Earlier this year, I backed the Kickstarter for a game called Lie of Caelum: Spirit. It’s a turn-based Sci-fi Mecha JRPG that checked all of the right boxes to instantly get my attention. In the demo, I really got to see a good bit of how the game will present itself and how the gameplay functions work, so I’ll dive a bit into that today and let you know my thoughts.

First, I’ll talk about the presentation. Everything about it really impressed me as it has a great retro visual style, and everything looked gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of how older games were presented, but what works here is that the images are a lot more readable than they were back then. Meaning it kept the aesthetic really well but also managed to improve on it. I also got to see one of the mechs in battle, and it looks great. Mechs get my attention so quickly, and seeing one appear this early means they will clearly be a significant part of the entire game. I’m very excited about that. Then you have the music, which is what really made me glad I pledged as much as I did. The battle music absolutely works well, and I was enjoying every second of it. Knowing that I have a digital OST as a reward for my pledge makes me even more excited for the game’s release.

Gameplay wise is definitely solid. It takes a lot of elements found in turn-based combat, where you have skills to turn the tide of battle and can press buttons while attacking and defending to increase damage dealt and decrease damage taken. The demo does a great job explaining how a lot of these mechanics work. It did take me a bit to get my timing right on the button presses, but I managed to get the hang of it around the end of the demo. I did find that outside of combat, some of the controls felt sluggish as I struggled a bit to get the hang of jumping from place to place and striking incoming enemies before combat starts. That was really the only shortcoming that I had to adjust to, and I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t just player error on my part.

Overall, this is clearly going to be a fun game that appeals to those who love sci-fi, mechs, and turn-based combat. The demo showed me the game will execute all of these elements well, and I’m very excited to see what kind of story puts all of these themes together for an upcoming climactic adventure. Late pledges are still available on Kickstarter until October 21st, so there’s still time if you want to join in. If you want to play the demo yourself, public demos will be available on Steam November 11th.