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[March Climber]

Here's your look at the world, some characters you'll meet, and gameplay from Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon. It will be available on PS5 (PlayStation 5), Xbox Series X/S, and PC (Steam and GOG) in Q2 2025.

Game Description: “Step into a dark reimagination of Arthurian legends in this first person RPG. Explore a world stuck in everlasting autumn, witness falling legends and make meaningful choices woven into a complex, branching storyline.”

 

[Magic Carpet]

It's another one of them "Fall" titles.

 

[March Climber]

It's another one of them "Fall" titles.

Based on the game’s setting and description, it’s a double entendre.

 

[saintjules]

 

[GHG]

It's another one of them "Fall" titles.

Apart from the fact that this one is shaping up to be pretty good.








Without naming specific games, plenty of people were recently asking for a dark fantasy RPG. Well here it potentially is.

 

[mansoor1980]

looking forward to it......

 

[R6Rider]

This actually looks pretty good.

 

[SomeNorseGuy]

Optimistic about this one, looks fucking metal aswell. Hope they stick the landing and get some more eyes on it.

 

[16bitwarzvet]

This is in early access on Steam if i’m not mistaken. I played a little bit and enjoyed it.

 

[Humdinger]

It's the first I'm hearing of it. Looks like it's going for a very heavy, serious vibe. They've put some work in. I'm not so keen on the crafting, but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Blank Space Invader]

I was about to make a topic for this awesome indie Scrolls-like.

For PlayStation 5 users, a demo just dropped for it today!

Here is some more footage with commentary by a YouTuber who the dev is acknowledging for his coverage of the game.

 

[R6Rider]

Played the demo after work today.

This game is good! Voice acting is surprisingly good, there's hidden loot throughout, optional areas to explore, etc.
The first area alone has so many alternate paths, hidden areas, and so on that you can find.

If you like the Elder Scrolls games, then give this demo a try!

 

[Grizzled Ghost]

Finally, an Avowed for the more discerning man.

 

[Blank Space Invader]

Starting the demo on PS5!

So the story follows the

Spoiler

court of Kamelot. King Arthur and Merlin fought back the Red Death, a plague that swept across the countryside.

I think that's pretty cool. Now it is hundreds of years later, and you are a

Spoiler

"stranger in a cell,"

which sounds familiar!



I think I will name my character...Tiber Septim hehe!

I also appreciate the various difficulty settings. There is even a Hardcore mode that deletes your save upon death!

 

[Blank Space Invader]

Wow. It's pretty cool that the game says, "Hey, follow this NPC to freedom." But if you instead go the other way and explore, you enter what is basically a tutorial dungeon of sorts. I wonder if the game still funnels you into the dungeon if you follow the NPC...

 

[Dorfdad]

Really early for a demo no? Thought this was a fall release earliest?!

 

[Pop]

Demo is

Looking forward to release. Sleeper hit

 

[March Climber]

Really early for a demo no? Thought this was a fall release earliest?!

It said Q2 2025 for the trailer description, unless they recently changed it.

 

[Blank Space Invader]

So...the combat feels clunky, like Skyrim clunky. Now Skyrim is my favorite video game ever, yet I totally acknowledge how shite the melee combat is overall in Skyrim. I've just always lived with it.

BUT! I enjoyed everything else in the demo so far. After this melee combat character, I think I am going to try some magic.

The item and loot bloat is real, although it seems like they want us to craft/cook/alchemy. I am not big on crafting in games. It is nice however that they give us a randomizer that supposedly takes the best ingredients and whips up stuff for us. And to be fair, crafting some health potions saved my ass in what seemed like a boss fight against the

Spoiler

Wailing Effigy

.

The notes and letters do a great job of world building. The dialogue and acting has been fine so far. I found myself getting immersed in the world and story.

I haven't leveled any stats yet. It said something in the menus about sleeping at a fire to level my Strength. I'll keep an eye out for that.

I met up with the NPC again, so it seems like there is more to the demo. I'll mess with it tonight. Sorry to blog but I'm enjoying this demo so far.

 

[March Climber]

Sorry to blog but I'm enjoying this demo so far.

No need to keep apologizing for your long posts. The ones patient enough to read it all will read it, especially if it’s descriptive information like what you just shared.

On a side note, whoever you are, based on your posts and their length, I can kind of tell you are most likely an old-school forum poster who has probably frequented places that may have existed before GAF did.

Barely anyone here really types longform messages anymore (unless it’s for specific review threads and OTs) and twitter/X has mostly conditioned people who browse forums to follow the ‘short and sweet’ style of keeping character count low.

This is not me discouraging you from your posting style nor your impressions of the game. I’m just pointing out something I noticed.

 

[Blank Space Invader]

No need to keep apologizing for your long posts. The ones patient enough to read it all will read it, especially if it’s descriptive information like what you just shared.

On a side note, whoever you are, based on your posts and their length, I can kind of tell you are most likely an old-school forum poster who has probably frequented places that may have existed before GAF did.

