Tahira: Echoes of the Astral

What is Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire?
It is difficult to believe that Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is the product of just a three-person development team. Such is its outstanding quality. However, the team at Whale Hammer Games have put together something quite magical. It is a heavily story-driven tactical turn-based combat game that places you in the world of Tahira the princess of Avestan. You must guide her and her merry band of followers throughout one of the most arduous nights of her kingdom's history.
Inspired by real-world travels throughout the Middle East, Nepal and India the game presents players with a well-crafted and meaningful world that will have you fully immersed within it. My initial expectations for the game weren’t particularly high because this is the team’s debut title. However, it becomes immediately clear that the game was made from the heart and is definitely a passion project.
A Well-Timed and Deep Story
The highlight of the game is the story. Its complexity and depth unveil itself as it progresses.
The writing has one clear tell-tale sign of superb writing. This is the fact that it repeatedly made me wonder and deeply question which side Tahira is truly on. Firstly, she personally appears to be of a pure heart. However, there is the fact that the land that her father ruled has experienced so much hardship. There are countless tribes and other nomadic people who fear and hate the current rule. Consequently, a crucial plot line – should you so choose to read into it – is whether the current rule is the right rule for the people of the land or whether those who have come to transform the land are doing the right thing.
Therefore, I believe that the game is making a political statement on the United Nations occupation in the Middle East. Because of this, it makes the game a timely release regardless of which side of the debate you find yourself in. Perhaps your worldview will change or become more educated through the playing of this game.
However, there is a potential downside to the game within its wonder. Those who prefer to have equal parts action and the story may be disappointed. There is much more story within the game than there is combat. Of course, players do have the choice to bypass the story segments by clicking through them. However, I am left to wonder what the point of playing the game would be without experiencing the story at least once.
A further downside is that the story is linear. This would impact those who would like to experience multiple playthroughs in the hopes of unlocking new content. However, it is a relatively minor quibble.
Beautiful Hand Drawn Artwork
I have found myself becoming much more appreciative of outstanding artwork lately. Therefore, laying my eyes upon the artwork featured within the game sent me to artwork heaven. The screenshots may look relatively basic but it is very pleasing to the eyes.
Full credit for the artwork goes to Peter ‘Simmo’ Simpson.
The Combat
The turn-based combat is a big reason why people would be invested in the game. Thankfully, it delivers a very solid all-around effort. There is a nice amount of content. There are a number of mechanics and classes each with their own strengths and weaknesses that are introduced throughout the game.
Without a doubt, my personal favorite is The Claw. They are ninja styled combatants who have a power titled ‘vicious strikes’ that enables them to use the game’s ambush mechanic to rip through multiple enemies before they have an opportunity to realize what is happening to them. It’s very cool.
One bonus to the combat is that there are multiple ways to win each encounter. This enables players to utilize a strategy that works for them while maintaining flexibility and variety where combat will never feel too repetitive.
However, there are a couple of weaknesses in the combat that deserve criticism. The first is that I would have enjoyed seeing a greater emphasis on formations. The game introduces formations early in the game but then struggles to utilize their strategic realization throughout the game. You’ll likely only ever use them when you are in a position to utilize certain skills. This, sadly, isn’t often enough for my liking.
Ultimately, I believe that the combat offers enough room for strategy but it could have been improved.
Lack of Voice Acting
Although I am a fan of the presentation I would have appreciated voice acting throughout the scenes. The music is solid throughout, however, it becomes rather stale when there is no other sound throughout much of the narration.
There is so much dialogue that I almost considered adding the ‘Visual Novel’ tag to the game on the Steam store page.
Is it Steamified?
Yes. The game has been Steamified by the addition of 8 trading cards and 18 Steam achievements. These achievements have been designed to ensure that the hunters play multiple playthroughs of the game. Some of them are more difficult than completing a single playthrough. For example, ‘Play it Safe’ requires players to complete a playthrough and ensure that Tahira, the game’s main character, never takes HP damage. Do note that this is not ‘defense’ damage and consequently does not mean that she cannot take any damage.
