And here’s another very interesting title that came up through the TBL Reddit community, and one I’m more than happy to share with you.
Developed and published by Bluetome, Northern Saga is an upcoming PC strategy RPG that takes direct inspiration from Ogre Battle, with a particular focus on squad composition, equipment, and troop placement.
The campaign follows Una through unrest in the Northern Territories, where you recruit soldiers and work to unite the clans. It’s a dark fantasy setting of political intrigue, betrayal, and personal tragedy, presented through pixel-art cutscenes and dialogue.
You direct squads across battlefields in real time, with pausing available for planning, while individual encounters play out automatically.
Each squad occupies a 3×3 formation grid and needs a leader called a Jarl, whose Might stat determines how much combined unit weight they can command. Larger creatures take up multiple spaces, so fitting everyone into the formation is another consideration when assembling your forces.
An Archer can gain an extra attack when nobody stands directly in front of or behind them, while Soldiers gain and share stat bonuses when placed beside other Soldier-type units.
Character development starts with three class families: Soldier, Archer, and the spellcasting Pilgrim. Their branches provide different specializations, and units can change classes once they meet the relevant requirements.
Bluetome compares this approach to Final Fantasy Tactics, emphasizing classes with different purposes instead of a straightforward sequence of increasingly powerful replacements. There should be plenty to experiment with when putting together different squads.
Equipment can further change how a unit fights by adding abilities, altering damage types, applying status effects, or changing an attack’s area of effect. The developers also say that defeating a skirmish boss awards a piece of equipment that boss was wearing, with special skills planned for many of these items. That’s something I’d be curious to test against the class combinations.
Northern Saga is in development for Windows PC through Steam, with no release date announced. A playable demo is also in development. For now, the best you can do is add it to your wishlist.
