Daedalic Entertainment has released a new trailer for the upcoming strategy RPG Blackguards 2. The publisher boasts that new features, unique enemies, and improved gameplay have all been implemented thanks to community feedback taken from the original Blackguards game.
In order for Daedalic to showcase these significant improvements, they are releasing a series of videos which focus on the characters, combat, and gameplay within the turn-based tactical RPG. The first of these introduces the various factions found throughout the region, the heroes which accompany the player character, Cassia, and allow for a first impression of the game’s battle system and new combat tools.
The basic story of the game revolves around Cassia, who begins a military campaign against the tyrant, Marwan, who rules the country with an iron fist from his throne in the city of Mengbilla (just run with it). The ultimate goal of the battles - which seem to be a key component within the marketing of the game - is to conquer as many territories as possible in order to free the nation from Marwen’s influence, allowing Cassia to take the Shark Throne of Mengbilla for herself.
Just like its predecessor, Blackguards 2 has a primary focus on turn-based battles in its core gameplay, adopted from the classic Dark Eye pen & paper tabletop rule set. Characters can be freely placed within a starting area to begin the battle, with more areas opening up as strategic intel is gathered from prisoners who are interrogated between battles. These various starting areas open up the advantage of splitting up your troops, so that various parts of the map can be navigated at once using different paths - or even layers.
Decisions made within Blackguards 2 will have an impact on the events that follow, including which side quests become available and the reactions that various characters will have towards the main character. This may also play a part in determining who sides with who in regards to the revolution, and whether Marwan will gain the support he needs to keep the throne.
With that being said, that doesn’t mean that Marwan will be sitting idle whilst Cassia travels towards Mengbilla. Marwan may strike back to claim lost territory, which will require defenses. He will also learn the players strategies, which makes it much more difficult to reclaim a territory than taking it in the first place, although the player can place traps and reinforce positioning for the sense of surprise.
Dan reviewed the original Blackguards, giving it a 4/10 and saying that “[Blackguards] is something you’d politely call functional. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it; the monsters, characters and art all feel finished and professional, despite being uninspiring and generic at best and the voice acting is ok. There’s just little to recommend here.”
Although Dan didn’t enjoy the game himself, it proved to be rather popular, and has received plenty of updates. Blackguards certainly has a good amount of potential; if Daedalic can fix the core issues which hampered the original, Blackguards 2 could turn into something special for fans of strategy RPGs.
