7 /10 1 Votes
Developer(s) Silk Games Designer(s) Ben Mallahan Initial release date 27 March 2010 Mode Multiplayer video game | 7/10 Steam Publisher(s) Silk Games Engine BYOND Genre Role-playing video game Platform Microsoft Windows | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar 8BitMMO, Geneforge 2, Millennium: A New Hope, Dark Scavenger, The Memory of Eldurim | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEStalgia is an indie video game, for Microsoft Windows operating systems, created by Silk Games. Described by developers as "Dragon Warrior 3 meets World of Warcraft", NEStalgia is a modern online role-playing game made to look and play like a classic role-playing video game from the 8-bit console era. NEStalgia was in development for 2 years before publicly launching on February 23, 2011. In the time following the public release the game was almost completely overhauled and remade, leading to its launch on Steam on April 15, 2014.
Contents
Gameplay
The core gameplay follows the classic Japanese role-playing game format (particularly Dragon Quest) with turn-based battles, random encounters, and many towns and dungeons to explore. There are 8 character classes in total, each with its own unique moveset. The focus of NEStalgia is a cooperative party system in which players join up to battle monsters and complete quests together.
In addition to the classic elements, the game has more modern MMORPG trappings such as world chat, a guild system, Player versus player combat, rare items and gear to find, a quest log, and a player auction house for item trading.
Development
Self-described "hobbyist" developers, the Silk Games team is led by Ben Mallahan (Silk) and has been creating online games using the BYOND game creation system since 2001. NEStalgia was in development for two years, which included an 11-month public beta period. The game was launched on February 23, 2011.
Since release, NEStalgia has undergone many changes as the developers worked to take the game from being a hobby project to a full-fledged indie MMO. Notable changes include improved framerate, major graphical and interface upgrades, and a "companion" system that allows solo players to recruit and fight alongside most monsters in the game. Although NEStalgia is still developed and powered using BYOND, it became downloadable as a standalone game in June 2012.
NEStalgia was submitted to Steam Greenlight in August 2012. It was Greenlit in a batch of 100 projects on August 28, 2013, then launched on Steam on April 15, 2014.