Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire
Description
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is a tactical game with light RPG elements in traditions of SRPG genre that includes such games as Fire Emblem or Langrisser. The majority of the game is spent on the battlefields in turn-based battles with mostly non-interactive dialogue intermissions or cutscenes between them. There are however several areas that could be explored by directly controlling the protagonist.
The game is set in a mix of Middle Eastern and Central Asian cultures, but also includes sizeable fantastic elements. The main heroine is a princess Tahira, who had left her father and the palace to investigate happenings on the borders of the country. However now her motherland is being invaded by the Astral Empire and she has to get back to defend it and protect the nation. The enemy has advanced technologies and manpower and she has to employ guerilla tactics to best them.
The battles are waged on isometric maps, where each type of units (light, medium,heavy, archers etc.) makes their move in a queue. Soldiers can either use regular attack or one of the two special skills, that are different for each class. For example, light infrantry could unleash a series of fast blade slashes and the princess can use her astral stuff for distance attacks.
One of the tactical features is an ability to make ambushes. To do so you can place the soldiers into a designated spot that's specifically marked on the map and wait till you have an advantage to strike the enemy, like separating archers from their front line units. Ambushes can be executed in any moment of time even during the enemy turn.
There are a few of RPG elements where your regular soldiers can grow in experience and move through the ranks (up to two of them) during one battle becoming stronger. But those do not carry to the next and you start with new units again. The heroes do not get any experience or improvements, also there's no inventory or items to speak of,
Visual style combines isometric perspective with hand-drawn backgrounds and rotoscoped characters that are made similar to traditional animation and also the recent Banner Saga.
