Kindred Fates: Combat Arena Alpha

I recommend the game in its current state to people who enjoy PVP real-time combat, who want to support the future release of the full game. It's currently in Alpha, and already looks visually appealing. The combat itself feels pretty good, and the devs are receptive to constructive criticism about balance changes. The game often receives updates as the devs add features and polish existing content. The game currently requires other people to play (PVP). If you're having trouble finding someone, the Kindred Fates Discord server is a good place to do it. The devs are currently working on a solo dojo mode for the Alpha, so PVP won't be required once that's complete. (EDIT: The solo practice arena is now complete, and you can fight against AI, no other players required).
For people reading this, the game is currently the Alpha Combat Arena. This is an early taste of the game's future combat mechanics. This is not the full game, and is not a representation of what the full experience will feel like. The full game is estimated to release sometime in 2023, and is still going to be a story-driven open world RPG.
About the price:
At the time of this review, the game costs $55 USD on Steam. This may seem high for a game in Alpha, but you're actually getting more than that. When you buy the game on Steam, you get:

-Closed-Alpha Combat Arena Key (currently playable)
-In-Game Title: "Champion"
-Closed-Beta Combat Arena Key (Expected release sometime in 2022)
-Digital Copy of The Game (Expected release in 2023)
-Forebears’ Hoodie In-Game Cosmetic
-Official Soundtrack (2023)
-Access to the Progress Board
-Digital Wallpapers
This means you're paying approximately $30 for the full game, $15 for Beta, and $10 for Alpha. If playing early is not worth the extra cost for you, you can preorder the full game alone for $30 on the Skymill website. As a side note, if you purchase the game here, you can view your extra rewards (such as the wallpapers and progress board) on the Skymill website by logging in using Steam, or the email tied to your account.

Edit: With the alpha being out for almost a year now I got to say the game is still fun and the devs are great!
Gameplay
We will start off with the general gameplay and how it feels.
The gameplay is a fast paced real-time action packed gameplay, A style very unique to a monster taming game. But Skymill does not stop there, they also have what has to be my favorite part of the game, Types as a play style. What this means is that instead of your normal “Fire deal x2 damage to grass” that we see so often Kindred fates instead makes it so that its your player style that counters the type not your damage. This leaves much more room for player skill than other games. Here is an example of what I mean when I saw types as a play style.
“Fire Kinfolk's playstyle is twofold. As a zoner, they use their abilities to take control over the battlefield. Whether it be to force an opponent into close combat by trapping both combatants in a ring of fire, or split the battlefield in two using a fire wall to keep their distance from its opponent. Once control over the battlefield is established, Fire Kinfolk will mostly use a "Hit and Run" combat tactic. They will run over the battlefield, waiting for an opening (or an ability to be ready) to unleash a powerful attack on its opponent, before starting to run again, repeating the process.Fire-type Kinfolk perform well against Gaia and poorly against Water.”
Vs the gaia type which is:
“Gaia Kinfolk use the power of nature to overwhelm their opponent. Calling on their surroundings, they will use the overflowing stream of life to summon minions over the battlefield. Their main goal is to swarm their enemy with a large number of targets, making it difficult for them to focus on the source of the attack. A Gaia Kinfolk could try to stay away from the actual combat, relying on its minions to do the dirty work, or it can even be directly facing its opponent, using its minions to support them in battle.
Gaia Kinfolk perform well against Water and poorly against Fire.”
As you can see nothing can stop you from out playing your opponent and taking the win if you are good enough!
The kinfolk
But now I want to move on to the kinfolk themselves. I’m a big fan of pretty much every kinfolks looks myself, and even if you don’t like some of them you can’t deny that they tend to be very creative and unique! Every Kinfolk leaves me feeling excited to see more of its line!
Skills
Now as for the skills themselves that your kinfolk use, We once again see a variety of unique and fun to use skills, Such as the ability to steal your opponent's item use it yourself or even toss it back at them for some good damage! Another power lets you toss out rings of fire that burn enemies that enter them and my favorite at the moment is Dig which lets you quickly tunnel around the map and even go under walls and other obstacles!
Items
The items front is probably the weakest for kindred fates so far, most items are just not that good and leaves you feeling wanting, And the few good items are simple heals, which while not bad are not the most unique thing in the world.
Graphics
This has some of the best graphics I have seen for a game in alpha! As you can see from the gameplay running in the background the game look beautiful and will likely only get better!
Sound
We only have two songs in the game at the moment and I think both are very nicely put together and match well with the theme of the game. Until we see more of the soundtrack I can’t say for sure but I like what I’m hearing so far!
Patches
And lastly I wanted to talk about what is in my opinion the most important part of a game that's this early in development. The patches. We have so far seen a total of 13 patches so far. All in the span of about two months. Each of these patches contained not only bug fixes but also balance changes. Skymill has been very good about listening to player feedback and has added quite a few player suggestions to the game already! So if you have something you want to see please hop on the Kindred Fates discord and let your voice be heard!
In conclusion, Kindred Fates has its fair share of bugs but the devs are always hard at work fixing them and the balance issues the game faces, for an alpha I have yet to see such detaction to the game in such a short time and I highly recommend you give this game a look! Thank you for stopping by, this has been monster tamer bloba singing off, until next time I hope you all have a wonderful, Goodbye and Godbless!

To preface, this review is way overdue...
I remember hearing about this game when it was just a budding concept, and having only played the PvP, I am very impressed with how far it has gone along.
I love that all of the Kinfolk are unique and have their own quirks and personality and play style.
The Kinfolk feel so much more like sentient beings, where in other monster battling games they feel like pets.
Even from an alpha state, the aura and vibe that this game emits is astonishing.
I'm loving what's happened and am incredibly excited to see where this goes.

I am hyped for the future of this game.
If you wanna buy it and you are scared of the price, dont forget the price includes alpha, beta and full game access.
Buy it If you believe in the devs (they are the best devs you can dream of) and you want to support them.
This is only PvP but the full game will be an Open World Monster Battling RPG. Keep in mind that this game in its current state has bugs and isnt perfectly optimized (alpha). I just cant wait for the beta and hope many more people gonna buy it so the PvP community to test Alpha and Beta becomes bigger.
Cya in the Arena!

nyes

You can clearly see the improvements from when the alpha first launched, it's still not nearly finished, and only 1v1 Multiplayer is possible at the moment and no single-player content yet, but if you are very interested, especially in the gameplay, it might be worth considering buying the alpha now to support the developers. This game has some of the most community-involved devs I've ever seen for any game, and if you give them feedback they are very likely to consider it.
The real-time gameplay is definetely a fresh take on the genre, there's already a lot of possible strategies just with the limited roster available in the alpha. It's definetely more challenging than most other games in the monster-catching genre, but the full release version will also have a turn-based combat option for people who prefer that.
If you're still unsure, just keep an eye out for this game. If you think the price is too high remember, it will only go down in the future.
Edit: I should also note that the alpha version comes with several early-supporter benefits similar to the kickstarter, like the official soundtrack on release, access to the beta and full release versions, in-game goodies like titles and items and so on.

This game is in Alpha, but it's super fun and i can't wait till the full game releases!!