Olympia Rising – Previewed
By Julie Morley
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Players begin their journey is Asphodel Fields, awakening from a sleep and desperate to find missing memory pieces.
Olympia Rising gets you right in the feels with some mythology in an enthralling epic tale of bravery, self reflection, and a quest for some answers.
The underworld is nothing pleasant to speak of. Merely torment and misery awaits you. The spirits are restless and have nowhere to turn. Some time ago, Hades had spitefully tried to harm any of the spirits wandering about by spreading a horrific flood of acid to purge the underworld. Little did he consider the land of Asphodel Fields, the faction of safety separated from the terror and emptiness of the afterlife. Those who prevailed in the world above, strived for good in the world of the living, are protected in the Asphodel Fields.
Iola explores the underworld, taking on monsters of various shapes and sizes.
This is where we both meet and begin our journey with a brave warrior by the name of Iola. She is a young hero from the land of the living that has been slumbering in Asphodel Fields for an innumerable amount of time. Somehow, fragments of her past and bits of her memory have manifested and scattered all over the underworld. Escaping the underworld is considered an impossible task but Iola is up for the challenge. She is desperate to know why she has awakened and will stop at nothing to make it to Mount Olympus to inquire with Zeus about it.
Travel great distances, jump at major heights, with the use of Iola’s “Aer” ability, players can manipulate her movement a bit more tediously.
Olympia Rising is designed as a 2D action-adventure video game with platform mechanics. The entire game settles around the concept of Iola’s journey and the adversities she’ll face along the way. Through the depths of the underworld, the player will press on utilizing the multiple magic abilities Iola is equipped with along with the mightiest of swords. Iola has three different abilities: Pyr, her magical fire shooting ability, Aer, her ability to push herself in any direction whilst double jumping, and Hydor, a protective aquatic cocoon.
Part of the beauty in design is that the player can tackle every problem in multiple ways, and I assure you, you’ll have plenty of xtimes to try. It’s impossible to move through a level on the first try.
Use her magic fire ability to combat monsters and ghouls of the underworld.
I tried so hard. I swear.
But every level is a portion of the underworld that Iola must scale upward through. There are five different stages to play through before reaching the Throne Room, where Zeus rests. There is no specific way to get the job done, any combination of abilities will work. However, there is a catch. The player must avoid the burning purge acid from below that is moving upward rapidly and somehow must collect enough coins to progress to the next level. If the toll cannot be paid to Charon the Ferryman, you cannot progress.
Throughout each level, the player must collect a specific amount of coins to progress to the following level. If the toll cannot be paid, they cannot move forward.
Olympia Rising was funded February 15th, this year. The original funding goal was $10K but the campaign’s success brought an additional $2,282, meeting a stretch goal for additional skills. Currently, the free demo is available via the Kickstarter page. A release date has not been mentioned quite yet but Olympia Rising has been Greenlit on steam.
[divider][facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ] [author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/julie.jpg” ]Julie Morley is a freelance writer and comic artist from Spring, Texas. She attended the Academy of Art University for two years, studying Animation and Illustration. Whilst here, she learned about writing comic scripts, storyboards, and general storytelling. Since leaving college, she has been working on personal comic projects, stories, and illustrations. She aspires to release a self published comic within two years. For the majority of her life, she has been playing console games, typically being third-person shooters and sandboxes. Her favorite game of existence is Dark Cloud II (Dark Chronicle) and her favorite Indie game is Gone Home.[/author]
