From the makers of Theia: The Crimson Eclipse, this techno-fantasy RPG has nine playable heroes and a demo that you can try right now.
What’s better than a good JRPG? A good JRPG with gorgeous pixel art, of course! So I’m really excited to share this little gem I stumbled upon today. There are probably easier places to build a city than on the surface of a comet. That’s where you’ll find Helgon, the setting of 5th ERA. White portals have started to appear on the surface and are spewing out a host of deadly creatures known as Brightlings. These are pure light creatures and they’re a serious threat to the city. Nine of the protagonists are drawn into the same situation.
Developed by MissingSeven, 5th ERA is a 16-bit JRPG in the classic vein, combining pixel art with turn-based combat in a fairly futuristic setting full of technology and strange powers. The narrative is split into 10 chapters, with a mixture of political intrigue and the mystery of the portals.
Attacks, spells, skills and status effects form the basis of combat and you have two class options for each character which allows you to tweak the party’s roles. Your choice of lineup therefore is a choice of which characters you want to use and how you want them to fight.
Redian is all about risky offensive skills and critical hits, Cecilia is a mix of martial arts and support. Mozen is the one who’s going to take the physical punishment, and Dalba is the one who’s going to be throwing up energy shields to protect the team. You can further tailor the team via weapon configurations and Drives (the technological implants that give you passive bonuses and stat boosts).
The September demo update also included a visible turn order bar and a quick inspect tool which will allow you to check a character’s status, buffs and debuffs.
Helgon changes over four periods: morning, afternoon, evening and night. This affects NPC behavior, events and enemy spawns. Exploration involves environmental puzzles, monster hunts and minigames as well as a number of encounters drawn from the tabletop RPG genre where your choices and a bit of luck can result in rewards, open a route or even lead to combat.
Missing Seven puts the main story at over 35 hours, with the optional content taking it well over 50. That’s a fairly significant campaign, particularly if you’re the type of player who’s going to go and check out every little distraction before you even get to the obvious end of civilization.
The demo that’s available currently covers the prologue and Chapter 1 (Redian and Cecilia), with saves created in demo version 2.5.0 carrying over into the full game. 5th ERA is targeting Q1 2027 for PC via Steam.
