NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.

"When Netflix let us know they were toying with the idea of releasing a companion game to their yet unreleased, super-secret Dark Crystal project, we jumped straight into it."

How did the idea to develop a tactical RPG based on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance first come up?

Andy Cotnam (Senior Concept Artist): There were a number of people at the studio who loved the tactical RPG genre, myself included, and were dying for an opportunity to make that type of game. When Netflix let us know they were toying with the idea of releasing a companion game to their yet unreleased, super-secret Dark Crystal project, we jumped straight into it. Once we learned ‘Age of Resistance’ would be more of a group journey, with multiple main characters and storylines, a team-based tactics game seemed like a perfect fit.

For those who have watched the Netflix series, how much can we expect the game to tie into that?

Thonny Namuonglo (Art Lead): We definitely represent the show in the game by following the characters and events. Also, because part of the game is gathering a party of allies, we allow you to bring characters that weren’t there for certain events in the show to fight with you during those events in the game. During the game we visit areas that weren’t shown on the show such as the Drenchen, Spriton, or Sifa clan areas. Along with characters from the show we’ve added a few new ones just for the game to join your party too.

What sort of a balance are you looking to strike between adapting material and creating new and original stories?

William Lemons (Designer): We wanted a fairly even balance of adapted and original content. There were some great moments in the series we wanted to capture in the game, like when the Arathim attacked Domrak, and when the Hunter ambushed Rian. But, there were also several new stories and parts of Thra we wanted to explore; What do the Drenchen swamps look like? What were Naia, Kylen, and Gurjin doing while the others went to the Circle of the Suns? Thra is a big world and we wanted to show players places they’ve never seen before.

"We think the average player will take 20 to 25 hours to play through the main story levels the first time through."

How long will an average playthrough of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics be?

Dave Pottinger (Game Director): That’s a great question. The answer depends on how much you dig into as you play through the game. We think the average player will take 20 to 25 hours to play through the main story levels the first time through. Savvy tactics veterans may finish faster. Folks playing on the harder difficulties will probably take longer. If you do every last optional mission and collect all the gear, it could take a LOT longer to finish. And then there’s the New Game+ mode that unlocks once you finish the story the first time… that’s a whole other experience. Our goal is always to put a lot of content and depth into our games. In that sense, strategy games like DCAORT are fantastic for appealing to lots of different players. Everyone can find a fun game to play inside of all the options, characters, and different party build-outs.

Are you looking into next-gen versions of the game as well, especially as get closer to next-gen console releases?

Pottinger: Immediately, no, we’re focused on releasing the game on all the consoles (Xbox One, PS4, and Switch) alongside the PC and Mac releases. Releasing five versions on one day is the first task! We’re already working on updates and improvements, though. Players should start seeing those updates roll out quickly after launch. Beyond that, we will evaluate future development once we see how fans are playing through the game. If everything is great and they just want more content, we’ll focus on that. If the best thing is to be reactive to requests for interface changes or more features, then we’ll try to get those knocked out. We are supposed to get some dev kits for the new consoles soon, though. It would be fun to see what we can do with the FX and look of the game on those devices!

Age of Resistance Tactics’ combat shares a lot of similarities with Final Fantasy Tactics– to what extent has that game served as an inspiration?

Jacob Naasz (Designer): As a game lots of people in our studio love, FFT served as a big inspiration for us when we were designing Age of Resistance Tactics. One example is our job system which takes cues from FFT’s jobs that allow a player’s ability to mix and match different sets of skills on units to create a party that’s uniquely your own. We worked hard to get that same feeling with our jobs by giving you the ability to mix in a second set of skills with your primary one. We really liked where this ended up because there are several obvious combinations that work really well together, but there are also some pretty powerful combos if you start getting creative with your choices. When you combine that with your unit’s job, equipment, and even the unit’s clan these all come together to make for some great depth that allow you to approach combat and take on different challenges in many different ways.

"Players can combine two jobs to create their own custom selection of abilities. There are some insanely powerful combinations out there."

How do dynamic events work during combat, and what sort of impact do they have on battles?

Joe Gillum (Designer): We have two different dynamic events in the game, sandstorms and flooding waters. We also have some other battlefield altering mechanics like tall grass, poison water, and Gobbles. The goal of all of these systems is to add more tactical complexity making the battles more interesting and fun.

Sandstorms arrive and push units across the map. You can see them on the timeline, giving you time to prepare. Arrange your units against obstructions so they are protected, or push enemies into the path of the storm to manipulate them into advantageous positions.

Flooding waters reveal and hide parts of the map as you progress, opening up new areas to traverse or hidden objectives. Timing is key here, because units caught in the waters when they rise can drown and be lost.

