Fantasy Tactics Game “Skygard Arena” Gets Steam Release!

Indie developer Gemelli Games has released Skygard Arena on Steam. The fantasy turn-based tactics game allows you to combat other players by using a variety of fantastical characters and powers.

The current release of Skygard Arena (version 1.0) can be bought on PC via Steam for $9.74 USD, which is a 35% discount on the full price of $14.99 USD. The discount will remain active during the first 2 weeks of the game’s debut. The 1.0 version release comes after the title being in Early Access for 10 months, allowing the dev team to work with the player community to polish the project.

Take note that the latest version includes the new Champion Seraphine, a new Arena for multiplayer mode, Steam achievements, and more.

“We are super excited to officially launch Skygard Arena with the release of the 1.0 version! Developing such a game, with a full single-player campaign and an innovative PvP mode, has required years of hard work and iteration, so we are very proud of the 1.0 version of the game,” shared Alexandre Colin, Co-Founder and CEO at Gemelli Games. “We want to thank each player who tried Skygard Arena during Early Access and provided feedback: it has been instrumental in improving the game. We are looking forward to welcoming players to the world of Skygard and meeting them in the Arena!”

As for the game itself, Skygard Arena allows you to create a team by selecting 3 Champions and then personalizing the characters’ spells to fit your strategic style of play. The gameplay involves leading your 3-person squad to victory in turn-based skirmishes. Being a tactics game, the positioning of your Champions is key. Depending on what you have been tasked to do, you will find yourself capturing objectives in the Arena. Orbs can be collected to unleash ultimate attacks.

The story is set in a fictional world of Skygard, where an event called the Shattering broke it into multiple floating islands. There are five factions in Skygard. Katia is made of “bold” Elves and Dwarves united to build a flying city. The Crimson Empire is all about conquest. The Clouds Clan was formed through an alliance of free nomadic tribes. The Guardians protect ancient magic, and the Silver Kingdom consists of zealots believing in an angel queen.

To prevent an open war between the factions, there’s the Factions Tournament that occurs every 5 years. Each faction sends a single Champion to fight other contestants and win the right to gather resources from the crystal mines of Felden. However, this year is different because the winner will get an additional award. It’s an ancient crown that radiates magic and whispers voices from the past.

I’m intrigued.

Here’s the action-packed trailer!

I do like how colorful this game is. The characters include humans, dragons, animals, and more. The gameplay looks smooth and easy to understand. But then again, that could be my bias talking because I do find tactics games appealing. There’s just something about seeing an attack’s range and movement limits while planning how to complete a turn.

Certain characters can be teamed up for various advantages. For example, having Jorn, Raine, and Aiden on a team comes under ‘Bleed’. Seraphine, Aiden, and Vallya give you ‘Unkillable’. Raine, Champei, and Aerica give you ‘Trap & Poison’. According to the dev team, there are thousands of team compositions for you to try.

There are 10 Champions to choose from. Each Champion comes with 2 different Personas; one that is a specific gameplay style with its own set of spells and its own skin. The characters seem to have their own attack animation. So, yay for that.

While featuring multiplayer battles, the single-player mode is supposed to have more than 20 hours of content. This includes 13 missions and 26 secondary quests. The story mode allows you to play a variety of missions, including infiltration, base-defense, and boss fights.

The average 1v1 PvP battles in the Multiplayer Arena Mode are supposed to last 20 minutes on average.

The 90-minute soundtrack has been composed by Raphael Joffres (Audio Lead on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33).

Talking about Gemelli Games, the studio was founded in Paris by twin brothers Antoine & Alexandre Colin. The team’s mission is to create strategy games that are “easy to learn and satisfying to master.”

Skygard Arena is the studio’s first game. And, if interested, you can purchase it right now on Steam.

Have you played Skygard Arena yet? What did you think of it?

Let us know.

You can read more of our video game coverage here.

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(via Press Release)

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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