Erah: The Guardians

THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE DEMO IS OUTDATED! KEEP IT IN MIND WHEN YOU'RE TRYING IT OUT!

Erah: The Guardians is a 2D role-playing game developed by Soulfire Entertainment. Erah is an experiment, a fusion of many gaming elements and genres from both eastern and western cultures which we aim to make not only balanced, but also a memorable experience.

If you're expecting the usual bullshit feature-list, you're not going to find it. There won't be any. You just want to know what you're getting into, right? Well, let's lay it out, plain and simple, clear as crystal:

• Your choices matter - for better, or for worse. Think visual novel without the crappy dating part. You can take several paths, you can form vastly different relationships with characters in the game. And this will greatly influence gameplay. You will recognize some tropes, but you'll see them heavily altered and deconstructed. Whatever you discover will turn out more than meets the eye. So don't blink, you might miss it. There will be a bunch of different endings, too. Replayability, hooooo!

• There won't be anyone to hold your hand. This game is old-school in the sense that you can screw up big time, if you just rush headlong into the thick of it. There will be no warnings, no hamfisted barriers that will save you from making even the tiniest of mistakes. Play smart. Play patient. Play immersed. You can figure stuff out for yourself, right? The save button is your best friend.

• Instead of a quadrillion expanded universes, we only have five continents to explore. Only five, but those are awesome. And by exploration, we mean exploration literally. You'll be walking a lot. But you'll also discover a lot. And it'll be worth it. Which way you go, you decide.

• Newsflash: this game is free. As in, free free. Not free-to-play with micro-transactions. Not free-to-try-but-is-actually-a-demo. No. You won't pay a single cent for it. Once you download it, the full experience - the first arc in the history of Erah - is yours. If someone asks for your money to play this, knock them on the head.

• Taking the time to understand and play the game well will be rewarded. You know those "achievements" where you get a badge for walking a million miles, right? Well, none of that here. There will be achievements, but you'll have to work your ass off for them. Once you do, however, you'll get something of value in return. Unlock a character, a custom outfit, or a unique music not included in the soundtrack, and so on.

• Plenty of room for combining and experimenting with the way certain party members work. Every character has a different play-style and employs different tactics. Three layers of items and item sets - basic physical, enhanced, absurdly powerful - that unlock different skill sets for different characters. Optional bosses to bash down and earn bragging rights. Four difficulty levels.

Erah is a living and breathing world that lies there, waiting for you to explore it.
#rpg