Tall grass, poisoned water, and Gobbles act more like areas to avoid or use in the battle. Push enemies into poisoned water or the Gobbles to damage them. Tall grass makes a unit only targetable by melee attacks, this is a great way to sneak up on ranged casters.

Can you talk about the Jobs system and how that functions within combat?

TJ Huckabee (Designer): Jobs grant Gelfling, Podlings, and Fizzgig strengths and skills. Choosing a character’s job is more than just choosing their role, as each job has a selection of abilities that further define how you’ll use them in a fight. I might want to take a Fizzgig Herder that’s great at weakening and slowing down enemies, while you could bring one that’s better at shrugging off hits and dealing damage.

There’s even more customization for Gelflings and Podlings, who have access to secondary jobs. That means that players can combine two jobs to create their own custom selection of abilities. There are some insanely powerful combinations out there. One of my favorite character builds is a Gelfling Strategist primary and Paladin secondary stacked with as many passive abilities as possible.

Looking at the game’s progression mechanics, it seems like there’s a lot of emphasis on build variety and player choice- how much of a focus was that during development?

Alex Swaim (Design Lead): It was a huge focus! One of the best parts of tactical RPGs is that relationship between getting to make clever decisions with how you build your characters between battles and watching those decisions pay off (or sometimes backfire on you) during the next battle. That feeling – where it’s not just Deet, Brea, Rian, and company saving the Gelflings but your Deet, Brea, Rian, and company saving the Gelflings – was a major reason why we loved the fit of a tactical RPG with the Dark Crystal world. In order to make that work you have to be able to make meaningful decisions with how you build out your heroes. It helps that different players like playing differently, and having a variety in builds lets players choose the style they feel most comfortable with and then get to work out how to adapt to the challenges the game throws at them.

"You have the freedom to choose and level up dozens of different job combinations in Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. Even if you start a whole new game, you can develop your party in different ways and end up with a totally different feeling team by the time you reach the end."

Can you talk about what Age of Resistance Tactics does to encourage replayability?

Clare Valesh (Lead Producer): You have the freedom to choose and level up dozens of different job combinations in Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. Even if you start a whole new game, you can develop your party in different ways and end up with a totally different feeling team by the time you reach the end. There are literally hundreds of possible team and job combinations. We also have New Game+, which allows you to take your high-level characters through the game again using their existing jobs and abilities, while learning more along the way. You’re also able to access more powerful gear in New Game+, which, combined with the higher-level characters, allows a different experience the next time around. Having the campaign replayable in New Game+ mode gives you more time with the characters you’ve spent time with, and allows you to spend more time with the advanced classes, combining abilities in new and interesting ways.

As far as delivering a solid experience in that vein is concerned, Age of Resistance Tactics is quite a successful game. It won’t blow anyone away – this is a small-scale production that captures the fundamental strengths of the genre pretty well, but often doesn’t go all-in on them – while issues such as a disjointed storytelling style and the lack of some basic quality of life features put a dent in the overall experience. But if you go in expecting a solid, if ordinary, tactical RPG – and nothing more – you’ll be getting your money’s worth.

Age of Resistance Tactics covers the events shown in the recent Netflix series, while also taking the opportunity to expand upon it by delving deeper into things that weren’t shown on-screen. For fans of the universe and the Netflix show, it’s an intriguing prospect, and there will surely be those who will enjoy the greater context the game provides to the events of the show. For the most part, however, what should have been one of the game’s biggest strengths only ever remains a strength on paper, owing to how poorly it’s executed.

"If you go in expecting a solid, if ordinary, tactical RPG – and nothing more – you’ll be getting your money’s worth."

Storytelling is very disjointed and consistently rushed. Players are dropped right into this dense, rich fantasy universe and provided little context for anything, while most pivotal story moments feel like they’re being glossed over. The writing is constantly clunky, as if the game is in a hurry to move on from the storytelling bits and take players straight to the action.

On one hand, I appreciated how nothing felt like it was dragging on too long, and how it never felt like too much time was passing between battles. On the other hand, I was thoroughly uninterested in the story as a result, which is a shame, because this is a setting that is ripe for some truly fantastic storytelling. While fans of the show and the movie will find the narrative easier to invest in for obvious reasons, for those who have never had much experience with the property, the story will feel like little more than noise.

It’s good, then, that the bulk of the game focuses on battles- because those are actually fun. It’s clear that BonusXP have a good understand of the ins and outs of the genre, and Age of Resistance Tactics constantly displays that understanding. It nails most of the fundamentals, and though some facets don’t escalate as much as I had hoped, it does at least execute most of the aforementioned fundamentals quite well on a consistent basis.

"While fans of the show and the movie will find the narrative easier to invest in for obvious reasons, for those who have never had much experience with the property, the story will feel like little more than noise."

