The Dwarves is a new tactical RPG in the vein of Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, or even The Banner Saga, from THQ Nordic and King Art Games. Like with The Banner Saga, it is marked by its gorgeous art style, and its excellent soundtrack, which has been composed by Benny Oschmann.

As with all tactical RPGs, it can throw a wrench in your plans by throwing something entirely new and unexpected your way. If you ever find yourself stuck in the game, or if you ever find that you just want to watch a play through of the game before you decide whether or not you want to commit to it, don’t worry about it- we have you covered. These videos below will walk you through the entire game, start to end. Now do bear in mind that it will naturally have spoilers as a result- so if you would rather go into the game blind, maybe you shouldn’t be watching a walkthrough for it to begin with?

The Dwarves

KING Art’s crowd-funded tactical RPG The Dwarves arrives on December 1st and along with some much needed fantasy role-playing goodness, we’ve got a huge variety of weapons, pitched battles and a swathe of environments to explore. It looks good but will it play good, especially on consoles? Stay tuned when it’s out in the coming days and don’t worry – it’s coming to PC, Linux and Mac OS as well.

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – Episode 1

Clementine is back and has kept that hair short. Also, she’s all grown up and traveling with the relatively new Javier. What’s going on and what has Clementine been up to? All we know is that society is slowly starting to rebuild itself among the undead ruins. Themes of family are once again prominent and the game questions how far you’d go to protect your loved ones. How will it ultimately pan out? We’ll find out when episode 1 premieres on December 20th.

Steep

Ubisoft’s final title for the year is the open world extreme sports title Steep. The game is most interesting because along with the ability to ski, snowboard, para-glide and fly with wing-suits, the Alps are completely open for exploration. Players are encouraged to share their accomplishments and feats throughout the game world, use different tricks to rack up points and engage in four different styles of play. Whether it’s exploration, cool tricks or outright self-devastation, Steep is worth checking out on December 2nd.

The Last Guardian

The eagerly awaited action adventure/platformer is finally upon us. The Last Guardian has been in development for almost a decade and for that long, we’ve been wondering about Trico the guardian and the boy. Initial impressions are interesting because they reveal that moments where the boy can latch onto Trico’s tail after risky jumps are very much part of the gameplay. We’ll finally get to experience it ourselves on December 6th for PS4 so buckle up.

Dead Rising 4

Zombies? Check. Frank West? Check. Total mayhem with tons of customization, an open world and lots of zombie killing? You know it. Frank West returns to Willamette as another outbreak grips the populace. Thankfully, Frank will have his fair share of weaponry to fight back including elemental weapons, an exo suit and of course, plenty of vehicles that can be tricked out for maximum zombie pain. Dead Rising 4 is out on December 6th for Xbox One and Windows 10.

Space Hulk: Deathwing

Space Marine Terminators vs. Tyranid Genestealers in an all-out battle royale. Who emerges victorious? In Space Hulk Deathwing, it will be you and up to three other players engaging in Left 4 Dead-like skirmishes against the alien freaks. Thankfully, you’ll have four different classes to choose from, wielding swords and shotguns alongside gatling guns. Fun for the whole crew? Stay tuned for its PC release on December 9th to find out.

Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS

You’ve tortured thousands, perhaps millions, of random strangers with Super Mario Maker on the Wii U. Now you finally have the chance to do it on the go with the Nintendo 3DS. Though some elements have been changed in the transition, Super Mario Maker for the 3DS will still allow you to create your own courses and share them with others. In fact, you can exchange courses through StreetPass if anyone close by is feeling especially masochistic. Super Mario Maker on the 3DS releases on December 2nd in North America and Europe.

Yakuza 6

Kazuma Kiryu is in a bad mood and out to protect the Tojo clan. It also doesn’t help that he wanted to retire from the whole Yakuza business but you can never keep a good mobster down. Yakuza 6 will see players return to the same open world action adventure that characterized previous classics and the world looks better than ever on PS4. Yakuza 6 is out on December 8th for PS4 In Japan and, surprisingly, features working versions of Puyo Puyo and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown with mutliplayer support.

Wild Guns Reloaded

You’ve probably never heard of Wild Guns on the NES. While not an all-time epic, this classy little sci-fi shooting gallery from Natsume combined the best aspects of light gun titles with third person shooters. What’s more, it has cowboys. Wild Guns Reloaded seeks to recapture that magic when it arrives on December 13th in Japan for PS4 and will feature four player co-op, more characters, enemies, stages and a lot more to engage in.

