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Children of Zodiarcs offers tactical combat against intelligent foes, but adds an element of randomness to keep things interesting through ability decks and customizable dice that need to be rolled in a fight.
Players will control a group of young thieves in Children of Zodiarcs, helping them seek an ancient relic. The wealthy of the city don’t exactly appreciate their presence, so they will need to keep to the slums, sewers, and other nasty parts of the city. Equally nasty folk will be there as well, so if the player isn’t battling against city guards, they’ll be dealing with rival gangs, sewer cannibals, and other dangerous foes.
To deal with these enemies, players will guide their crew across grid-like maps, using their positioning and skills to take foes down. Skills, however, must be drawn from a deck players can customize before battle, meaning their best abilities might not be available if the player gets an unlucky draw. Likewise, players will roll dice for bonuses after choosing their attacks, giving them a chance for low or high bonuses with a little luck. Players can customize both their deck and their dice to skew things in their favor, though, which still offers clever players an edge.
Children of Zodiarcs’ dice and card-based take on Final Fantasy Tactics-like play is available now on Steam and PS4.
