Elengard: Ascension

Elengard: Ascension is a single-player real-time-with-pause RPG focused on combat, with some action RPG elements. You begin in a peaceful village, but discover that you carry a curse said to threaten your life and those around you. As you seek a cure, darkness spreads through the land, and you set out to learn why you feel drawn to it and how to save both yourself and the world.

Story and world

Your journey takes you from a village in harmony with nature into a semi-open world of light and darkness. Dark forces pursue you as you face challenges and mysteries, fight to survive, and search for power and answers about yourself and the world.

Combat

Combat has two modes. In Automatic mode, you order an attack and your character carries it out on their own. In Manual mode, you click for each attack and press a button to defend. You can choose combat actions, modes and stances to suit the situation: block at a lower stamina cost but risk being staggered, or spend more stamina to dodge; use area attacks with a lower chance to hit, or focus on enemies one at a time. You can also choose between swing attacks, which have more impact, and thrusts, which are more likely to miss but can deal more damage, as well as wielding a weapon in one or two hands and fighting faster, stronger, more aggressively or more defensively.

Abilities and archetypes

A large ability tree has no level or class restrictions, letting you create different builds, combos and play styles. You can configure features of some abilities, especially spells, such as their power, range and radius. Some abilities also have actions you can perform while using them; for example, an Electric Orb can use either the Shock or Cast action.

Archetypes work somewhat like classes, but you can choose any ability rather than being restricted by an archetype. Some abilities are associated with archetypes, and acquiring them can raise an archetype's level and provide bonuses. The available archetypes are Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Priest and Druid.

Character progression

You can customize your character's appearance, including gender, and equip clothing, armor and weapons that appear on the character; jewelry does not appear. There is no character level cap, and you can grow powerful enough to become an epic character comparable to a demigod, though XP is finite in the Early Access version.

Quests and crafting

The game includes main and side quests, multiple-choice dialogues, buying and selling items, item crafting and item enchanting. Combat animations reflect actions such as dodging and blocking, while spell effects change in keeping with a spell's behavior, including its power.