Ex-BioWare Devs at KnightMayor Announce Mooncrest

We’re in no shortage of RPGs right now, AAA, indie or in-between, but fortunately that hasn’t stopped developers from announcing and developing new ones. The latest to join the fray is KnightMayor, a studio formed by ex-BioWare developers. The studio recently took the opportunity to announce Mooncrest, a character-driven fantasy RPG, and has since been divulging info on the game’s gameplay mechanics and heroines.

There’s still a lot to learn about the game, but apparently the core pillars of the game are a story that focuses on the sisterhood between the two protagonists and will include cinematic conversations, combat inspired by the Souls games, and adventure game-style puzzles.

A snippet on the story:

Compassion is fundamental to becoming a paladin and none show greater promise or embody the virtues of the ancient order more than Sera. Raised in Mooncrest at the paladin temple from a young age, her perspective is idealistic yet naive. Having completed her trials, Sera has become a full fledged paladin where she sets out into the world for the first time.

Crossing paths with Pirotase a streetsmart outcast makes her question the dogmatic views of her order. While not the cause of all the troubles in Mooncrest, Pirotase sets Sera on a path that challenges her beliefs as they unveil a conspiracy that puts all of the city at risk.

Character Driven Story
At the heart of Mooncrest is an engaging story told through characters in the BioWare style. Instead of playing with an array of shallow companions, players will journey with Pirotase for the entirety of the story. This allows players to explore more depth with Pirotase’s character and develop a more intimate relationship with her.

Sera is noble yet callow while Pirotase is more worldly and chaotic. Despite obvious disparities in their personalities neither will be able to complete their agendas without the other’s assistance. Your interactions with Pirotase are key to the unfolding narrative and players will spend time navigating their conflicting personalities. Players will engage with Pirotase and the other characters through cinematic conversations.

And a snippet on combat:

Moment to Moment Tactics
Combat in Mooncrest is driven heavily by the use of a stamina gauge. Most combat actions will drain a portion of it and, though it is constantly recovering, you’ll have to plot your actions and movements with your stamina in mind. Careless attacks can leave you unprepared to defend against an enemy’s renewed assault.

While the best defense may be a good offense, you will eventually find yourself in a situation where self-defense is the more prudent course of action. You can stop most damage from an attack with your own weapon and timing the deflection correctly will result in a more effective blocking action and may buy you an opening to strike back. If an attack looks to dangerous to stop, you always have the option of quickly evading past or through it to position yourself for a lethal follow-up!

Weapons of the Order
As a paladin, Sera is trained in the use of the longsword, mace, and axe. You’ll need to learn the ins and outs of all three if you want to survive the coming evils. They each different move sets, strengths, and weaknesses in combat; whereas the long sword is fast and has the advantage of reach, the mace is heavy, slow, and capable of staggering an opponent more easily. Choose the right weapon for the right job and crush those that stand before you.

Making Combat Your Own
In addition to developing your own approach to combat, you’ll gain skill points that allow you to unlock new active and passive abilities to further support your personal style when waging war. Interested in improving your blocking capabilities? Want to evade more effectively? Maybe you just want to break faces faster than before. There’s a skill for that.

For now, we have no screenshots or gameplay videos, and there is no info on when and on what platforms the game is supposed to be released. Based on the developers’ Facebook page, however, it sounds like we should expect a Kickstarter campaign for the title in the future.