Do you like your sci-fi action-RPGs with a healthy dose of convicts and hackers? If so, you may want wrap your eyes around Wanderer (previously known as Wander), which its creators are seeking funding for on Kickstarter.
In Wanderer you’ll play as a convict called Rook who awakens on an abandoned Earth after the orbital prison who was locked up in crash lands. Soon after, Rook teams up with a hacker called Jin and a group of survivors. Their mission is to find the nine other cell blocks that detached from the prison and have been scattered across the wastelands.
As you can imagine, this vision of a future abandoned Earth is one filled with not only dangerous prisoners but also “bizarre parasitic extradimensional beasts.” You’ll have to fight them in pseudo turn-based battles inspired by Paper Mario, Valkyrie Profile, and Rogue Galaxy. Like the rest of the game the battles are seen from a side-on 2D perspective. You control three characters as a single party.
“Timing, reflex, and pattern recognition are emphasized, and the player will need to manually time and input offensive/defensive maneuvers to maximize their advantage in battle,” says developer Red Cloak Games about the battle system.
Outside of battles, Wanderer is a cinematic side-scrolling platformer with a hand-painted world and a lo-fi but striking look. You’ll also need to solve some puzzles and talk with various characters in branching dialogue to progress.
Red Cloak Games is hoping to raise $70,000 to fund the development of Wanderer for Windows, Mac, and Linux. If obtained and surpassed there will be stretch goals to bring the game to more platforms. You can also vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.
