This week, everyone at Silent Games is preparing for the launch of our debut game. It’s been a long time in development and it’s a little surreal knowing that players will finally start exploring the world we’ve created.

Empyreal is an Action RPG set in a brand-new universe. The game begins “in medias res” as you arrive on an uninhabited planet to assist an Expedition that is attempting to explore a colossal Monolith built by an unknown, ancient, lost civilisation. Many of the Expedition Members believe they have found something that will have profound ramifications for all of humanity, but without your help they will not be able to realize their ambition in uncovering its final secrets.

So far much of the information we’ve shared pre-release has somewhat focussed on the Gameplay Mechanics and RPG Systems (of which there are many!). But today we are sharing a brand new “Character Trailer” highlighting the cast of Empyreal exclusively here on Xbox Wire.

This new trailer hints at the relationships you might build and some of the possible pathways in which their stories can unfold, each one featuring multiple – and wildly different – endings.

When the original story and structure of Empyreal was being refined, we had a clear distinction between “Story Characters” and “Vendor NPCs”. The latter intended to merely provide the player with various gameplay functionalities.

In the game code and our internal documentation, these “Story Characters” were designated as “VINPCS” – Very Important Non-Player Characters. This designation meant that these characters had lengthy personal questlines, offering the player character missions to run in parallel to the main story quest.

As we continued building Empyreal, we understood just how important these individual questlines were to the player’s journey and to fleshing out the universe. So, we ultimately did away with this distinction and created bespoke questlines for every character in the game, essentially upgrading them all to that “VIP” status.

The characters you’ll meet all have their own official role in the game as well as their own idiosyncrasies. Some might ask you for help right away, some might be very unimpressed with you, and you will need to work very hard to earn their respect while others have altogether more murky and questionable ambitions which you will only learn if you gain their trust.

Each of these “Character Questlines” explores a different facet of the human condition, based on the ideals of the individual themselves, the challenges they have faced, and what they hope to ultimately achieve.

You’ll also find that these characters are more likely to open up to you should you find their favourite drink to share with them in the Mess Hall at night. There are eight alcohols to find, each one corresponding to a specific character with  a fondness for that particular drink.

Character Questlines in Empyreal all feature multiple endings, with powerful unique abilities and mechanics to acquire if you manage to reach their conclusions. Depending on your actions (or inactions), the fates of these characters can be vastly different; one character may end up fighting by your side as a sworn ally but make different choices and that same character could ambush you and fight you to the death as a boss encounter!

These questlines a huge part of the game. It was very important to us to make every one of your many choices impactful. How each Quests ends very much depends on how you treat the Characters and your level of engagement with them. To have just the one outcome would mean your choices were just not very impactful. These Quests were also built to add more to the story. Bringing in the themes of each Questline allows the player the freedom to try different paths, depending on their own style, and to experience alternate outcomes in subsequent playthroughs if they wish.

To see them all, you’ll need to dive into Empyreal’s New Game+ mode. Rewards obtained from one ending to a Questline are kept in NG+ so it’s possible to collect all Rewards eventually.

NG+ has been a big focus for us at Silent Games, we wanted to ensure players have plenty to discover and experiment with during a second playthrough. You’ll be able toexperience all the quest endings you didn’t see during the first playthrough,as well as several features exclusive to NG+ which offer significant challenges, so you can really push your End Game Builds to the limit.

The narrative of Empyreal draws heavily from classical and existentialist philosophy, theology, and history and this is nowhere better reflected than in the character questlines. As you progress these quests and dig deeper into Empyreal’s themes and lore, perhaps you may even come across a little detail that piques your curiosity enough to look up its inspiration online and learn about the facts – or concepts – behind the ideas presented in the game. 

We can’t wait for you to jump into the world of Empyreal and start meeting the characters and uncovering their stories. Empyreal launches on Xbox Series X|S on May 8.

Empyreal

Secret Mode

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

Empyreal is a complex, challenging, feature-rich action RPG.
In a far-flung corner of the galaxy an Expedition arrives on a hitherto unexplored planet to find a colossal Monolith built by a lost civilisation.

These are no mere ruins: the Monolith is filled with danger, and the Expedition is ill-equipped to unearth the secrets within.
All eyes turn towards an elite mercenary who may succeed where others have failed.
Venture inside the Monolith and face the automatons that yet remain, remnants of the impossibly ancient civilisation that built this unknowable structure. Survive and uncover revelations that transform our understanding of humanity itself.

Gameplay & Combat:
-Choose one of three weapon archetypes: The Glaive, The Mace & Shield or the Cannon. Each weapon has its own core move set giving each their own unique playstyle.
-Empyreal features a unique blend of RPG Systems and Skill-based Combat. Master the flow of combat with perfectly timed attacks, deflects, parries and even many Abilities that gain additional effects when perfectly timed.
-Find powerful new Equipment, adjust your stats via an extensive modification system and refine your build to perfection.

Abilities System:
-Empyreal features dozens of Abilities with a huge variety of effects including dealing damage, providing defence or healing, extra movement options and other utility.
-Find new Abilities as you progress through the game, many of the most powerful are well-hidden or locked behind lengthy Quests.

Extensive character customisations.
-Experiment with a multitude of Character Creation options or choose one of the 30 presets to jump straight into the action with.
-Choose your character’s background giving you a unique backstory and starting set of equipment. You will also occasionally have the chance to respond with special dialogue options which are specific to your background.

NPC Character Questlines:
-Each member of the expedition has their own personal questline. All of these questlines have multiple endings depending on your choices. It is even possible to fail them entirely…
-Paying close attention to your fellow expedition members will eventually grant powerful rewards but only if you stay the course.

Cartograms:
-One of the most important and unique features in the game. These ancient artifacts are blueprints for aspects you encounter in each level inside the Monolith.
-What enemies you face, what loot you find, how many lives you get, what elements you need a matching resistance to (and more) are all randomly generated. There are many ways each level is different depending on the attributes of the cartogram you use to access it.
-The levels themselves are all designed by hand, and you are rewarded for exploring; so find hidden details, shortcuts and seek out the secrets within.

Boss Battles:
-Each Cartogram contains an end boss. The selected Cartogram defines the loot table of the boss, and the chance of a drop. Epic boss battles enable you to target items you may need for future cartograms.

Sharing & Trading:
-Items including Cartograms can be shared with other players via a Mail system and a Trading Post.

Asynchronous Features:
-Although a single player game, Empyreal has a number of asynchronous features allowing you to feel the presence of other players inside the Monolith. One of these features is ‘Into the Aether’ allowing you to gift an item through a tear in the aether to another player, where it becomes “Aether Touched” and gains a significant stat boost.