Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire Reviews

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is an interesting game. A tactical strategy game with the story of an RPG and a unique artstyle, it's a game that clearly aimed a little bit higher than it could deliver. Not that there isn't quality in what's there, however; overall, it actually plays very well, with fun abilities and above all great encounter design. The game has a tendency to always give you a new problem to chew on, and that makes it fill out its 10 hour run time nicely. So, with all of that, what's the problem? Why is it so unknown and (at time of writing) badly reviewed? Well, there is one big and one small reason, I think. Let's start with the small one: The non-combat sequences. While the story sequences are quite good, the moments where you're running around talking to people is too bare and empty. The game clearly takes inspiration from Banner Saga in its combat (which I'm fine with, it's a good system) and I wish they would have snatched its approach to dialogue as well. Having an entire WASD-based movement system in a mouse-driven tactics game, just to walk up to people and press Space for at most a handful of lines is pretty poor. I can't help but feel like the effort would have been better spent elsewhere. Now for the big one: the ending. I actually liked Tahiras story a lot, even for what's there. I was a fan of an author named David Gemmel when I grew up, and Tahira reminded me a lot of his writing. There is something down-to-earth to it, a real sense of characters getting swept up in the flood of history, just trying to stay afloat and do the next right thing. On top of that, it's hyper-focused on one specific trek, one fortress being defended, and I think that's pretty cool. If the game had an ending that wrapped up the story in some sense, even if only through a few lines of text, I would've been happy with this story. As it is, sadly, they went with a cliffhanger. The game just suddenly... stops. In the middle of the climax, to boot. It's as if you passed out right as you hit a homerun, never seeing the ball actually hit the stands. So, you're left with the inevitable feeling of, "That's it?". Which is never a good feeling to end a story with. With that said, I still think Tahira has a lot of good qualities to it. I'm sad that it didn't sell better, as we'll probably never get a sequel, but what is there can still very much be enjoyed. If you've played Banner Saga and want some more, then just turn off the tutorial and go for it, I say. For the rest, it's still a pretty solid game. If you go into it with open eyes, ready for the disappointing ending, then I think you might find something good here.

Tahira is an indie turn-based RPG with large battles, very enjoyable combat mechanics and an entertaining story. Even at the full price (of only 15 Euro) there's really no reason not to play this (unless you absolutely hate turn based games). Highly recommended! :) [h1]Combat[/h1] The battles in Tahira are a lot larger than in most turn-based RPGs (e.g. in some battles you control 20 units) and there are usually some side quests and varying victory conditions. There are some fun and interesting features like ambush, were you can hide some of your units, which makes them invisible and removes them from the usual turn order. Those hidden units can be revealed any time during the battle, even during the enemies turn, to use the element of surprise and attack with additional bonuses. Just like in Banner Saga, you won't have many mage units and your units have 2 defensive stats (HP and guard). Unlike Banner Saga, you don't get to choose which stat you want to attack and a lowered HP does not decrease your damage output. Instead, a unit without guard points can get hit critically more easily. Guard can be restored, but HP cannot be healed. Also, battles are divided into several smaller ones and your stats are not restored after everyone - You need to plan ahead. [h1]Unit classes[/h1] At the current battle, my army consists of knights, heavy mercenaries (think barbarians), light mercenaries (ninja-like) and Tahira herself (mage). Also, a hero joins for every class in your army, which is basically a stronger version of its class. So far, the only one with ranged attacks is Tahira, so a lot of the tactics in this game comes from positioning and combining the special attacks of the different characters. [h1]Story and Graphics[/h1] It's not your usual high fantasy setting or story. The story is well written and mainly presented within dialog boxes. I didn't like the art very much when I looked at some screenshots before I bought it, but now I have to say it fits the game quite well. Especially the combat maps look great!

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is a tactics RPG, with a turn based combat system. The kingdom of Avestan is being invaded by the evil Astral Empire, and Princess Tahira is attempting to lead the surviving civilians to safety, with the aid of a small group of soldiers. When this game popped up in my Steam discovery queue, my immediate thought was that it reminded me of the Banner Saga series. Obviously its not exactly the same, there are a few differences in the gameplay mechanics, but its a pretty good comparison to give you an idea of what to expect. If you enjoyed the Banner Saga, you should enjoy Tahira. The majority of the 12 hour campaign is spent in combat. In most battles the player will have around 10-15 units, going up against 25-30 enemies. With so many units on the battlefield, which is laid out as a square grid, positioning is quite important. Some maps have narrow chokepoints which you can take advantage of to reduce the number of enemies that can actually hit you on each turn, but you also have to be careful not to block off your own units. Positioning also affects damage per hit. If a unit is standing next to an ally, they get a defence bonus. However, if a unit is surrounded by multiple enemies, they take more damage. A couple of maps have ledges that you can knock enemies off for an instant kill. Each unit has a value for health and armour. Health is only damaged when armour has been reduced to 0. Armour can be restored by using willpower, or a supply cache, but health can't be restored during a battle. If any of the player's main heroes die in combat, the result is an instant mission fail, but you are allowed to lose normal soldiers. The player has access to three different types of units, each of which has their own special moves, which also cost willpower. Knights can simultaneously attack the two squares in front of them. Amazon style women can use a shockwave attack that damages the four squares on each side of them. Samurai style mercenaries get an extra attack for that turn each time they make a kill, which allows you to continue chaining kills for as long as there are enemies in movement range. The one obvious omission is that the player doesn't get any archers. Princess Tahira can use a magical staff to do ranged AoE damage, but its limited by willpower, and I kept running out. The enemy does get archers, but they're extremely weak, doing very little damage. This lack of ranged combat is the main weakness in the combat mechanics, and must be addressed if the developers release a sequel. The story is entertaining, but there's no voice acting at all, and the player doesn't get any significant dialogue options or moral choices. Again, if these points could be improved in a sequel, it would turn a good game into a great game. The only bug I noticed was related to keybindings. You can change them, but they seemed to reset to default every time I closed and reloaded the game. However, I mostly controlled everything with the mouse anyway, so its not the end of the world. Tahira is a fun game, and I definitely recommend checking it out, especially if you like tactical combat. There's enough content to justify a full price purchase.

