With Baldur’s Gate 3 and Rogue Trader releasing in the last few years, CRPG fans have been eating fairly well. Not in terms of variety perhaps, but in terms of just how ridiculously big both games are. Legends of Awen: Rise of the Fianna will attempt to join such hallowed ranks this year with a game based on a collection of ancient Celtic legends known as the Fianna Cycle.
It’s a game primarily about telling stories and living them, as your heroine, Finn, joins forces with a number of heroes plucked from the very mythology and travels around a fantasy world based heavily on ancient Ireland, defeating evil wherever she finds it. Finn is a Warden of the Shee, a kind of bardic warrior maiden tasked with defending the boundary between the mortal world and the spiritual world.
What I’ve played so far is from an early build, and mixes gameplay that feels almost like a visual novel with isometric combat encounters. The narrative will be guided by your choices but ultimately structured around building these legends, while combat is more straightforward.
Unfortunately with it being such an early build, the combat fails to spark much excitement. It’s likely missing animations for now, or at least I hope it is. It’s a grid-based system that feels very cumbersome at present, with each character possessing a series of special abilities that never felt super clear. Movement is done with teleportation rather than the characters actually walking or running, and there’s no visual flair whatsoever to your attacks. Difficulty seems skewed against the player, too, which meant I struggled to even overcome the first encounter of the preview build. There’s likely to be more nuance to it later, with additional characters and extra actions.
Outside of combat it follows a fairly standard CRPG template as you move around the land making decisions and hopefully avoiding having to fight anyone. There’s a whimsical Celtic charm to much of what I’ve seen, which is good as the environments currently feel a little cold. There’s not much to it yet, but there’s time to build on what we have. With such a focus on the art of telling stories and passing down legends throughout antiquity, we can expect some tough choices and meaningful decisions as we get into the full game.
Celtic mythology is a deep and varied pool for ideas, with some of the most moving and beloved of stories that have been told for hundreds of years. Being able to draw on such a vast field for inspiration stands Legends of Awen in good stead ahead of release, and with a little extra work on the combat it has the potential to tell a truly captivating tale.
Legends of Awen: Rise of the Fianna is developed and published by Hawkswell Studios, and is set to release on PC in 2025.