Hey gamers!
My name is Kevin Prothero and I’m the owner of Boomer’s Workshop. Welcome to Sanctuary Saga, a JRPG that blends my favorite mechanics from the genre and brings along a witty cast of characters to join your journey. Sanctuary Saga was originally whiteboxed back in January 2019 but has been my primary project across the past two years. I’m exceedingly excited for you to finally get a chance to accompany the guild leaders on their travels!
Let’s take a closer look into why I made Sanctuary Saga. For a while there, no new JRPGs interested me as a player. Then came along the visceral and unrelenting Darkest Dungeon. I loved how intricate and punishing the combat and progression were but found many of my friends bounced off of the title (even some claiming it wasn’t an RPG). That got me thinking: is there design space for a game to bridge the gap between a “traditional JRPG” and Darkest Dungeon-likes? Thus: Sanctuary Saga was born!
Right off the bat, you’ll notice Sanctuary Saga’s visuals hark back to the 16-bit golden era of JRPGs. Emulating the greats of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, FinalBossBlues’ Time Fantasy series was an instant lock in for me as the assets for Sanctuary Saga’s development. The experienced level designer Deckkiller brought in his expertise to assemble a higher level of depth and life to the maps. Dungeoneering in the Untamed Wilds is a somewhat random affair, with biomes being created from a random seed of maps. This offers variety and a high level of replayability for players as they escort our characters through their journey!
As soon as the game starts, players are introduced to a vivid cast. Each guild leader has a personality as distinct as their abilities, leading to a series of social interactions as varied as the battles to come! I always planned for a party of six, with a battle party of four, to give players strategic options that affect the tactics they’ll need to overcome battles. With such strong personalities, conflicts are sure to arise. Maintaining Relationships among these characters is as important in Sanctuary Saga as maintaining their gear. Who knows what stories will be told as their lives become more enmeshed in their bid to found Sanctuary.
Sanctuary Saga takes place in the world of Qun (koon). Dungeons & Dragons and other games occupied much of my teen years, with Qun being a combination of my favorite self-made worlds. Since I knew where I wanted Sanctuary Saga to take players, I reverse engineered a setting that necessitated this cast of characters to leave their home countries in search of a better life. Many legends and a history already exist for Qun and I’m excited to see how much of it players are interested in exploring!
I know that was a lot of information! In future blogs we’ll dive deeper into each of these topics and give you plenty of reasons to be excited about your own journey through the Untamed Wilds in Sanctuary Saga!
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Happy gaming,
Kevin Prothero