It's a pretty nice game, despite the mixed rating it has at the time I write this, so I kept looking for flaws in the game, but did not find much that was bad. The rotoscoped animation is well done, as is the soundtrack and story; visuals are old-school 2D and I encountered no bugs. (I have not played the Banner Saga, which I see this title is getting compared to.) The story takes place mostly in one night with several battles and the final one the next day; the "levels" are at each location the characters flee to or make a stand at, while being pursued by the enemy. At the beginning and between combat levels, there is a little bit of in-game narrative exposition. Combat levels are split in different "stages", which are battles in the game. The combat is not that different from other turn-based games and the battles present different configurations to deal with, so I did not find it any more repetitive than other turn-based games, but YMMV. It has an autosave feature (no manual save and reload), but gameplay restarts at the beginning of each stage if you encounter a game over situation -- maybe why it might appear repetitive, from a certain point of view, but it encouraged me to try different approaches. Battles build on one another in each "level", so losing units (or too much health) in the early battles makes the following ones much harder. I tend to restart from scratch in those situations anyway, so it did not change much for me. It has adjustable difficulty settings that can be changed after starting a game. The only possible negative I can see is that the game is a bit short (so the story is not as developed as one would hope and has a cliff-hanger ending) and might feel a tad overpriced. So, maybe get it on a sale (which is what I did). Still, it's better than what the mixed rating would suggest. I'd look forward to a sequel, although I think it's unlikely there will be one, given when this was released. Thank you random Internet stranger who recommended this on the forums of another game with similar mechanics. :)

Tahira was a fun, but brief, adventure that in the end, felt like the first hour of a really good movie. It ended when the character and story development was JUST starting to get rolling, JUST starting to hook you in--and then abruptly, it's over---clearly paving the way to a sequel or two. Which, incidentally I'll be buying--because Tahira seems to have nailed a lot of the fundamental aspects of gaming, correctly. Most of your time, and I mean 90%, will be fighting. And the fights are large-scale, multi-staged, arenas which make for some pretty triumphant moments if you use the battle mechanics correctly to your advantage. The battles are fairly long, with scripted events, and virtually every battle is a fight against overwhelming odds, which at first glance look impossible--but it's pretty gratifying to 'hulk smash' their superior forces. I've been a strategy and turn/based strategy fan since the term came into existence, and in Tahira, was content with the level of balance and difficulty that I ran into. What it lacked in dyanmics in terms of NPC skills, it made up for largely in the size and range of options of the battle fields. Essentially, while there weren't a lot of individual skills, there was a lot you could do with what little you had--so in the end, it was still fun and challenging. The graphics/animation are hand-crafted and look wonderful, similarly, the sound effects and music quality are well chosen. My largest gripe with the game is that it ended too soon--I don't want a half-scoop of ice cream! :) In terms of improvement, I think the characters could be better developed, and more dialogue could have been added to the game to make it seem longer. Dialogue between characters did not include descriptive elements (only direct, spoken lines), which I think is a missed opportunity for immersion into a well crafted, mystical environment. Humans relate to emotions--and if players can become privy to the internal dialogues and states of protagonist characters, they can relate to--and connect with them better; this is the difference between a comic-book and a novel. And as Tahira is a story driven game, it would be greatly improved by adding narrative and descriptive elements to add to it's already solid combat systems. Overall, I'd give it an 8/10, for 3 guys, it's quite a job well done. I hope they use this game as a template to launch future games with expanded character abilities, subtantially more dialogue and descriptive elements, as well as special attention to individual character (personality) development. I had fun! looking forward to the next one!

