The announcement of The Wayward Realms came with very little warning. OnceLost Games simply came forward with a trailer and revealed its very first project to the world, setting it on a path toward building a fandom. The Wayward Realms will be OnceLost's very first game, making use of in-house expertise developed by working on The Elder Scrolls. In that way, The Wayward Realms promises to be an alternate look at classic fantasy RPGs. Although there's plenty about the game that fans don't know yet, there's also a lot of signs that The Wayward Realms is a blend of classic fantasy elements and new ideas introduced by OnceLost.
That story is a little familiar. A few years ago, Obsidian Entertainment did the same thing when it created Pillars of Eternity. It created a game specifically geared toward fans of classic fantasy, reveling in franchise nostalgia rather than trying to make a wholly new and original fantasy world. The Wayward Realms seems to wear its love of classic fantasy on its sleeve in the same way. Although there's still a long road ahead of The Wayward Realms, it's charting a path pretty similar to that of Pillars of Eternity, searching the most foundational elements of fantasy for something new and appealing to a broad fanbase all the same.
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In a way, Pillars of Eternity was always a risky proposition. The game was more than a revival of classic fantasy; it was specifically designed as a love letter to early RPGs like the Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate games. These games had long since aged out of the game industry, which favored first or third-person RPGs over the isometric perspective that Baldur's Gate used. Even so, Obsidian Entertainment was determined to deliver a game inspired by the classics. It ran a Kickstarter to get Pillars of Eternity funded and found more than enough fans of isometric RPGs willing to fund a return to the style.
In the end, Pillars of Eternity was a huge hit. It received critical acclaim for everything from its dynamic, engaging combat to its expertly crafted characters and storylines. Obsidian Entertainment already had fans thanks to its work on games like Fallout: New Vegas, but Pillars of Eternity made RPGs inseparable from the Obsidian brand. Pillars of Eternity is especially important because it pulled Obsidian out of financial limbo and made it a stable, influential studio again. Obsidian wouldn't be where it is today without Pillars of Eternity, especially considering Avowed, a new RPG set in the Pillars universe.
The importance of Pillars of Eternity's success to Obsidian can't be understated. At the time, Obsidian was still an independent company. Thanks to Obsidian's diligent work on all aspects of the game, it was able to produce a title that made it stand out from other indie developers, turning it into a very valuable property. By executing so masterfully on classic RPG elements, polishing them to perfection, and adding enough new ideas to make the old parts feel fresh, Obsidian made a name for itself.
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In a way, The Wayward Realms is in a similar position to Pillars of Eternity when it comes to its core concept. OnceLost Games sells The Wayward Realms as a faction-driven fantasy 'grand RPG' with a gigantic map to explore. A lot of those elements are thoroughly covered ground in the RPG genre. Dragon Age has explored factions in fantasy pretty thoroughly, and it's hard to compete with The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim when it comes to having a huge map. The game sounds like a combination of quite a few fantasy RPG hallmarks.
That doesn't mean there's no way for The Wayward Realms to surpass The Elder Scrolls and its peers, though. On the contrary, The Wayward Realms has plenty of room to grow. It's already advertising a mysterious virtual Game Master that will supposedly micromanage the game's factions and characters to an unprecedented extent based on the player's actions. Introducing that element of randomness to RPG factions could result in a totally different game experience than traditional faction RPGs where players have a long list of scripted faction responses that they can trigger with various choices.
Also, in the same way that Pillars of Eternity polished isometric RPG conventions, The Wayward Realms can deliver by polishing modern RPG conventions. The Wayward Realms sounds like a relatively standard fantasy RPG; what makes it unique is the extent of player freedom. The game sounds like it'll allow fans to play the game literally almost any way they want. If The Wayward Realms can deliver a standard fantasy RPG world with innovative new tools that let players make the world theirs, then OnceLost will have made a unique twist on thoroughly covered ground, just like what Obsidian Entertainment accomplished with Pillars of Eternity.
OnceLost Games doesn't seem like it's revealing a release date for The Wayward Realms anytime soon. On the contrary, signs indicate that not even OnceLost knows when to expect the game to be done. That's a good thing, though. If The Wayward Realms really aims to double down on so many classic fantasy elements, then it should take its time and make sure those classic experiences are as dynamic and engaging as possible. There's certainly original ideas in The Wayward Realms, but it also sounds like there are a lot of standard RPG conventions that OnceLost needs to perfect if it wants the game to stand out.
In general, there's a lot that the stories of The Wayward Realms and Pillars of Eternity have in common. They're both ambitious fantasy RPGs rooted in traditional design elements that have the potential to define the future of the studio developing them. Pillars of Eternity's overwhelming success opened a lot of doors for Obsidian. In the same way, The Wayward Realms represents a chance for OnceLost to make a particular impression on the game industry. The way that The Wayward Realms turns out, and how fans react to OnceLost's work, will mean a lot for both The Wayward Realms as a brand and for OnceLost as a burgeoning studio that's eager to prove itself.
The Wayward Realms is in development.
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