Barely anyone here really types longform messages anymore (unless it’s for specific review threads and OTs) and twitter/X has mostly conditioned people who browse forums to follow the ‘short and sweet’ style of keeping character count low.

This is not me discouraging you from your posting style nor your impressions of the game. I’m just pointing out something I noticed.

Haha it's okay, I didn't take any offense to your observations. I'm 46 years old, I've been a console gamer for more than 40 of it, and yes, I've frequented forums and message boards for a long time now. I enjoy writing and I can be a lot more formal and descriptive and detailed, but I prefer a more streamlined and casual, conversational approach to posting. Video games are a passion of mine but they're just video games in the grand scheme of things, ya know? Thanks for reading and replying!

 

[Doctor Hades]

I bought this in early access last year and played around 3 hours of the game before moving onto others. I was impressed by what I saw but performance was a bit janky - the game is using the Unity engine - so I decided to leave it to try later nearer release.

Having played the 0.9 version build of the game yesterday for around 4 hours, I think the game has improved noticeably and runs better but... but... but it still has some awful hitching that occurs whenever the game autosaves or while traversing the open world (actually these even occur during the opening prologue section set in a prison). This is by far the most annoying thing about the current build for me as these hitches, while relatively infrequent, are huge frametime spikes that cause the game to momentarily pause for a split second and takes me completely out of the experience. I suspect the issue might be with the Unity engine itself, which was notorious for stuttering in its earlier builds and the game could be using an older version of Unity still. Maybe?

Apart from that the game itself is good and has that Elder Scrolls: Oblivion vibe and is rewarding to explore. Combat is fine, I like that I can have four different weapon sets to switch between - dual wielding magic, a sword and shield, a bow and a two-handed broadsword. Enemies are pretty dumb and just charge at you until you've hit them enough to die but I am fine with that; I don't expect Dark Souls-esque levels of depth here.

So far it is very promising. I did encounter a few bugs from NPCs skipping dialogue to weird physics behaviour while despatching enemies (some literally fly off like Superman has hit them) but nothing game-breaking at least. Definitely one to watch out for in my opinion if you're after a fantasy RPG in the style of a Bethesda game (and with possibly less bugs?).

 

[Blank Space Invader]

Having played the 0.9 version build of the game yesterday for around 4 hours, I think the game has improved noticeably and runs better but... but... but it still has some awful hitching that occurs whenever the game autosaves or while traversing the open world (actually these even occur during the opening prologue section set in a prison). This is by far the most annoying thing about the current build for me as these hitches, while relatively infrequent, are huge frametime spikes that cause the game to momentarily pause for a split second and takes me completely out of the experience. I suspect the issue might be with the Unity engine itself, which was notorious for stuttering in its earlier builds and the game could be using an older version of Unity still. Maybe?



So far it is very promising. I did encounter a few bugs from NPCs skipping dialogue to weird physics behaviour while despatching enemies (some literally fly off like Superman has hit them) but nothing game-breaking at least. Definitely one to watch out for in my opinion if you're after a fantasy RPG in the style of a Bethesda game (and with possibly less bugs?).

You're spot on about the framerate hitches. I am in the opening dungeon and yes, it started to become very frequent. I usually don't get too bent out of shape about stuff like that but in this case it started to get excessive the deeper into the dungeon I went. I hope they iron that out for the main release!

I must admit that the part about enemies flying off after dying is hilarious to me. Not in a "haha ruin everyone's game" kinda way, but in a "Blank Space Invader likes moon physics or comically harsh physics and ragdoll stuff" kinda way. Of course I hope they fix it in terms of making the game stable overall, but man I do hope I get to send some goons flying off into the stratosphere!

 

[Doctor Hades]

The game has another annoying issue after updating again yesterday, although oddly there are no patch notes for the second update.

When I loaded the game up to continue my save, I was met with another 10 minute file verification on the title screen, like happened after the 0.9 update, before I could even play the game. This process seems initially quick to hit the 47% mark then slowed down more and more up to 84% then took ages to reach 100%. This a file verification by the way not a shader compilation since the CPU is barely being used here, besides which the game runs on DX11 and the Unity Engine so should not require a shader compilation step.

Not sure if this is something that will happen after every patch or every time I load the game since I've only loaded it twice since Tuesday's 0.9 patch but it is really annoying. Quite why the game needs to verify the files is a mystery as Steam already has this feature, plus it is reliable and quick, but you only use it if the game actually has a problem loading not when it loads to the title screen okay!

The hitching during play is the main annoyance though so if you are sensitive to any kind of stuttering during games then I would suggest holding off buying the game for now and hope that the developers fix this (maybe by updating to a newer build of Unity?).

 

[Madflavor]

So it's Avowed for red blooded men?

What's the problem again?

 

[Fbh]

I'll definitely try out the demo.
I like the art direction but the combat looks a bit jank in the trailer. But I'll have to see how it feels to actually play it.