Years of Division extended demo - My love letter to the Fire Emblem games I grew up on

[squirmonkey]

Among my earliest gaming memories is the time at summer camp when I looked over my friend's shoulder and saw him playing Fire Emblem 7. I was completely transfixed, begged him to let me borrow his Gameboy Advance, and played that game every night for the entire summer. I've been a fan of Fire Emblem and the Strategy RPG genre ever since. It's been my dream for many years to create my own game in this genre, and over the past few years I've finally had the opportunity to bring that dream to fruition.

Now, the extended demo for my heavily Fire-Emblem-inspired Strategy RPG Years of Division is live on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2464970/Years_of_Division_Demo/

I know that when people say they've made a game inspired by Fire Emblem, the big question that always comes up is "What sets it apart?" so I wanted to share a few of the systems I've put into Years of Division that make it unique, interesting, and tactical.

Haste and Reflexes - In Years of Division, speed is broken up into two stats, Haste and Reflexes. During combat, the attacker's Haste and defender's Reflexes are compared, and whoever's number is higher gets to attack first during the combat. Not only that, the First Strike is a guaranteed hit, adding a strong incentive to be the first to go. This often makes some units much stronger either during Player Phase or Enemy Phase, depending on their breakdown of these two stats. It creates a tension of deciding which enemies to approach and take out on your own turn, and which need to be baited into carefully laid traps.

Planned Growth - When your units level up in Years of Division, you have a great deal of control over how their stats increase. You'll assign points from their three attribute categories to their twelve stats, allowing you to build your units exactly as you wish. Combined with the branching class promotion system in the full game, and the flexible loot system, this makes your player characters highly customizable, so you can decide for each of them how you want them to fit into your team.

Flexible Magic - Magic in Years of Division is more than just an attack against a different defensive stat (though it sometimes does that too). Magic encompasses three categories, which provide a variety of utility and support options such as restoring actions, changing the terrain, healing, and providing buffs and debuffs, just to name a few that are in the demo. These powerful spells come at a cost of mana, so you may need to conserve your energy for later in a chapter. Mana replenishes at the start of each chapter, so you never need to worry that using your magic now will limit your options later in the game.

Modular Difficulty - Difficulty settings are so important in games, so that every player has the opportunity to play the game they want to play. In Years of Division, there are five difficulty levels, ranging from the very straightforward to the absurdly challenging. Plus, the difficulty can be independently modified on three axes: enemy formations, enemy stats and abilities, and how punishing the game over conditions are. Permadeath isn't the default, but it's also an option for you masochists out there!

Positioning and Terrain - Positioning is incredibly important in Years of Division for so many reasons. Whether it's getting a flanking bonus for surrounding your enemies, modifying your attacks and defenses with the terrain triangle, taking advantage of the adjacency-based support bonuses, or planning ahead for how to spend your action points on your next turn, Years of Division goes out of its way to reward careful and creative positioning so that your strategy shines through in every turn you take.

And there's so much more too, but I don't want to ramble too long. There's plannable critical hits, cool map objectives (there's a chase level in the demo I really like), branching class promotion, even cooler spells than I've talked about here, and more!

This game is my love letter to all the Fire Emblem games I grew up with and still enjoy today, and I truly hope you'll enjoy playing it as much as I have enjoyed getting to work on it. If this sounds at all interesting to you, I urge you to check out the demo and wishlist the game! I still have a lot of hurdles to cross before it will be possible to release the game, and it's only through the support of the players who love these kinds of games that the game will be able to make it.

Here's the link to the demo again https://store.steampowered.com/app/2464970/Years_of_Division_Demo/

I'm also happy to answer any questions you have about the game, the inspirations, the mechanics, the development, or anything else you might be wondering about! Thanks for reading.

[Pengaius]

I gotta say that this does seem excellent. The formation difficulty setting seems especially cool. I want to ask for posterities sake if the game uses any generative AI.

[squirmonkey]

14 hours ago, Pengaius said:

I gotta say that this does seem excellent. The formation difficulty setting seems especially cool. I want to ask for posterities sake if the game uses any generative AI.

It does not, everything made by humans

[Pengaius]

7 hours ago, squirmonkey said:

It does not, everything made by humans

Ah, awesome. There's way too much generative AI pixel art stuff these days, and this game has a bunch of different artstyles so I was a bit worried. Glad to know I can fully support this.

[Ruy]

Congratulations on being able to work on a project inspired by the experiences you love. I will try to play it (once I'm done with FE Engage).

A heads-up. The link does not seem to work, but maybe it's just the device I'm using.

[squirmonkey]

2 hours ago, Pengaius said:

Ah, awesome. There's way too much generative AI pixel art stuff these days, and this game has a bunch of different artstyles so I was a bit worried. Glad to know I can fully support this.

I hope you'll give the demo a try, I think you'll really enjoy it!
 

1 hour ago, Ruy said:

Congratulations on being able to work on a project inspired by the experiences you love. I will try to play it (once I'm done with FE Engage).

A heads-up. The link does not seem to work, but maybe it's just the device I'm using.

It's been a real pleasure, I hope you enjoy it. 

I'm sorry the link's not working for you, it seems to be working on my end. What device are you using? 

[Sidereal Wraith]

What’s the story? Can you give a brief synopsis? 

[squirmonkey]

8 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

What’s the story? Can you give a brief synopsis? 

I don't want to give away too much of the surprises that come later, but the gist is this: 

Princess Annaka and Prince Arcett of the Kingdom of Kaylia are travelling to the neighboring Kingdom of Darakma, their longtime ally, to attend the coronation of Darakma's new king. They're waylaid on the way there, and learn that immediately after taking the throne, the new king declared an unexpected and inexplicable holy war against Kaylia. This forces them and their band of friends and allies into a series of conflicts throughout which they learn more about the causes of the war, and their nation's history, and discover some dark forces manipulating events from behind the scenes.