I always appreciate it when the classic RPG formula is taken into new and exciting directions, exploring the potentially familiar from a new angle. I’ve fought dragons by the dozen, saved countries and high fantasy kingdoms beyond count, but I don’t believe I’ve ever been a spirit of the sea exploring the turbulent era of colonial times – let’s slow down a bit, though, I’m getting ahead of myself. As I was implying, I believe something potentially interesting is indeed happening over at Kickstarter with an RPG project from the team of Bit Bonton: namely, a game called Americana Dawn. In it – as I previously spoiled – you follow Foster, an immortal spirit of the sea looking for his place in the universe, in a world inspired both by American history and folklore, the Suikoden JRPG series, as well as tales by Mark Twain. It’s a story injecting a bit of magic and wonder (and just a little bit of Highlander, I suppose) into a historical period many of us are familiar with at least to a certain extent. What’s more, it all seems to play a lot like a classic JRPG from the 16-bit era with a distinction between individual turn-based micro-battles, and macro-battles of a much larger scale (the story does involve multiple wars, after all). Does that sound good? It does indeed.
Americana Dawn – provided that its campaign is a success – is currently looking at a mid-2017-ish release window on PC. The game, by the way, is shooting for an initial goal of $70.000 to get itself funded on Kickstarter (you can also show your support via Steam Greenlight right here), a decent portion of which it’s already managed to amass. I’d say the premise alone makes this one worth keeping on your watch list.
