Games and Gaming from Southeast Asia
Ciel Fledge, the latest game by the Indonesian developer Studio Namaapa, offers the unique opportunity to raise a daughter without having to ruin a real person’s life. As a cross between visual novel, match-3 mini-games and simulation, the game allows you to extensively manage your new kid’s activities and influence the career path she will take. Let’s take a deeper dive into the game and see how this mix plays out.
The pandemic triggered by the Corona Virus keeps the world in terror and of course also affects game development around the world. On itch.io, we found three short and free games from Southeast Asia that each deal with the Covid19 threat and the associated restrictions. We hope you enjoy reading and playing – take care, stay at home and above all, stay healthy!
What do you get when you combine the tactical mechanics of XCOM with the card-based gameplay from Slay the Spire? If it is up to Drix Studios from the Philippines, the result is called Grand Guilds. This concept was also able to find enough fans on Kickstarter and the finished game has now finally been released. You can find out in this review whether Grand Guilds successfully linked the popular mechanics of its role models and how we liked the rest of the game.
Gordian Quest by Mixed Realms is a deck builder meets DnD game where you control a fantasy hero, grow to a party of three, and set out to kill an evil wizard. You know, as you do with these fantasy games. Now what makes Gordian Quest different from a regular turn-based RPG is that nearly all actions are based on cards, with different characters having separate decks that are further customized via equipment and upgrades from skill trees.
Is a good thing worth waiting for? When the Kickstarter campaign for Graywalkers: Purgatory started in September 2014, no one expected the ambitious project would have to face such an odyssey. The first release was announced for 2017, but the game never came out. A good six years after the crowdfunding campaign, the first official version of the post-apocalyptic turn-based role-playing game was finally released in Steam’s Early Access program. We have taken a closer look at Graywalkers: Purgatory and will tell you whether the project has arrived where it was supposed to go.
What games can we expect from the Southeast Asian metropolis of Singapore in 2020? In addition to many new titles from aspiring solo developers and studios, we also note continuity and progress, because some developers have been routinely publishing high-quality games for years. With gamescom asia, Singapore is finally getting a games convention of international format – the perfect stage for game developers from Singapore and all of Southeast Asia. You can read which games we think are particularly noteworthy now.
The time has come to look at the upcoming games from Malaysia. If you check out our list, you might not even know where to start. In any case, there is something for every gamer, whether on playing on console, PC or mobile device – so let’s go!
The end of 2019 is very close, so let’s look forward to the upcoming year! After Vietnam, which gaming highlights await us from the Philippines? The country has been producing many titles of ever-increasing quality for all kinds of platforms and is known as a pioneer for Southeast Asian game development. Among the best games of 2019 from the Philippines were Bayani, Towertale or Love Esquire. Let’s now take a look at some confirmed releases for 2020!
Nintendo’s Switch console continues to be very successful, not least because many popular games are subsequently ported. So, it’s not surprising that developers Witching Hour and publisher Ysbryd Games from Singapore have also decided to re-release their tactical role-playing game Masquerada: Songs and Shadows for Nintendo’s Little Wonderbox. The game appeared already in May 2019.
Monster Slayers! “What a generic title for a videogame.”, was probably the first thing we thought when we heard about this game. But its tagline intrigued us: A Deckbuilding Roguelike Adventure. This combination of probably some of the most popular genres today seems worth a look. Is it a great mixture of all those or simply a potpourri of half-baked ideas to jump on a hype train? While Monster Slayers has originally been released on PC by Malaysian developer Nerdook in 2017, we are now looking at the recently ported version for the Nintendo Switch.
Here at Virtual SEA, we are working hard to represent the vast diversity of Southeast Asian video game development. While we give our best at covering as many games as possible through in-deep reviewing, there are still a lot more games that just fall under the table due to simple lack of time and resources (not to mention each of our own piles of shame). Now we want to give credit to all those little gems we played only for too little time to craft a proper review, but which still deserve your attention. This time, we present to you indie games from Singapore and Indonesia. Go and give these games a chance!
Here at Virtual SEA, we are working hard to represent the vast diversity of Southeast Asian video game development. While we give our best at covering as many games as possible through in-deep reviewing, there are still a lot more games that just fall under the table due to simple lack of time and resources (not to mention each of our own piles of shame). Now we want to give credit to all those little gems we played only for too little time to craft a proper review but which still deserve your attention. This time, we present to you indie games from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Go and give these games a chance!
Nostalgia. That’s what obviously comes to mind when talking about Azure Saga: Pathfinder, the new game of Indonesian developer Masshive Media. It is in most of its aspects a trip down memory lane, reminding of classic Japanese role-playing games. The developers tried to transfer the classic feel of those story-driven games with turn-based combat into a modern costume. That seems to be a trend now, as we have seen other attempts by Southeast Asian studios such as WanderJahR or Legrand Legacy.
To sum it up, WanderjahR is a really hard game with nearly no story and a main focus on the new gameplay approach. If you can deal witch this and won’t back off when the enemies feel overpowered and unbearable – or you are used to this from soulslike or roguelike games–, then you should give it a try. Otherwise you should just … “walk away”.
Ubisoft has completely changed the mechanism of Assassin’s Creed Origins and is much different from the previous series. I really liked the changes, but not all of them. The process of leveling and also the short storyline made my game experience less enjoyable in some moments. But in terms of exploration, I must admit that Assassins Creed Origins provided me with a more immersive experience. Ubisoft really made real the dreams of open-world gaming enthusiasts in this latest entry.
What happens when a dedicated development team both has a passion for music and Japanese role-playing games? They decide to mix the best of both side into their first release. Newcomer Klappanome from Malang, Indonesia is currently working on Valz – a rhythm game and JRPG cross over for mobile devices.