Arizona Sunshine

Ah, Arizona. If the overbearing heat doesn’t get you, the undead will in Vertigo Games’ Arizona Sunshine, an upcoming FPS survival horror title for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The objective is pretty simple – survive against an onslaught of the undead and use various weapons to do so – but the addition of VR makes it all the more tense. Arizona Sunshine allows you to freely move around, which is great for all those times a zombie could potentially sneak up on you. Look for its release on December 6th.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

One of the most interesting pieces of information we’ve been getting from various developers since the PS4 Pro was first announced was how each individual developer was going to be handling how they support their game on the new console. While some devs have made it clear their game will be much sharper on 4K compatible device, others have said almost nothing will be change. Still others have landed somewhere in the middle.

Such is the case for KING Art Games who is getting ready to launch the Kickstarted action RPG The Dwarves. The developers recently sat down for an interview with WCCFTech where they explained the game will look and perform better on the PS4 Pro than on the regular PS4 but the team focused more on performance than getting ever high resolutions.

“The new Sony PlayStation 4 Pro is a powerful device, and we have a solid performance increase on “The Dwarves”, so if you get a “Pro”, the game will run smoother. Since even high-powered computers struggle with a solid frame rate at 4K resolution in 3D games, you shouldn’t expect better graphics (better shadows, etc.) and 4K.”

The team did add they expect The Dwarves should have a full HD, 1080p resolution and they are aiming for 30 frames per second on both the PS4 and Xbox One.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

The Dwarves was officially announced at the end of July, 2015 and the developers showed the game off for the first time at Gamescom. On September 1, 2015 the Kickstarter campaign was officially started. Within the first few days, the game was able to raise more than $100,000. On September 15, the developers announced they were bringing back a composer the German company has used before in several of their other games in Benny Oschmann. Oschmann has recorded music for The Book of Unwritten Tales, The Raven and other games for multiple companies. At the same time the firm announced that it had also started work on recording the voice acting. KING Art did reveal that most of the dialogue had not been finished yet but they wanted to have something finished and ready to show off at Gamescom.

During the fundraising portion of the Kickstarter campaign, the company stated it had hit a number of different stretch goals, including the ability to bring the game to the consoles as well as adding new missions, an entire orchestra to help with music, new characters and several new quests. Eventually the game got local co-op added to the gameplay and the company announced this local co-op could be played by up to four different players. The developer has not announced exactly when the game is going to be out but Q2 2016 is currently the target.

Story

The story of The Dwarves is actually based on the first of a series of books written by German author Markus Heitz. The user will play as Tungdil, a dwarf who was raised among humans and gained his knowledge of the five Dwarven Kingdoms primarily from books. At the beginning of the game, he sets out on a grand journey across Girdlegard – a large conglomeration of kingdoms that was once fairly peaceful but is now more dangerous than ever. The developers have said that they wanted to stay as true to the books as they could, but also needed to put their own touch on the game’s story. This means that people who have read the book series will recognize aspects but will also be presented with new adventures, enemies and characters. As the title might suggest, dwarves are put front and center throughout the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay has promised that players can expect physics-based combat and a new kind of battle physics called “flocking.” Using this mechanic, the developer explained that “If a dwarf lands a mighty blow with a heavy war hammer, struck orcs are thrown back, and some of them might even be pushed into an abyss.” The developer has said that a large part of the game will involve the player traveling across the game world on a world map that is alive with allied armies, enemy hordes, and NPCs that can act as allies or at the very least aid you if you have the right materials (as with traveling salesmen). When the player meets allies or merchants they can talk to them, buy things, and perhaps receive a new quest. There are also random events and encounters that can occur anywhere in the world. The degree of these random encounters varies wildly. At times these are small side missions that have little bearing on the larger gameplay and other times these encounters call for tough decisions and might have far-reaching consequences.

There are hundreds of waypoints on the map that players can travel to. There will be frequent switches from the world map to a more detailed view, where players can explore important locations and solve hidden puzzles. The several hundred waypoints are connected by lines and the journey from one point to another takes one day. During each journey injured party members regenerate one injury, as long as the party has enough provisions. As Tungdil the player sets out to gather a group of up to 12 companions to travel with. These companions can either be recruited or hired. Before each battle kicks off, the player picks up to four heroes to accompany them into a fight against hundreds of enemies at once.

Each playable character has a set of skills that can be learned or improved during “level-ups”. They can be obvious skills, like an especially powerful attack or a new spell for the team’s mage. Some are unusual talents such as camouflaging and walking through enemy lines undetected. That same character can power up that skill to the point where they disguise as an enemy soldier and cause quite a bit of confusion.

Characters

Tungdil is the main character and the main hero of The Dwarves. He will spend most of the game traveling with a number of other heroic dwarves. Most of the other characters the players will be able to take over have not been named though there are a few other heroes named by the developer. KING Arts has named Rodario, who is an actor and has the ability to use the camouflage and disguise skill as another one of the dwarves that will be in the player’s party. In total there are said to be about 50 distinctive characters, respectively character classes/races, in the game. Enemies are going to be spread out over a range of different races such as Orcs. Not all of the enemies have been detailed or divulged.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game

In the meantime, GamingBolt had a chance to speak to the developer and learn more about the mechanics, engine and overall gameplay for The Dwarves. What sets it apart in this day and age of tactical RPGs? Find out below.

