Many thanks to MMPR for the invite to the preview.
Remnants of Yore is a combination of rogue-lite and cozy shop management inspired by titles like Stardew Valley, Hades, and Moonlighter. It will be released in early access on March 26th for PC and consoles.
Run a Shop and Fight in Dungeons
In an exclusive presentation by Harakka Studio, we got the chance to take a deep dive into Remnants of Yore and gain more insight into what this title will offer. As a cozy action RPG with rogue-lite elements, you play as Yore, a wizard cat who owns an antique shop in a forest trapped in time and surrounded by an unexplainable corruption. With the help of interesting characters, including his fellow neighbours, Yore will investigate the source of the corruption in an attempt to heal the forest.
The game will have a semi-open world where players can explore a village featuring different seasons and weather, each with its own particularities. You also have access to the forest, where you’ll face procedurally generated dungeons filled with enemies that drop items to sell in your shop, as well as boosts for your run. Each run will offer different abilities to unlock and access to new herbs that can be mixed to create spells.
In the village, you can form relationships with your neighbours and engage in day and night activities. Some objects rescued from dungeons may have spirits trapped in them, and you can choose to free them or not. The story will feature different endings and relationship outcomes based on your choices with each character.
The devs are also committed to delivering a game with robust accessibility settings, including color-blind modes and full controller support. They aim to be streamer-friendly and focus on creating a great experience for both viewers and streamers. Players will be able to control the game’s difficulty, and an internal mechanic will automatically adjust it based on successful or failed runs. The main goal is to keep the game accessible and fulfilling for everyone.
Great Idea, Minor Tweaks
The idea of the game sounds pretty much like Stardew Valley, where, instead of going to the mines, you will need to venture into the forest dungeons to retrieve items. The daily life in the village has a lot of similarities to the daily life in Stardew Valley, talking to other villagers and raising relationships. Although not fully implemented, the devs wish to add some more activities like fishing and gardening so that the village will feel a little bit more complete.
As for the art style, the environment seems very whimsical and pretty, the characters are cute, and generally, this is a very beautiful game. I do sometimes feel a little bit of a disconnection between some arts, as they look like different styles. Sometimes they have contour, and sometimes they don’t; there are some 3D but also pixelated and 2D images. This is a bit confusing for anyone taking a look at the game for the first time in the game.
Beyond the visuals, the developers’ vision for the project is broad as they are preparing a launch not only as a game but as a whole IP, with merch, a companion app and several partnerships. It’s a very ambitious idea but that can only result in an increased quality for the final product.
There is a Demo!
For those curious about Remnants of Yore, there is a demo on Steam right now accessible to all players. Although short, this demo shows us a little bit of the shop management and the forest dungeon rogue-lite part of it. You cannot walk in the village yet, as exiting the shop will automatically lead you to the dungeon. In the shop, you can display your objects and put whatever price you want. For the dungeons, you can attack the enemies, collect the antiques, boosts and mix the herbs.
I think there is some work to do, especially for the battle, as it’s hard to tell when you are hit by the enemies until you are already dead. Mixing the herbs doesn’t tell which effect you got and it’s a bit confusing. But as they are launching the game in early access, a lot of content will be built with the community and its feedback. The developers plan is to gradually improve the title with patches until the final launch, continually improving players experience and engagement. They are taking feedback directly through the game, and they have a community on Discord.
Final Thoughts
Remnants of Yore is a bold project to develop an IP from scratch that will extrapolate the game itself. They have great ideas and a base to start with that need a few improvements, but they are open to the feedback of the community. I think building a game with the community is a great start to a project at this level, and they have solid pillars to guide the development of this title. I am curious and hopeful to see what early access will bring us and which paths Remnants of Yore will take.
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