Take the characters for example- there’s over a dozen playable characters in the game that gradually join your party, and examining their strengths and weaknesses, purchasing and equipping them with better gear, and then constructing your party to suit the needs of each battle adds an interesting layer of strategy. Things are made even more interesting by an engaging jobs system. You can assign two jobs to a character at a time, and as they level up, they unlock new jobs, which get progressively more specialized. There’s plenty of room for experimentation here, and the number of the possible permutations means there’s a decent amount of build variety. And with a total of a dozen jobs that you can unlock (for most characters), there’s more complexity here than you’d expect.

Each job brings its own unique attributes, of course, providing different buffs and debuffs to stats, but they also give characters access to special abilities – both passive and otherwise – that can be used in combat, such as being able to heal allies, or a ranged attack that lowers the enemy’s movement, or a special attack that can only be used after a unit has moved three turns, but deals significantly more damage. Some of these abilities can also be used in combination- for example, after using the Mark ability on an enemy with a Scout, you can use a Paladin’s Double Strike on a Marked enemy to attack them twice in a single turn. You can pull off that combination either with two characters, or with a single character who’s both, a Scout and a Paladin, and has those two abilities equipped.

Add to that the restrictions on how many abilities a character can equip at a time – three from their primary job, and two from their secondary one – and their movesets are something else that you have to mull over and decide on, and something else that allows you to personalize them as you see fit. In isolation, these are all simplistic systems, but Age of Resistance Tactics uses them in combination to create a surprising amount of depth, giving you quite a lot of control over the progression of multiple characters on a micro scale, and the composition of your party on a macro scale. It starts off quite shallow and simplistic, but progressively keeps adding more layers.

"In isolation, these are all simplistic systems, but Age of Resistance Tactics uses them in combination to create a surprising amount of depth, giving you quite a lot of control over the progression of multiple characters on a micro scale, and the composition of your party on a macro scale."

None of that would make any difference if the game didn’t put up some sort of a challenge. Thankfully, Age of Resistance Tactics keeps throwing some decent challenges your way, incentivizing you to make use of its progression mechanics and to think more tactically about how you approach battles and how you upgrade every character. Not every battle is a tough one, but there are quite a few skirmishes in here that will test you, where you will have to keep an eye on things such as party composition, character builds, and unit placement.

Similar to the progression mechanics, map design in Age of Resistance Tactics also starts off very simple- however, this is one area where the game doesn’t show too much growth. It does throw some interesting elements into the mix, such as hazards, or chokepoints, or elements in the battlefield that you can interact with to use to your advantage- but it’s all pretty basic stuff. Even when the game is well into its runtime, the maps will mostly only throw the kind of hurdles at you that something like, say, Final Fantasy Tactics would have moved on from within its first few hours. Of course, this is a much more small-scale production than Final Fantasy Tactics, and so the two aren’t really comparable in that sense. It’s just disappointing that that the game isn’t more ambitious with its map design.

Age of Resistance Tactics suffers from a few other issues as well, some of which do have a noticeably detrimental effect on the experience. For instance, there’s the camera, which can zoom in or out or rotate left or right, but doesn’t allow you to adjust the angle of its tilt, which means your visibility of important things in the battlefield all too often gets obstructed, forcing you to constantly keep fiddling with the camera.

"It’s disappointing that that the game isn’t more ambitious with its map design."

Then there’s the fact that you can’t use the d-pad to move your characters or select commands, which seems like a glaring omission in a grid-based game, especially since the analog stick can often feel quite inaccurate. Some basic quality of life features that you’d expect to see in any tactics game are also missing- for example, to attack an enemy, you cannot select your character and then simply select the enemy you want to attack. Instead, you have to select your character, move them to a tile adjacent to an enemy unit, and then manually select the attack option as a separate action. These issues all come together to make the game feel like it’s lacking in polish, and in a game that otherwise seems to understand its genre so well, it’s weird to see such baffling oversights.

Taking the good and the bad together, there’s still plenty to like here, even though some of it is let down by issues that are often hard to ignore. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics doesn’t re-invent the wheel, and its storytelling is clunky as hell, but the core of the game – the part that matters the most – is largely well-executed, in spite of missteps or missed opportunities here and there. It doesn’t do justice to its source material, nor does it come close to matching the excellence of the games it draws inspiration from- but it’s solid enough. And sometimes, “solid enough” is good enough.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition

The quintessential “Everything that is Street Fighter 5” package, Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition has 40 fighters, including newcomers like Gil and Seth. It also has more than 200 costumes, save for certain content like Fighting Chance outfits or the Capcom Pro Tour DLC. If you’ve ever, ever felt curious about owning everything for Street Fighter 5 – save for good netcode but thankfully there are mods – then this is the definitive package. It’s out on February 14^th for PS4 and PC.

