

The storyline is a fairy-tale, mythical heroic fantasy. You are the good guys on a quest to fight the forces of evil. The world is non-linear, with very few locked areas. You can basically go anywhere and do things in a different order. In addition, you can choose a different set of quests to finish the game (but those are not mutually exclusive, so you can finish all quests if you like). It’s more world-driven than story-driven. The priority was to make the world feel alive and let you explore it as you wish rather than follow a linear list of quests.

The game starts when the royal wizard finds out about an old crown that had belonged to the royal family for generations. Yet, strangely, no one had ever heard of the crown, and there was just a single mention of it in the royal annals. Upon further study, he discovered that a powerful spell of forgetfulness of unknown origin had been cast, causing everyone in the whole land to forget the crown ever existed. Not knowing who had gone to such trouble to conceal the crown’s existence, or why, he decided to investigate. He summoned a party of noble heroes and tasked them with finding the whereabouts of the mysterious crown and the origin of the spell.

Faq:

Q: How long does it take to beat the game?

A: According to Early Access players, it can take between 20 and 50 hours to finish the game (I estimate a typical playthrough would be 25-40 hours for most players).

Q: Can I create party members or are they predefined?

A: Yes, you can create all party members at the start if you wish (there is also a quick start option).