[Indie][Steam] Those Who Rule - Released! (January 27th, 2025)

[EldinnerPlate]

Sorry for two posts so close together, but I was really happy with how the effects of the Forge UI turned out and wanted to share!

How it works:

• You have 3 levels you can upgrade your weapon’s damage and hit chance, for a total of +3 damage/+15 hit chance.
• Weapons don’t break in this game, so upgrading will cost a lot more.
• A weapon can have between 0-2 refinement slots.
• Refinements add an ability to the weapon, 1 of which can be an “active” ability, at the cost of additional weight.
• You can freely swap refinements between weapons. (I didn’t want to punish people for experimenting)

Weight will work a lot differently as it is influenced by your endurance stat, which can level like any other stat. So later in the game you’ll have more weight to do a full loadout, but you’ll progressively want to be carrying more and more throughout the game. You cannot equip past your max weight.

Curious to know people’s thoughts on this system. It’ll be the main way besides class choice that players will have control over how a unit feels. You can have up to 3 weapons, with the only real restriction being weight. The first refinement shown in the gif is pretty simple: “Sharpened: During the first 5 rounds of combat, this weapon deals +3 damage.”

If you have any cool ideas for refinements I’m all ears! I’ve been brainstorming a couple the past couple of days, but don’t have many set up yet.

[EldinnerPlate]

Hey everyone, quick update!

I’ve updated the art style quite a bit to something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Basically utilizing cel-shading, outlines, and a little higher saturation/contrast. Here is a before/after:

I’m also starting to look to work with a writer so I can try and hit the 2 chapters a month completion that will be required if I’m to hit my goal of releasing TWR this year. I spent the first half of February doing the writing myself and realizing that it takes me too long to be able to create the levels/gameplay as well.

That said, almost everything in chapter 4 is complete and we’re moving on to chapter 5, which will be my first time creating a cave map which I’m really excited about. Here is a little sneak peak into the map with the new art style:

Trying to get a bit creative with what can be considered a “forest”/“brush” tile.

Also three new characters introduced this chapter, Duke Tobias, Cassidy, and Kaelith. The latter two being enemies… for now.

And finally, chapter 4 will be the first chapter that includes a voice acted world map narration! I was actually pretty hyped about this because I actually got a response from a voice actor that I’ve been eyeing for a while, but thought would not be interested at all. You can see the world map scenes on the Twitter post here.

And that’s basically it! Just trying to keep a healthy pace to hit the end of year goal. Not quite where I want to be, but I think having a dedicated writer will help a lot so I can narrow what I need to focus on.

Also would love to hear what everyone thinks about the change/tweak to the art style. I’ve mostly got positive feedback so far, and I personally prefer it, but I know it can potentially take away from the intended “grittiness” of the story. Though hopefully not too much.

Cheers!

[EldinnerPlate]

Hey everybody!

Sorry for the lack of updates here. Had to move to a new state and have gotten all settled in and I have a ton of updates to share!

I think good ole gifs will do a better job than I can, so let’s start with an overview of chapter 5:

And almost all of the advanced classes (promotions go Base>Advanced>Elite) are finished up, with two unique abilities each, so let’s jump into a couple of my favorites:

Warrior - Crushing blow: Perform a massive swing, dealing and taking double damage this round of combat. If the unit is killed, fear any enemies around the unit until the end of their next turn.

Hero - Heroic Charge: Charge an enemy within 3 tiles, knocking aside any units in the path, and staggering them if they’re enemies. Unit gains fortify equal to 50% of their def, rounded down.

Rogue - Concealed Movement - If there are no enemies within 1 tile on turn start, gain Hidden, letting you pass through enemy ZoC.

Scout - Keen Eye - At the start of your turn, apply the Marked status to the enemy with the least HP within 3 tiles, reducing their defense and avoid.

Arland promoting into one of the three promotion options of the Defender class: Knight, Sentinel, Crusader

In all, I’ve completed 12 advanced classes (Raider, Warrior, Hero, Lancer, Scout, Longbowman, Hunter, Blade, Rogue, Sentinel, Crusader, Knight.), each with a unique look, and 2 abilities that change the way they play. There are two left to go (Priest, Acolyte) before they’re all complete and I move on to chapter 6.

With all the new abilities I also introduced a ton of new status effects:

• Feared: Reduces unit’s ATK and HIT.
• Marked: Reduces unit’s DEF and AVD.
• Hidden: Ignores enemy ZoC.
• Fortified: Increases unit’s DEF. Clears all negative status effects.
• Bleed: Lose percentage of your HP at the start of each turn. Note: An enemy dying from this status will still give EXP to the unit who caused it!

Hope this is shaping up to be a good game in everyone’s eyes. I’m on a new schedule that is allowing me to move a bit faster, so I’m excited to see how much I can hammer out in the coming months.

Again, thank you all for the support you’ve shown me! Let me know if you have any ideas for abilities now that you have a couple examples of the rough power level they can have.

Best,
Eldin T.

[EldinnerPlate]

Those Who Rule - Official Gameplay Trailer

Hey all! Just wanted to give a quick update that the target release date will be January 2025! I’m working on the game full time now after taking a mutual separation from my 9-5.

I’ve updated a ton of things in the demo so if you haven’t tried it yet, now will be pretty close to what the final game will feel like.

Also if you’re a Steam user, there are a ton of sales going on right now for the turn-based RPG fest.

