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The Wayward Realms is quite the concept for an RPG. Pages of pre-written lore underpin a procedurally generated world with no main quest, where a blend of handcrafted experiences and random encounters morph into one experience. It even comes from Elder Scrolls royalty that worked on Daggerfall. If that sounds like it’s right up your street, our first proper extended look at gameplay is here, alongside the launch of a Kickstarter campaign.
Nearly 30 years after working on Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall together, Ted Peterson and Julian Lefay have reteamed for The Wayward Realms, and it sounds incredibly ambitious. Taking the core concept behind Daggerfall’s procedurally generated map and running with it, this RPG also generates the world in a similar way.
The lore of The Wayward Realms is all handmade, but the team has used this to help create a unique world that blends handcrafted environments and stories with those generated by a computer. “Like Daggerfall, the world of The Wayward Realms is mapped out, with the procedural systems crafting the landscape and building the cities and dungeons,” the team at OnceLost Games writes.
On the back of that premise, there’s been some skepticism about the narrative and world on offer here, especially considering there’s no main quest. That said, OnceLost has made it clear that there are still a lot of handcrafted elements, but that they blend together with the procedural stuff.
“Those storylines are handwritten, though supplemented by procedural quests,” OnceLost Games says in an X reply. “We are also designing the quest system in a five-act structure and it takes into account what your character’s done, who they know, and who they’re allied with to make sure the quests stay relevant to you.”
While The Wayward Realms’ land of the Archipelago aims to have thousands of points of interest across 500,000 square kilometers, the early access launch being funded by the Kickstarter will focus on a single area – brimming with the full game’s magic, quest, combat, and choice mechanics.
I understand the trepidation when a project like The Wayward Realms relies so heavily on procedural generation, but the team at OnceLost Games is making it clear that it has built so much lore, and so many systems, by hand. The idea is for the procedural generation to set up these systems, and lead player-driven stories – so I can’t wait to see how it shakes out.
With no release date set yet you can wishlist The Wayward Realms on Steam right here.
In the meantime, we’ve got all the best games like Skyrim to keep you busy, alongside some incredible fantasy games with worlds you can easily get lost in.
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