Verdict
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire has captured a gigantic piece of my heart. There are not too many games that are released these days where I feel that I owe it to myself to complete it multiple times. I am now interested to read about the places and the people that have inspired the game. This is something that I haven’t really experienced from a piece of media since I read The Kite Runner for the first time. Therefore, I recommend the game not only for the great story and solid gameplay but for the profound cultural effect that I am enjoying it for.
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A very impressive little game that ticks pretty much all the boxes for me. Great tactical battles, compelling story, intelligent dialog, nice art, and a UI that doesn't get in the way. I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys turn based tactics.
If you know Banner Saga's combat system, you'll be right at home. This is a good thing, very good even - it's an excellent system which deserves to be reinterpreted and iterated upon. There are interesting differences, but most importantly the battles you have to fight are open-ended, large scale, and challenging.
The is no strategical layer to speak of. I prefer that to Banner Saga's trainwreck of one, to be honest.
There are very few choices and branches in the story, which would have been welcome, but it's not a terrible omission either. The setting for the story is original, believable and interesting; the characters, while not developed that much, are likable. The story line itself is enjoyable and engaging.
I typically don't place too much value on dialog, but I've been positively surprised here. It's interesting and smartly written, while staying short enough to not get in the way of the story or the gameplay.
The art is also quite similar in style to Banner Saga's, and that's also a very good thing. Clearly the budget there is not quite the same, but that other game (being one of the most strikingly beautiful games in recent memory) is not a fair comparison. The first impression might be a bit less than overwhelming, but it grew on me quite well.
The UI is maybe the thing I have the least good things to say about, although it's not really bad in any obvious ways. It looks a bit meh, and sometimes demands a few more awkward clicks than seems necessary, but nothing major.
On the whole, the largest negative I found about this game is how short it is, as it left me wanting for more. Hardly much of a negative though, is it ?

Tahira was a fun, but brief, adventure that in the end, felt like the first hour of a really good movie.
It ended when the character and story development was JUST starting to get rolling, JUST starting to hook you in--and then abruptly, it's over---clearly paving the way to a sequel or two.
Which, incidentally I'll be buying--because Tahira seems to have nailed a lot of the fundamental aspects of gaming, correctly.
Most of your time, and I mean 90%, will be fighting. And the fights are large-scale, multi-staged, arenas which make for some pretty triumphant moments if you use the battle mechanics correctly to your advantage.
The battles are fairly long, with scripted events, and virtually every battle is a fight against overwhelming odds, which at first glance look impossible--but it's pretty gratifying to 'hulk smash' their superior forces.
I've been a strategy and turn/based strategy fan since the term came into existence, and in Tahira, was content with the level of balance and difficulty that I ran into. What it lacked in dyanmics in terms of NPC skills, it made up for largely in the size and range of options of the battle fields. Essentially, while there weren't a lot of individual skills, there was a lot you could do with what little you had--so in the end, it was still fun and challenging.
The graphics/animation are hand-crafted and look wonderful, similarly, the sound effects and music quality are well chosen.
My largest gripe with the game is that it ended too soon--I don't want a half-scoop of ice cream! :)
In terms of improvement, I think the characters could be better developed, and more dialogue could have been added to the game to make it seem longer. Dialogue between characters did not include descriptive elements (only direct, spoken lines), which I think is a missed opportunity for immersion into a well crafted, mystical environment. Humans relate to emotions--and if players can become privy to the internal dialogues and states of protagonist characters, they can relate to--and connect with them better; this is the difference between a comic-book and a novel. And as Tahira is a story driven game, it would be greatly improved by adding narrative and descriptive elements to add to it's already solid combat systems.
Overall, I'd give it an 8/10, for 3 guys, it's quite a job well done. I hope they use this game as a template to launch future games with expanded character abilities, subtantially more dialogue and descriptive elements, as well as special attention to individual character (personality) development.
I had fun! looking forward to the next one!