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is a good, little game. While I enjoyed it, I've seen some reviews here absolutely gushing with praise and I can't quite understand them. It's a good game. Is it incredible? No, not really. The story is good though nothing particularly amazing and it desperately needs a sequel to tie up some loose ends and to resolve the cliffhanger ending. Most of the reviews compare Tahira to The Banner Saga and for good reason, since the combat is nearly identical with only a handful of small differences. Graphically, it is almost disintguishable from the Banner Saga during combat and if you told me they were part of the same series, just covering different locations or something along those lines I'd believe you. Where the Banner Saga let you choose between targeting the opponent's health or guard, Tahira forces you to work through the guard stat before you can whittle down the health and dispatch the enemy. You only have three different classes to work with (four if you count Tahira, herself, being unique to the other characters you use) with a serious lack of ranged options. In terms of story and choices, Tahira comes up a bit short. There are only a couple of choices you can make (as of the writing of this review I can only clearly remember one though I'm 95% certain that there was another one) and they don't really make any difference. Where the Banner Saga prompted you with choices that had real ramifications for the story and the combat, Tahira is more like reading a novella with combat segments after each chapter. While this may all sound a bit negative, Tahira really is a good, enjoyable game. However, I would only suggest that you temper your expectations a bit. It is rather short and the ending comes up rather abruptly with a fairly large cliffhanger. The combat is good though nothing groundbreaking and some of the later battles can get a bit dull as Tahira's response to up the difficulty is to just throw more and more enemies at you as oppose to having different objectives to accomplish. The music and artwork are both very good and the Middle Eastern inspired setting is a fun and refreshing viewpoint that we don't see in enough games and could certainly do with some more of. If you enjoyed the Banner Saga, you'll enjoy Tahira. They are, like I said, shockingly similar. It is not, however, perfect and it's similarity to the Banner Saga works against it. I feel bad constantly lining the two games up and pointing out this or that but they really are that similar. However, in the end, I have to give Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire the thumbs up. Pick it up, especially if it's on sale, you'll probably enjoy it.

Don't do it. This had the makings of a different, unique little tactical strategy. The fights were a little samey, but you kind of sign up for that. The real problem is the game set up for a 3 act story, and then just ends after Act 1. No explanation, just over. Even if you can pick this up cheap for $5, it's just not worth the disappointment.

A very impressive little game that ticks pretty much all the boxes for me. Great tactical battles, compelling story, intelligent dialog, nice art, and a UI that doesn't get in the way. I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys turn based tactics. If you know Banner Saga's combat system, you'll be right at home. This is a good thing, very good even - it's an excellent system which deserves to be reinterpreted and iterated upon. There are interesting differences, but most importantly the battles you have to fight are open-ended, large scale, and challenging. The is no strategical layer to speak of. I prefer that to Banner Saga's trainwreck of one, to be honest. There are very few choices and branches in the story, which would have been welcome, but it's not a terrible omission either. The setting for the story is original, believable and interesting; the characters, while not developed that much, are likable. The story line itself is enjoyable and engaging. I typically don't place too much value on dialog, but I've been positively surprised here. It's interesting and smartly written, while staying short enough to not get in the way of the story or the gameplay. The art is also quite similar in style to Banner Saga's, and that's also a very good thing. Clearly the budget there is not quite the same, but that other game (being one of the most strikingly beautiful games in recent memory) is not a fair comparison. The first impression might be a bit less than overwhelming, but it grew on me quite well. The UI is maybe the thing I have the least good things to say about, although it's not really bad in any obvious ways. It looks a bit meh, and sometimes demands a few more awkward clicks than seems necessary, but nothing major. On the whole, the largest negative I found about this game is how short it is, as it left me wanting for more. Hardly much of a negative though, is it ?

[h1]Overall Game[/h1] Pros: -Fantastic soundtrack -Eye-candy artwork -Interesting take on post-apocalyptic world Cons: -Cringe-worthy dialogue throughout. It doesn't get better. -Story falls flat, even with its planet-wide scope. [h1]Combat[/h1] Pros: -Fun, very similar to Banner Saga's STR/ARM sytem (my favorite turn-based combat game) -Elements of DnD combat (AOO, Flanking) Cons: -Your army has hero units which make the other units just mooks -Overpowered heroes carry the day, which makes sense thematically, but gets dull after combat #12 -No tangible rewards for winning combat I'd give it a 5/10, not good enough to buy at full price. Find it on sale and give it a go.

Seemingly full of promise... In reality full of repetitive boredom. EVERY battle feels identical, most of your units are generic and randomly seem to carry on to the next battle or completely disappear, every battle begins with a massive enemy army facing your tiny but powerful army and quickly turns into a chaotic melee where your hero units (except the main character) are completely overpowered but never seem to get stronger, in the end it just feels like "how many ways can you defeat the same monotonous massive army" even the characters are rather lackluster, the main character's horse feels like the most developed character. *shocked whinny*. I thought this game seemed neat at the beginning but by battle 4 was horribly bored. Continuing onward just rewards me with more identical battles, more generic units, and more beating the same generic enemy with a stick, 50 times a battle. Frankly this game could have been salvageable with some actual battle rewards, there currently seems to be no reward for keeping any of your units alive except to avoid the game over screen, and your level-ups on the generic units aren't really very helpful, an extra 2 guard, 1 attack, and 2 HP does nothing when the enemies swarm like ants. Overall I thought it seemed cool at the start but it quickly became a boring slog with unfortunately equally boring characters. The ending also leaves a LOT to be desired, it looks set up for a sequel but I can honestly say after playing this one I won't be buying it.