[EldinnerPlate]

Phew, been a while since the last update, but uhh… Less than a week before the release!! The official release date is set for January 27th 2025!

All levels have been completed, with what I think is going to be a solid variety (Yes the desert map has a hidden item).

All classes are in the game, with the final tier of promotions getting access to powerful abilities that allow you to refresh turns and cheat death.

And there’s nearing 100 different weapons/items/refinements that you can use to customize characters in a play-through. Some powerful refinements (slotted into weapons) like Aftershock and Piercing Arrows shown below.

And got in some last minute features people requested like non-permadeath mode, fixed growth mode, and 3 difficulty options. A full play-through should take between 20-30 hours depending on how fast you play/read.

Some future plans after release:

• Controller support (Steam Deck and potentially Switch 2!?).
• Brutal difficulty with a custom in-game character for the first person to record themselves beating it all the way through.
• Been pulling numbers out into separate files so hopefully be able to support some modding of characters/classes/items in JSON format.

But anyway, thank you all so much for your support through the years. The demo feedback has been invaluable in shaping the game. Excited to see what people think once they have the whole game in their hands. What an absolutely crazy ride, and I’m happy to answer any question you have!

[ScubaLuigi]

epic .txt file modding, my favorite

[tweetyboy]

Helllo,

So I stumbled my way here after playing my first FE inspired game on steam. Loved it so here I am. Branching out myself, so when you say supports like do they work similar, like you build relationships between units to create an ending together or like they just talk to add more world building, how does it work here?

[EldinnerPlate]

Right on! There’s a ton of solid FE-like SRPGs on Steam coming out.

For supports, the latter. They come up as base conversations in between chapters, and they add more world building, give rewards for previous chapter performance, and trigger side objectives in chapters. The conversations are tied to the chapter which gives the ability for side characters to react to current events in the story.

[tweetyboy]

Got it thanks!!!

[Yasako]

Just saw the release tweet on Twitter courtesy of a certain duo of guildmaster twins. Congrats!!

[EldinnerPlate]

Thank you so much!!

Sorry forgot to post about it here, my head is spinning right now trying to keep up with it all. We are fully released!

Those Who Rule Release

Really appreciate everyone’s support over the years. Didn’t know if I’d ever actually get to the point of fully releasing it, but I really owe getting this far to all of you who spent the time leaving feedback and playing the demos. This game would be a mess without you all helping guide it into the right direction.

Also just a side note: If you’re wanting to pick up the game but money is tight, or you were like me and joined this community before you even had your first job (but please mind the age rating), just send me a DM.

Cheers, and thank you for everything.

[LordGlenn]

I got an e-mail from Steam while I was getting ready for work this morning that it had gone live. Congrats on the release!

Unfortunately, my post-work hours are incredibly slammed (and my backlog is always ever growing), so I likely won’t be able to pick this up right away more for the time aspect of it than anything, but I’m absolutely looking forward to giving it a go at some point down the line when I think I can squeeze it in.

[EldinnerPlate]

I really did pick a crappy release time, Monday morning when everyone is going to work.

But it got the game onto #1 in Steam’s popular upcoming list which helped get it a ton of visibility, so I can’t be too mad there!

But thank you @LordGlenn! I have the same issue with my Steam backlog, too many games, too little time. Take me back to being 10 and grinding Lagdou Ruins all day with a mine-glitched crimson eye.

Will love to hear what you think of the whole game if/when you do give it a shot! And appreciate your support and feedback through the years.

[diealot]

This came up on my Youtube Recommended feed because I like to watch Tactical RPG Game Recommendation.
Didn’t even know this game has it own thread on FEU until i finish watching the Video and went on the site to see if there was any chatter about the game.
Thanks for making this game dude.

A New Fire Emblem-Inspired SRPG - Those Who Rule | Overview

[JrpgAddict]

Will check it out later!

[EldinnerPlate]

Marcello is THE homie! haha

I’m always watching his vids to get good new strategy games, he does a great job of digging to find some gems. I’m pretty up to date on the indie turn based scene, but he still surprised me with some finds.

And thanks @JrpgAddict ! Would love to hear what you think.

We were ahead of FF7 Rebirth in the “New and Trending” for a while, think we still might be. It’s really blown my expectations out of the water.

[Yasako]

I’m enjoying the game so far, can’t wait to get to AoE attacks and more wacky terrain to abuse ZOC with. This is fairly close to an ideal SRPG for me; it’s only missing additional anime power and also guns/cannons. Which might show up later; I’m only on chapter 3 or 4 'cause I do voiceover during stream and also stream in hour chunks

Also loving how ZOC and shields make armor knights really good without resorting to one tile choke turtling or making them statballs! (Though Arland has pretty good stats.)

[EldinnerPlate]

Thank you for trying it out!! And that sounds awesome! I’ve been pretty heads down bug fixing but would love to check out the stream sometime!

Yeah I’m happy with the decision to make them work more around shields (they’re weightless for defenders and regenerate quicker) rather than make them super stat based, glad you picked up on that! You’re almost at the point where you can get tower shields too! Makes them even better. Other units can use tower shields too obviously, but would be sacrificing a lot the way the weight mechanic works.

Hope you keep enjoying your time with the game!

[ElPinguinot]

Congrats for the release ! It’s always so inspiring to see project go this far

[diealot]

@EldinnerPlate I will wait till next year cause I see you still have alot of bug and you still releasing hotfixes daily(you release one today) i like to play game in their best complete state