In a nutshell:
+Very friendly and responsive developer
+immersive story
+beautiful art
+engaging (albeit repetitive at times) turn-based combat system
And yes, the game draws clear inspiration from The Banner Saga, but I can't see how that would be a bad thing considering how good a game TBS is.
Overall I'd recommend a purchase if you enjoy turn-based strategy, story-driven gameplay and/or are a fan of beautifully executed game art.

Near the end of the 16th century, Portugal, after being contested by Britain and France for control of the current slave trade along the West African coast, turned their attention toward Luanda (capital of modern day Angola) as a new source of black bodies to enslave. After settling a fort within Luanda, the Portuguese attempted to open a dialogue with then king Ngola Mbande to negotiate peace (a rather haughty gesture given it was they who had invaded). Rather than attend these peace meetings himself, Ngola sent his sister, Nzinga, who despite going so far as to convert to Christianity and be baptized failed to appease Portugal’s increasing demands. This eventually led to Ngola committing suicide and Nzinga taking the throne herself, a turn of events that would ultimately lead to Angola’s freedom as Nzinga outright refused to surrender her people as slaves to the Portuguese.
Nzinga launched a war against the Portuguese, uniting with prior rival states and allying with the Dutch for a 30-year conquest, during which she personally led troops against the Portuguese army and laid a foundation that would eventually lead Angola to independence from Portugal by 1975. She was an intense warrior and a brilliant queen, a captivating figure in history who fought tooth and nail against slavery and despite all odds prevailed. She was, to be blunt, nothing short of a badass.
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Whalehammer Games’ Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire opens with its titular protagonist sitting beside a fire, talking through her frustrations and insecurities to the only one there to listen: her horse and devoted friend, Iba. As the night winds down, Tahira drifts off to sleep, only to be roughly awakened by the appearance of her father the king, communicating by way of a celestial light. Her home and kingdom, Avestan, is under siege. Moments later, Tahira witnesses her father’s death at the hand of the invading army. As princess of Avestan, she must return home. Her people need a ruler, and she’s all they have left.
What struck me first about Tahira – its beautiful rotoscope art style notwithstanding – was how bluntly it depicted the horrors of war. This is not an epic fantasy power trip, but the brutal struggle of a people driven from their home and on the verge of extinction, led by a princess still young and afraid, but forced to fight and lead or else abandon her people to certain death. But death comes regardless.
Though it shares a kinship with tactics games such as Fire Emblem and XCOM, Tahira is both more restrained and more personal than the genre is often known for. Combat is a means to a bloody end, with skill trees and advanced tactics being omitted in favor of a stripped-down battle system that is purposefully crude. Fighters beat against each other until a body falls and one side emerges victorious to seek a new target. Tahira does not revel in the clashing of arms but understands it to be unavoidable, and this sobriety is reflected in mechanics that never afford you a sense of true power or allow you to indulge in violent upgrades.
It is a daring choice, to so boldly confront the modern player’s desire for absolute control and limitless potential, but in crafting a combat system that is deliberately underpowered and limited in scope Tahira succeeds in making its stakes matter. Each soldier lost is cause for immense distress, both due to how drastically their absence can affect a battle, but also as their death carries with it the collapse of a civilization. By journey’s end, I had become deeply invested in Tahira and her small band of companions, and their survival became not just a necessity for continued progression, but a terrifying and uncertain struggle I was only just managing to scrape through.
Tahira’s brilliance is making its world and inhabitants feel like people. People who are scared and outmatched, and who in all likelihood are all going to die in a desperate flight toward an uncertain destination. And yet, Tahira never succumbs to this unlikeliness, and instead seems to fight all the harder in spite of decreasing odds of survival. Because this is not just the struggle of a princess or even her immediate group of followers, but of an entire race.
Like Nzinga before her, Tahira is fighting for the freedom of her people from enslavement, and it is hard to miss the parallels between their dual wars against an invading empire. Tahira is not predominately about race, but neither does it dismiss the significance of Tahira and her people’s black skin, contrasted so dramatically with the pale invading force. Whether an intentional callback to Nzinga’s war with Portugal, or a more general analogy to historic and contemporary racism, Tahira doesn’t shy away from recognizing that the war it portrays is not solely fought for land. Dialogue from both sides heavily references the racist attitudes of the invading force, who, it is to be understood, intend to enslave the Tahira’s people in addition to destroying her city.
