Gothic is probably the best German role-playing game of all time and has also inspired many outside Germany. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus used to spend a lot of time in the rough games with a sharp tongue. Now, a new RPG called Of Ash and Steel is being released, which is supposed to hit this mark. As part of Find Your Next Game, Webedia has received an exclusive insight.
The first part of Gothic was released in 2001, followed by Gothic 2 just a year later. The German studio Piranha Bytes has set a milestone with the role-playing game, which has partially inspired huge blockbusters:
- The Witcher would never have existed without Gothic, as the game was almost more popular in Poland than here.
- Fans are creating entire MMOs in the world of Gothic and bringing Myrtana to life.
- There are even live-action role-playing games (“LARP”) in the world of Gothic, sometimes with hundreds of players.
Gothic is one of the best role-playing games ever and the new RPG Of Ash and Steel has also taken inspiration from it. For Find Your Next Game, the creators invited international media from Webedia for an exclusive conversation with lead developer Victor Kondakov.
So far, the game has flown pretty under the radar, at least for me – which surprises me because Of Ash and Steel sounds like exactly the game I’ve been missing since Gothic 2.
The game was presented as part of the FYNG show (Find Your Next Game) by GameStar, GamePro, and MeinMMO at gamescom.
I can do nothing and that is all I need
In Of Ash and Steel, you play as Tristan, who ends up on an island after a shipwreck. You can… actually do nothing that qualifies you to survive alone in the wilderness. You can’t fight, you can’t find your way in the woods, you can’t cast spells, or do anything useful.
What you want to be able to do, you have to learn, and in many cases, you even need teachers. Depending on which attributes and skills you learn, you will get better at certain things – such as fighting with specific weapons or survival. Conversely, if you neglect the survival skill, you might overlook roots in the woods and end up tripping while running.
Of Ash and Steel takes place in an open world that you can explore more or less freely. There is no level scaling, meaning: if you encounter an opponent who is significantly stronger than you, they will remain so for a while. For example, the developers mentioned a giant troll. Can you still fight him? Sure. Can you defeat him? Maybe. The game gives you the freedom to at least try. You will probably just die while doing so.
These are things that modern role-playing games hardly have anymore. Here, the open world often scales so that you can really go anywhere you want whenever it suits you. But that’s exactly what the developers did not want:
Of Ash and Steel is something I call passion projects. When developers pour their heart and soul into it […] because they want to create a game that they themselves want to play. It’s an ideal RPG for them.
The team behind the game is really into these classic old-school RPGs. They grew up playing them, just like we all did back then. They thought: “Okay, the market currently lacks something like this. Something that we grew up with and we really want to go back to. To those times,” but at the same time wanted to develop the game with modern approaches to game design, user experience, and such.
Sergey Smirnov, Product Marketing Manager at tinyBuild
No tutorial, no hand-holding: Of Ash and Steel is tough and shows it
You won’t get any world markers, no navigation lines, or anything else that directly leads you to your goal while exploring the world and completing quests. If you want to complete tasks, you have to read quest texts and figure out for yourself where you need to go.
The whole game is basically about learning and thinking: How does my opponent fight? What are their attacks? How does my weapon behave? What can I do when I get better? In response to my question about whether this is a bit like Soulslikes, Viktor Kondakov said that’s not the goal, but “if you’re good at those kinds of games, that will help you here too.”
If you’re worried that the game might become too difficult: Of Ash and Steel is supposed to have three difficulty levels, one for story, one for the “standard experience,” and one for people who enjoy suffering.
In the latter, effects such as thirst, diseases, or injuries are not just minor debuffs anymore but can quickly become fatal. By the way: Most NPCs that are not “enemies” will only knock you out and won’t kill you. In return, you also cannot kill them. Therefore, ruining the story is virtually impossible.
I loved Gothic and I am totally looking forward to Of Ash and Steel
After the developers’ presentation and a little gameplay, I am now quite excited about Of Ash and Steel. With around 30-40 hours (probably) just for the story and dozens of hours more for the entire exploration, the game promises good entertainment and, more importantly, adult entertainment.
For me, Gothic was a defining part of my youth. Just the “Ruhrpott charm” has left such a lasting impression on me that phrases like “One less bastard” are still part of my vocabulary today. You find such small interactions around every corner that make it clear: This is not a clean fantasy world, but a dirty and rough place.
Of Ash and Steel is supposed to feel just like that, with snappy remarks, cynical comments, and nasty opponents. The world is rather described as “low fantasy,” meaning magic does not work with powerful spells and mana, but rather like Geralt’s signs from The Witcher.
By the way: Of Ash and Steel features a free skill system and no “classes”, but just like in Gothic, you can join factions. Here, there are the knights of the Order of the Seven and the Free Hunters. Additionally, there are three smaller guilds you can join. Of Ash and Steel is set to be released in 2025 for PC on Steam. An exact date is still pending.
