Echoes of the Fey: The Last Sacrament [OELVN] + KICKSTARTER & DEMO!

[woodsy_studio]

Hello everyone! Our two-person team at Woodsy Studio is excited to officially announce Echoes of the Fey - Episode 2: The Last Sacrament. It's actually pretty far along in production right now (about 75% complete), but we're running a Kickstarter to help us to the finish line and fund all of the features we want to implement (such as more CGs and voice acting).

 

The Echoes of the Fey series mixes a high fantasy setting with the mysteries and conspiracies of pulp detective fiction. Play as Sofya Rykov, a private investigator with a secret of her own: she is the only Human able to wield unlimited magic. Her country of Oraz is recovering from a 30-year war between Humans and Leshin (elves) over the use of Fey energy, so her unstable magic is best kept secret.

 

Sofya herself is an unusual protagonist. For starters, we gave her personality traits typically given to the male leads of hard-boiled mystery tales. She sports a sassy, optimistic attitude that laughs in the face of danger, but this is a cover for the fear and helplessness underneath. As a result she sleeps around, drinks heavily, and knows she could die at any moment from the strange magic trapped inside of her.

 

 

In The Last Sacrament, Sofya’s childhood love and the Emperor’s daughter, Katerina, seeks her protection from threats near the border. Meanwhile Katerina’s rival, Nikolai, needs a dangerous drug stolen from the powerful Krovakyn Church and uses blackmails to force Sofya’s assistance.

Nikolai wants a dose of the Sacrament, a mysterious substance from the Krovakyn Church that can cure illnesses and extend lifespans. But repeated use of the Sacrament causes strange side effects, such as hallucinations and physical deformities. Nikolai wants to give the Sacrament to his grandmother, who has already received the maximum dosage allowed. It’s up to you, the player, to solve each case and determine its outcome. Can you track down Katerina’s enemy? And if you manage to steal the Sacrament, what will you choose to do with it?

You also have several romance options in The Last Sacrament. If you proceed carefully, you can develop a romantic relationship with Katerina, Arkady, Nikolai, or Heremon.

 

 

 

Most of The Last Sacrament consists of traditional VN scenes with choices to direct the story. You can also roam the town of Vodotsk freely as a side-scrolling environment, which opens up side quests and optional investigation opportunities.

But the most experimental aspect of Echoes of the Fey: The Last Sacrament is a complex mini-game called RiftRealms. This is a tabletop game that exists in the world of Echoes of the Fey, and as Sofya you can play with other characters. We thought this would be an interesting way to showcase each character’s personality based on how they treat you as a Dungeon master. It also explores the question: what do people fantasize about in a fantasy world?

 

What I'd love to hear from you:
1) Feedback about RiftRealms
    Via the download-able demo, you can see the first few scenes of the game and try RiftRealms for yourself! We'd love to hear what people think of the mini-game and whether you feel it will be an enjoyable addition to the narrative experience. If you have any other specific feedback about the game right now we'd love to hear that, too
2) Feedback regarding technical game performance
   Due to the fact that we're building this game in Unreal Engine 4 and implementing some fancy 3D environments, we realize that playing the game will require a better graphics card and CPU than most visual novels. You can set the Overall Visual Quality to LOW in the Options menu if you have a lower-end computer. Either way, we'd love to get a general feel for how the game performs for the average player.

PROGRESS

The Kickstarter sadly wasn't funded, but we promised that we would stay hard-at-work on the game and ensure it released, though perhaps without all the features we hoped to fund. We anticipated an early 2018 release date, but the unsuccessful campaign and a Steam release of our latest game, miraclr: Divine Dating Sim put us a few months behind schedule.

A few months later, we're excited to be ready to give  an update on The Last Sacrament. The script is finished and 95% coded into the game. Almost all the art assets are complete and incorporated into the project. The soundtrack is complete except for a couple of remixes that we hope will be a fun surprise for our players.

 

 

What's left to complete? First off, the remaining portions of the script we've yet to implement in the game. That last five percent is chronologically near the end of the game and (as a result) has more branches/possibilities than most scenes. Second, we're hoping to implement a dynamic version of RiftRealms, the RPG mini-game, so that if players enjoy it they can experience it at any time, not just when the story allows. Finally, the not-insignificant testing and optimization phase, where we'll iron out every bug we can find over the final stretch.
 

So, when will you be able to play The Last Sacrament? As long as there aren't any more unexpected delays, we're aiming for a late May or June release on Steam/itch.io for Windows PCs. Console versions will likely be later this year.

Thanks to everyone who signed up to back the project last year. We're looking forward to finally making the game available to you and everyone else!

Edited April 4, 2018 by woodsy_studio
Updating game progress