Publisher and developer XD has announced a new project in the works called Etheria: Restart, a free-to-play turn-based RPG for PC via Steam, iOS, and Android devices. The new game is set to come sometime in 2023, but XD has already prepared the first trailer, which you can check out below.
An official website is also revealed, where pre-registrations are currently open. Besides that, the landing page has several screenshots of the game showing off more of Etheria: Restart. If you’re on PC, the Steam page now allows wishlisting to prepare for the 2023 release window.
It’s hard to see how the turn-based battles for Etheria: Restart will work, as the trailer is mostly cinematics. However, it does show running sections on what appears to be a train as the protagonist faces off several masked combatants. It will be interesting to see if the turn-based combat takes on a form akin to XCOM, where unit placement and distance will play a vital role to win.
That said, the trailer does show off some of the characters, including Dinah, Suekko, RC-77, Doki, and Mashiah. Given the art style highly reminiscent of Honkai Impact 3 and the fact that it’s free-to-play, it’s highly likely that Etheria: Restart is a “gacha” game that focuses on collecting different characters via rolls similar to Genshin Impact, Fate: Grand Order, and many others.
Etheria: Restart takes place in a world now buried by an everlasting snowstorm. To escape the darkness of this life, the remaining humans created Etheria, a virtual world where Etheria: Restart takes place. Players take on the role of a Hyper-linker who battles Etheria’s urban Animus.
Animus can then be collected as character cards to build up the Hyper-linker’s team, creating a variety of tactics to advance in this harsh world of Etheria. Using the Hyper-linker’s ability to travel between the real snowbound world and Etheria, players can complete quests to ultimately find out the mystery behind Etheria’s impending collapse.
