An Early Look at Lords of Xulima

Retro-styled RPGs are certainly becoming a thing of late. There have been no lack of crowd funded projects going that route and several small teams have been throwing their hat in the ring as well. I'm certainly all for it being a fan of these sort of games. Today, we'll be taking a look at Lords of Xulima, which is also trying to tap into many of the things folks find appealing about RPGs of old.

Xulima is an overhead isometrically viewed RPG with first person combat sequences. There is a very obvious level of influence from classic role-playing games like Ultima and Wizardry as well as more modern offerings such as Divinity and Legend of Grimrock.

The story is typical fantasy fair where players take control of an explorer named Gaulen who was contacted by the god Golot, and asked to come to the land of Xulima where a war among the gods has been raging.  It would be up to Gaulen and his band of adventurers to travel across the ocean to these new lands and fight all of the demons inhabiting the various temples of the gods, cleansing the lands and helping to end the war.

While Gaulen is a premade character, the rest of the party can be completely customized. Character classes are about what one would expect from a fantasy role-playing game, with barbarians, soldiers, paladins, wizards, priests, rogues, and the like available. After choosing a class, players must choose what type of weapon the character will have as well as what deity they worship. The last part was a bit confusing on the first go because there was no explanation as to who the various gods were and what kinds of values and ambitions they had. Were they evil?  Were they good? Were they fertility gods?  Fire gods? Goddess of the hunt? There was no way of knowing, and I only figured this out later after talking with an NPC in-game. At the onset, the party will consist of Gaulen and five characters that are created by the player with to slots that remain open. I'm not sure whether these spaces remain such or if players will encounter other characters that can join the party and occupy those spots.

World exploration is executed via an overhead perspective where players will wander the lands, plunging deeper into the unknown as the fog of war dissipates around them. From what I have played of the game so far, there has been reasonable opportunity to wander around and see what is out there. It does feel like one is travelling down branching corridors rather than being completely open, but there were a number of different places my characters could go and visit. Granted, some of these areas were blocked by monsters that would likely make short work of a party, thus limiting one's options as to where to go next.

With that, it should be noted that often enemies are visible while walking around. They'll usually be standing somewhere in plain sight, and players can take a quick look at the enemy's party composition as well as how dangerous they are. This is very useful for gauging one's possibilities of success prior to engaging in battle. There are some areas however that do not have visible enemies and Gaulen's party will be privy to random encounters. These regions are marked with signs and there are limited numbers of enemies in them, so once they have all been cleared players will be notified and need no longer worry about the possibility of a surprise attack.

Combat itself is presented from a first person perspective. Events transpire in a turn-based fashion with a bar to the right displaying which characters' and enemies' turns come when. The party itself is split into two rows, one in the front, the other in the rear. Those in the front will have the easiest time going on the offensive since they are much closer to their targets. As such, they can use weapons like swords and maces without having to worry about not being able to reach the enemy. Being in the front also leaves them more open to attacks, so there are trade-offs to be had.

Meanwhile, the back row enjoys greater safety since they are further out of reach of enemies' melee weapons. However, they can still be targeted by ranged weapons and spells and as such are not completely invulnerable. This applies to them as well. They will not be able to use close-range weapons to attack monsters since they are too far from the target, but can make use of ranged weapons and magic in order to contribute in battle.

Interestingly, being positioned to the far left or right of the group also impacts a character's ability to reach a target. For example, if an sword-wielding soldier is positioned at the far left of the front line, she will not be able to reach a goblin on the far right. Should positioning become a concern though, players can mover party members around bother horizontally within the front or back row as well as vertically, bringing someone from the back to the front and vice versa. Only one swap can be done at a time and each one consumes a turn in battle, so be careful when doing this. This is one of the core aspects of combat that helps to make it interesting, after which much of the consideration comes down to prioritizing which monsters to defeat first while keeping potentially vulnerable party members protected. There is a reasonable amount of challenge to be had and one will need to think ahead in order to do well in combat.

The visuals are quite respectable. While not extremely high in detail, there are several good points, particularly in terms of character portraits and some of the enemy designs. There are a nice variety of colors, and the world itself is well presented. Travelling in the overworld did result in a very slightly choppy frame rate, but only ever so slightly. On the whole, the visuals are rather nice. The music meanwhile, makes for some enjoyable listening.

At this stage, Xulima does feel well-polished. Fans of older RPGs from the nineties will probably want to keep an eye on this game, as it is doing a very good job of integrating a lot of gameplay features from this era.