Grand RPGs have been some of the most defining games of the past decade. Yes, MOBAs, competitive FPS games, and Battle Royales have had their moments in the sun, but the individual games that cross into mainstream culture more than anything are the grand RPGs. The Skyrims, the Witchers, the Fallouts. These epic, world-spanning games take players to another universe and let them dig right into it and make it a part of themselves. The next game looking to join that hallowed pantheon is The Wayward Realms, a grand RPG from the makers of several Elder Scrolls games.
Developed by fledgling studio, OnceLost Games, The Wayward Realms is a single player, open world fantasy RPG in a unique, floating realm, where factions span islands and look to build their power and favour among one another in an epic game of one upmanship.
"The Wayward Realms is set on a group of over 100 realistically scaled islands, known collectively as the Archipelago, where scores of factions vie for influence and power," the developers said. "Kingdoms strive to maintain their dominance, upstarts seek to earn a place at the top, and dynasties set generational plots into motion. Should the player earn a position of prominence, they may change the course of history."
The developers aren't just ambitious with their new game, they're practically sniffing the vaporware of games past, but they seem confident, claiming that there will be hundreds of thousands of NPCs, with enormous, expansive forests, mountains that feel truly epic in scale, and vast, endless oceans that stretch right to the horizon and beyond. It leverages procedural and custom-crafted generation to build it, but they assure us that it won't be dull, or repetitive.
We'll need to wait to see something to judge those claims.
You won't be tied to a character class, or set of abilities, and will instead be able to build your player just as you like, with unique skills based on how you like to play.
It all sounds a little Mount and Blade-esque. But bigger, if that's even possible.
No release date for The Wayward Realms has been announced yet, but it's probably still a few years away at least.