Baldur’s Gate 3 proved that what was once old can be made new again, as Larain’s follow-up to the beloved RPG series quickly took over Steam and continues to thrive over a year post-launch. Dark Souls, meanwhile, proved that challenge, and how that puts players through immense hurdles, can work in favor of a game’s design instead of against it. Put those two games together, and you’ve got Alaloth. This RPG might look like the classics on the surface, but underneath there’s so much more to it. Best of all, it just launched into Steam 1.0 with a sale, and there’s more planned for 2025.
That Dark Souls and Baldur’s Gate comparison doesn’t just come from me, either, as Alaloth developer Gamera Interactive puts it right at the top of the RPG’s Steam page. You play from an isometric perspective, but instead of engaging in methodical, turn-based combat, Alaloth requires you to fight in real time. That means timing your weapon swings, dodges, and making sure every hit counts just like in FromSoftware’s library.
But Alaloth also plays like an old-school adventure. There’s an entire world to explore, quests to complete, companions to work with, and an array of fantasy races to choose from that all impact how the world reacts around you. Alaloth has the depth of both BioWare’s original Baldur’s Gate games and Larian’s hugely successful revival, and embraces the isometric viewpoint to match.
If that sounds like a role-playing game for you, Gamera has overhauled Alaloth for the 1.0 launch. For starters, there’s an entirely new magic system added on top of the FromSoftware-inspired combat, so you’ll have a plethora of spellcasting opportunities in fights. The game now has a variety of magic-focused classes that “mesh with Alaloth’s systems without overshadowing the tactical melee combat the game is known for,” so your choices in combat increase tenfold.
1.0 also marks the introduction of two new Ways of Power – Alaloth’s own skill categories that each offer widely different playstyles – in Elements and Arcane. Each of the five Ways of Power includes four professions (up from early access’s three) that you can spec into for a variety of builds, with melee combat, magic, nature, and the will of the gods some of your choices. Gamera adds that Alaloth doesn’t have a mana bar, with the 1.0 update instead combining both stamina and mana into focus – so you’ll need to tactically balance how you fight.
It’s not just the magic and Ways of Power systems that have been massively overhauled either, as Gamera explains how it’s adopted a dynamic scaling system for skills and spells, so everything grows alongside your character. “Key characteristics like duration, damage, and effects now scale based on the progression of your character’s stats,” Gamera explains. “When you acquire a skill, it becomes scalable across three different tiers, with options to invest one, three, or five stat points to enhance its power.”
“Each profession has a dominant stat that significantly influences its skills or spells, for instance, strength for the Way of Arms, but other stats can also affect skills and spells in varied ways.” This dynamic scaling system means you can still focus on a specific profession, but also experiment with other abilities and builds as well.
Gamera Interactive adds that it’ll soon reveal a detailed post-launch 2025 roadmap for Alaloth, with “a plethora of free content” coming in 1.1 and beyond. This will include new modes, mobs, quests, and even more NPCs, so you’ll have plenty of reasons to return throughout the next year.
The Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms 1.0 launch is out now on Steam, and you can grab the game at 10% off until Wednesday November 27 so expect to pay $31.49 / £26.55 until then. You can find the game here.
If Alaloth has you wanting to take a trip back in time we’ve got all the best old games for you to play, alongside some of the best soulslike games if you want a challenge.
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