"It was vital to us to prevent the game from looking static or boring, but in the end it’s clever decisions that influence the course of a battle, not quick clicking."

What inspired the decision to create a tactical RPG based on the Markus Heitz’s novels?

I first read the novels 6 or 7 years ago and thought to myself that it might be a good story for a video game. Back then I didn’t expect to get in contact with Markus via one of our game designers and really turn it into a game.

Many people may not be aware of the books but be interested in playing The Dwarves when it releases. Will they be able to enjoy the story from the outset? When does it take place in the timeline?

Yes, people will definitely be able to enjoy the story. The main quest of the game is based on the story of the first book in the series, but there will also be many additional adventures and side-quests. Knowledge of the books isn’t necessary to play and enjoy the game.

The Dwarves’ combat mechanics interest us because for all of its tactical leanings, it looks like an action RPG. Could you tell exactly how the combat plays out at any given time?

Think of a game like Warcraft 3, where heroes fight for themselves, but the player influences the outcome of the battle by controlling the heroes’ special abilities. It was vital to us to prevent the game from looking static or boring, but in the end it’s clever decisions that influence the course of a battle, not quick clicking.

Players will be able to assemble four heroes with three companions joining Tungdil in battle. Will there be any kind of co-op implemented for human players to drop in and fighting alongside you?

Local coop will be one of the stretch goals in our Kickstarter campaign.

What can you tell us about some of the companions that will join you in your quest? How deeply can you customize their skills for battle?

All the companions that Tungdil meets in the book, will also be in the game. It is a smorgasbord of characters. There are the combat-hungry dwarvish twins Boindil and Boendal, who’ve fought hundreds of battles, but there are also unusual figures like the human actor Rodario, who is not much of a fighter, but a trickster who can masquerade himself to catch opponents by surprise.

Each hero can level up and you can regularly choose between different upgrades or new abilities. Prior to each battle you not only choose which heroes to take with you, but also which attacks those heroes will be equipped with.

"The basic course of the main story is set by the novel it is based on, but the optional side-quests constantly have the player make hard decisions with far-reaching consequences."

What can you tell us about the engine for The Dwarves? Does it help when presenting one hundred orcs at any given time while still maintaining a strong frame rate? What other benefits did it bring for development?

Just like in our previous games we use a version of Unity that has been adapted to our needs. Displaying hundreds of orcs at the same time and having them behave in a correct manner is a big challenge for every engine. The advantage of Unity is that we’ve been working with it for a while and that it gives us the opportunity to release the game on additional platforms.

Along with the various battlefields in The Dwarves, what other places will there be for places to discover?

All the important locations that Tungdil visits in the book will also be in the game. This includes a wide array of landscapes, from dwarven fortresses, and human settlements, up to Elven forests.

Will The Dwarves sport any kind of decision making system for players to choose their own path?

The basic course of the main story is set by the novel it is based on, but the optional side-quests constantly have the player make hard decisions with far-reaching consequences.

Given the spurt of RPGs in the past year and with even more games out in 2016, how do you feel The Dwarves will stand out from the crowd?

The combat system is unique in any case, at least we haven’t heard of any game that has offered anything similar before. We also think the mixture our game offers, between traveling the world map, exploration and combat works very well, and will provide lots of fun for fans of role-playing games.

Will you pursue any post launch content for The Dwarves like DLC in the future?

We don’t know yet, but probably not. If the game is successful, we will of course consider a sequel.

"Since we are using Unity, a middleware that tries to get as much performance as possible from each system, we expect that we will benefit from it."

Will The Dwarves run at 1080p and 60fps on both the PS4 and Xbox One?

That’s the plan. We’ll see.

I specifically wanted to ask about the development of the Xbox One version. Microsoft have made great strives in updating the console’s SDK. They have also managed to unlock for CPU processing power by unlocking the 7^th core for the developers. How have the recent SDK updates helped the development of the X1 version of the game?

We haven’t started with developing the console versions, since they depend on the success of the Kickstarter campaign. Since we are using Unity, a middleware that tries to get as much performance as possible from each system, we expect that we will benefit from it.

The Dwarves will feature a ton of NPCs on screen and it seems like maintaining performance will be a challenge. As you are aware that the upcoming DX12 will improve performance for PC games and to and extent for Xbox One games as well. What are your thoughts on DX12? Do you think it will bring along a drastic change for games development for X1 and PC?

In this regard we’re heavily dependent on Unity and unfortunately Unity doesn’t support DX12 yet. For the next game it could probably become relevant to us.

Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

The Kickstarter for “The Dwarves” is live. Back us now!