It is all too easy to employ analogies to slavery and have the end result go horribly, disgustingly awry (one need only look at Deus Ex: Mankind Divided as a recent ugly example). But with Tahira, Whalehammer Games has approached the topic of race with an immense level of care and consideration, and the result serves to elevate it from competent tactics game to something legitimately impactful. Tahira may still center on the invasion and enslavement of a black people, but it does so in a way which grants agency to its characters, allowing them to both fight for their freedom and in some small way reimagine some of the ugliest events in history. Tahira is still imperfect and limited in what it can accomplish, but it is an encouraging example of a game addressing race with the solemnity it deserves, rather than as an easy narrative trope to be overlain with the challenges of white men. Even just the fact that lead protagonist Tahira – a badass, magic wielding warrior queen – is a black woman should not be overlooked, being such a rarity not only in games but all media.
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is neither the most expansive tactics game nor the most intrinsically satisfying. When taken in context with its thematic goals and narrative sobriety, though, Tahira easily ranks as one of the most captivating. It is a game personified not by hit points or XP bars, but by a fighting people who refuse to submit to enslavement. Tahira draws its characters as flawed and multifaceted, giving them space to laugh and cry and die as a person, not a statistic. Whalehammer Games have gone to great lengths to humanize a struggle all too similar to those found in history books and museums, and often still, on the nightly news, and in doing so created a game that is not only that much more engaging but its own small step toward some sort of progress.
Full disclosure: Tahira was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer. You can find more of my writing on Kritiqal.

Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire is a good, little game. While I enjoyed it, I've seen some reviews here absolutely gushing with praise and I can't quite understand them. It's a good game. Is it incredible? No, not really. The story is good though nothing particularly amazing and it desperately needs a sequel to tie up some loose ends and to resolve the cliffhanger ending.
Most of the reviews compare Tahira to The Banner Saga and for good reason, since the combat is nearly identical with only a handful of small differences. Graphically, it is almost disintguishable from the Banner Saga during combat and if you told me they were part of the same series, just covering different locations or something along those lines I'd believe you. Where the Banner Saga let you choose between targeting the opponent's health or guard, Tahira forces you to work through the guard stat before you can whittle down the health and dispatch the enemy. You only have three different classes to work with (four if you count Tahira, herself, being unique to the other characters you use) with a serious lack of ranged options. In terms of story and choices, Tahira comes up a bit short. There are only a couple of choices you can make (as of the writing of this review I can only clearly remember one though I'm 95% certain that there was another one) and they don't really make any difference. Where the Banner Saga prompted you with choices that had real ramifications for the story and the combat, Tahira is more like reading a novella with combat segments after each chapter.
While this may all sound a bit negative, Tahira really is a good, enjoyable game. However, I would only suggest that you temper your expectations a bit. It is rather short and the ending comes up rather abruptly with a fairly large cliffhanger. The combat is good though nothing groundbreaking and some of the later battles can get a bit dull as Tahira's response to up the difficulty is to just throw more and more enemies at you as oppose to having different objectives to accomplish. The music and artwork are both very good and the Middle Eastern inspired setting is a fun and refreshing viewpoint that we don't see in enough games and could certainly do with some more of.
If you enjoyed the Banner Saga, you'll enjoy Tahira. They are, like I said, shockingly similar. It is not, however, perfect and it's similarity to the Banner Saga works against it. I feel bad constantly lining the two games up and pointing out this or that but they really are that similar. However, in the end, I have to give Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire the thumbs up. Pick it up, especially if it's on sale, you'll probably enjoy it.

One of the greatest turn based strategy games I have ever played! Beautiful art, haunting music, intriguing story and challenging combat. Tahira is such a unique gem I didn't even mind the cliffhanger ending, I just hope Whale Hammer Games can find more funding / create a Kickstarter so I can help make part 2 a reality.