The Yakuza Remastered Collection: Day One Edition

Though you could technically purchase the digital bundle now and receive remastered versions of Yakuza 3 and 4 on the PS4, Yakuza 5’s remaster is out on February 11^th. Not only that but The Yakuza Remastered Collection: Day One Edition, a physical bundle for all three games, releases on the same day. With multiple playable characters, the series’ trademark of memorable sidestories and awesome combat, the bundle is a must-have for every fan.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV will finally get its Western localization for PS4 and PC on February 28^th. Once again, you’ll build up your region in the Three Kingdoms era, fashion an army and fight to conquer China. With dozens of cities across 340 regions and over 1000 officers, there’s more than enough to keep fervent strategy fans busy.

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows might be the most intriguing fighting game in a while. You battle with teams of three fighters – which consist of characters from the anime/manga like Child Emperor, Silver Fang, Genos and Tatsumaki – but also have the option to choose the powerful Saitama. The problem is he won’t be available at the start of the fight. When he does arrive, everyone goes down in one hit but things can get crazy when two Saitamas face off. One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows releases on February 28th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Conan Chop Chop

A cartoony roguelike with online and local co-op, Conan Chop Chop pays homage to the classic barbarian in its own ways. From an April Fool’s joke to a full-fledged game with tons of armor and weapons, unlocks, procedurally generated levels and new abilities, Conan Chop Chop looks like a fun hack and slash title to while away the hours. It releases on February 25^th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Switch.

Dreams

Media Molecule’s magnum opus has been in development for years and is finally nearing release. Dreams offers a traditional story mode where players explore different titles as part of “Art’s Dream”. However, the real appeal is in using the creation suite to craft your own games – or art and music – to share with others, and in turn experiencing theirs. With a comprehensive set of tools, a home space for players and oodles of tutorials to ease players in, Dreams will be quite the experience when it arrives on February 14^th for PS4.

Zombie Army 4: Dead War

Four playable characters with customizable abilities and weapons, new areas like a zombie zoo teeming with horrors, and a Zombie Tank await in Zombie Army 4. The story is simple: Zombie Hitler is back with his hordes of undead. So shoot, crush, burn and electrocute them to bits. It really doesn’t get any better but you also have the X-Ray Kill Cam, environmental traps like Zombie Sharks and much more to savor. Zombie Army 4 releases on February 4^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection

A compilation of some of the best side-scrolling action titles in history, this Legacy Collection features Mega Man Zero 1 to 4 and Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent. Along with a Casual Scenario Mode, players can partake in several new mini-games, the new Z Chaser mode, the art gallery or just listen to their favorite tunes. Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection is out on February 25^th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Switch.

Two Point Hospital (Consoles)

The spiritual successor to Theme Hospital, Two Point Hospital is, surprise surprise, all about managing a hospital. Sounds straightforward but with quirky staff and strange illnesses, you’ll have your hands full. Be prepared to build different rooms, train your staff and ideally rake in the profits. Two Point Hospital is already out on PC but will be coming to Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch on February 25^th.

Monster Energy Supercross 3

Subliminally influenced by all the Monster Energy product placement in Death Stranding but can’t stomach the drink? Monster Energy Supercross 3 could be the next best thing when it releases on February 4^th for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Switch. Based on the official 2019 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season, the title offers a dedicated career mode with 100 riders, 15 tracks and a track editor. Along with various animation and model improvements, online multiplayer now supports dedicated servers.

Neverwinter: Infernal Descent

Cryptic Studios’ free to play MMO continues to thrive with the Infernal Descent expansion. Along with new characters, a new adventure zone around the Vallenhas Estate and the new Infernal Citadel dungeon, players will experience a new storyline based on the D&D campaign for Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus. Currently available for PC, the expansion is out on February 25^th for PS4 and PC.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics

If you’re getting tired of waiting for Gears Tactics or Wasteland 3, then perhaps The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics will fill that turn-based tactical void. Based on the hit Netflix show, players will lead the Gelfling clans into battle against the Skeksis for the glory of Thra. There are 14 playable characters, who can each be assigned jobs and different abilities, and over 50 different battles to overcome. Look for the title to release on February 4^th for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Some things really just come out of nowhere. Netflix’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was a prequel series to the infamous Jim Henson film from all the way back in 1982. Considered an interesting experiment, and much darker than the usual Henson fare, the film itself always garnered mixed feelings. The show, though, has been a big hit for Netlfix. And it seems there’s hopes to implement that same surprise success to games with The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics, and now we got a trailer that highlights some familiar faces.

The trailer is titled, “Allies and Adversaries,” with a lot of highlights on characters from the TV show. The game is a tactics based strategy that allows you to control the Gelfling clan in their resistance with promises of dynamic battles.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics will release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC later in the year.