Fera: The Sundered Tribes is an Upcoming Contender in the Monster Hunting Genre
Aug. 24, 2023Fera: The Sundered Tribes is an Upcoming Contender in the Monster Hunting Genre
Fera: The Sundered Tribes is a new cel-shaded action RPG that adds aerial combat to the monster-hunting genre.
Another challenger has entered the arena! Despite its extreme popularity, the Monster Hunter series of games does not have any obvious competition. This year’s Wild Hearts and Dauntless are the most obvious contenders, and both add their own flair to the genre.
Fera: The Sundered Tribes has players taking on the leader of their scattered tribesmen, and are tasked with the protection of its people. Massive and magical beasts have begun invading the beautifully rendered cel-shaded landscape, and are hunkering down and eating up the available resources.
What makes Fera different is that it adds a “tetherhook” item into the hunter’s arsenal, giving them freedom of movement in the vertical space. Players can hook this gizmo onto the environment or even monsters themselves, creating an anchor point that they can use to propel themselves in various directions. You can swing around monsters, using momentum to gain great speed and fly over your target.
As the monsters you’ll face in Fera: The Sundered Tribes are gigantic and slow behemoths, players will need to use their speed and agility to their advantage. You can even strategically take out specific monsters’ body parts, exposing further weaknesses or even removing abilities from their skillset.
Don’t worry if your tetherhook breaks though, as players also have a trusty glider that they can quickly deploy in a pinch. Using this will let you easily breeze through the landscape, and fall at your own grace.
Fera: The Sundered Tribes also rewards players with more than just materials to build up a fancy monster-themed suit and hat. As a leader of a broken clan, it is your duty to rally people under your banner in order to rebuild your tribe up to its former glory. Your clansmen have scattered throughout the land, as they have fled and been in hiding since the monsters invaded.
Players will need to slowly build up their village, starting from humble beginnings, and eventually reaching a thriving metropolis. As you branch out and grow your village, more and more citizens will flock to your homestead. Some may even be directly in the sight of the deadly monsters, and you will need to save them. You will need to provide them with food, shelter, and work, for them to be happy. And as we know, a happy population is a strong population!
It is good that we have more entries in the Monster Hunting genre, as competition breeds innovation. Wild Hearts added the Karakuri contraptions, which essentially act like Fortnite-styled buildings. What makes it more fun is that a lot of the Karakuri were permanent fixtures on a map, creating a nice sense of evolution for the area.
While developer Massive Damage may not be as big as Capcom, it looks like they already have some great ideas in the mix. The monster design looks interesting, with one creature looking like a unique mix of underwater critters and a monkey with wings. We also have an icy wolf creature, as well as something with a bone helmet.
Visuals are already looking quite good, from a design perspective. Colors pop, and are well layered. The lighting also already looks quite adequate. However, one thing that looks like it could use improvement is the animation department. Some of the animations look quite stilted and rigid, and in this specific action RPG genre, the responsiveness of actions could make or break the title.
The developers of Fera: The Sundered Tribes are also no strangers to video games. While they have worked on RPGs in the past, they have never done a fantasy title before. Their niche seems to be mostly in space games, such as Star Renegades and Halcyon 6.
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
