Dragon Quest fans, take note! A new indie RPG, described as a "love letter" to the series, is launching later this week in Steam Early Access, which aims to pay homage to Enix's classic while also introducing some exciting new innovations to the popular format.
Splintered is being developed by Richard Murtland (the solo developer behind dotMake Studios) and sees players take control of the descendant of a legendary knight, as they set off to avenge their king and recover a stolen artifact.
Screenshots and trailers for the game show a retro pixel-art aesthetic and a classic turn-based combat system that are both heavily reminiscent of the Dragon Quest games on NES. However, the developer has tried to mix things up a bit, introducing an interesting new randomization mechanic that sees the villain of the game "splintering" the overworld "with each defeat".
Whenever this happens, the location of items, equipment, and towns will end up changing, with the hero being sent back in time "to unlock new challenges, classes, and game modes" while preparing for the final showdown.
According to the description on Steam, there are endless randomized seeds to tackle as part of this mechanic, as well as a bunch of options to further tailor the gameplay to your particular taste and skill level.
Here's the full list of the game's features:
-Classic turn-based combat. Use attacks, spells, and items to overcome your foes.
-Level up equipment to unlock a multitude of powerful abilities to define your playstyle
-Mix and match equipment from 3 class archetypes (Paladin, Thief, Mage) with more to come!
-Encounter dozens of enemies that, when randomized, shuffle their traits and abilities to form new, unpredictable, challenges.
-Hunt enemies to unlock specialized passive talents and take your power to new heights.
-Adapt to the randomized world. Improvise, master new playstyles, and counter deadly enemy combinations to overcome the Splintering.
-Endless randomized seeds.
-Conquer challenges to unlock new game modes that drastically alter the game such as Roguelike Mode, Clairvoyance Mode, Chaos Mode, and more!
-Level up to learn 9 core spells that can be further enhanced by equipment in powerful ways!
-8-bit retro-styled art and audio for a classic experience (that's MOSTLY faithful to the era).
-Pick and choose your favorite game modes and randomized settings to create your own flavor of endless fun.
-Unravel a story that begins as a classic tale of treachery and unfolds into one of mystery, secrets, and truths.
-Seamless in-game help feature. Telepathically communicate with your father for guidance if you get lost. (Note: Help feature is completely optional. Exploring and talking to NPCs will provide plenty of hints to complete the game without help.)
It is being released on March 21st and already has a demo available on Steam for players to try out. You can follow Murtland on either Twitter/X or BlueSky to keep up to date with the project.