In a world separated by magic and technology, Julien and his friends uncover a secret artifact deep inside of an ancient ruin. Now the team is thrust into the middle of a mounting conflict, and they must uncover the mystery of an ancient civilization to prevent their own death and destruction.

Elysian Shadows is a new indie game being developed for Windows, OSX, Linux, Android, iOS, Ouya, and Sega Dreamcast. It is a 2D RPG which will fuse together classics and old favorites such as Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and Final Fantasy.

The developer’s goal behind Elysian Shadows is to create a game that is next-gen in game play, graphics, and audio while trying to remain true to the games that inspired them to develop games themselves.

Elysian Shadows’ story is one of two opposite worlds trying to live together. Magic is given to all followers of the one they call “The Creator” while people who are not “followers” must rely on technology.

In our modern society, technology is what runs the world, but in the world of Elysian Shadows, it sounds like technology is for cavemen and magic is the better way of life.

The game play in Elysian Shadows looks like something I’ve never seen before in this kind of RPG. It will be an open world with a lot of non-playable characters. The developers say to make the story as life-like and real as possible, the NPC’s will have diverse dialogue and will act differently depending on time of the day or other game play events.

Elysian Shadow’s Team really wants to push the storyline and make it focused on character development and interactions and I believe they will.

The world the player will be in is a beautifully animated and diverse. There will be towns, villages, cities, ruins and dungeons along with different terrains such as deserts, forests, mountains, beaches, and swamps to explore.

Having looked at the screen shots, I am excited to see all the different areas and I know I will be searching and uncovering the mysteries of the lands for hours.

The aspect of the game that I am most excited for is the fighting system. Personally, I’m not much of a RPG person, but Elysian Shadows’ battling system is on course to change my mind about that. The developers are making the combat fast and fluid, like an action game, fused with the depth and strategy of the more classic RPG.

This peaks my interest because I am more geared towards action games, but I also truly enjoy upgrading moves and abilities via talent trees i.e. Kingdom Hearts.

The Elysian Shadows Team wants to be revolutionary in terms of 2D RPG’s and the game is looking like it will be. The graphics engine they are using is creating beautiful landscapes and shadowing effects. The audio engine is also shaping up to be one of Elysian Shadows high points.

The team is once again fusing old school SNES and Genesis type sounds with a more modern sound. That, and the fact that Elysian Shadows’ team says the transitions from one track to another will help make this game a very immersive experience, makes me that much more excited to play the game.

The final reason I love the Elysian Shadows Team (if the game wasn’t enough) is because they post “Adventures in Game Development”. These are YouTube videos, which you can see on their site, that show the behind the scenes things in developing games.

Personally, I love how this game is shaping up and cannot wait to get my hands on it. You can check them out on their official website. Also, they are going to be running a kickstarter campaign starting this summer.

Elysian Shadows does not have an official release date, but please be sure to check back for updates and an exclusive interview with the developers.