Hibernian Workshop just pulled the curtain on Fallen Fates, and I perked up for two reasons: the studio’s combat feel in Astral Ascent was genuinely tight, and the premise here-two characters sharing one body in a 2D top-down action RPG-sounds like a fresh spin on the genre’s usual glass-cannon builds. The team’s going to Kickstarter on September 18, which raises the usual eyebrows, but they’re coming in hot with serious talent: Ben Starr (yes, Clive from Final Fantasy XVI) as protagonist Arven, and Motoi Sakuraba (Tales of, Star Ocean, Dark Souls, Golden Sun) on the score. That’s not window dressing; that’s a statement of intent.
Here’s the pitch: Fallen Fates drops you into Tellus, a world shredded by falling crystals, where humans fuse with ethereal beings to survive. You play Arven, a ranger, with Kat—the ethereal half—sharing his body. In gameplay terms, Arven brings the physical kit (blades, bows, mobility), while Kat offers magical abilities and a connection to an “inner realm” where you unlock memories and new powers. The combination is the hook, and it suggests combat and puzzle solving that force meaningful switching rather than just pressing a “magic button” on cooldown.
Movement is more robust than the typical top-down ARPG: dashing, climbing, and even grappling across handcrafted maps. That implies layered encounter design and traversal challenges instead of corridor brawls. If Hibernian Workshop threads the needle, this could feel closer to Death’s Door or Hyper Light Drifter in pace, but with a grappling-driven flow and more build tinkering.
Two-character systems are notorious for bloat or confusion. Astral Chain made it sing with tether mechanics; The Medium turned it into spatial puzzles. Fallen Fates needs readable states, clean inputs, and real synergy: think Kat’s ethereal crowd control setting up Arven’s burst windows, or stance swaps that meaningfully alter resistances and resource flow. If it’s just “blue spell for blue enemy,” we’ve seen that trick before.
Crafting and build customization sound great on paper, but the difference between “I built a frost trapper with mobility grapples” and “my numbers went up” is night and day. Hibernian Workshop has the chops to deliver on feel—Astral Ascent’s spell weaving was snappy—so the question is whether Fallen Fates can support multiple viable archetypes across the full campaign without funneling everyone into the same meta.
Bringing in Motoi Sakuraba isn’t just a nostalgia play; his energetic battle themes can define encounter rhythm, but they also need space. Top-down pixel action can turn into noise if the mix is cluttered, so I’m hoping for dynamic layering rather than wall-to-wall bombast. Ben Starr’s presence signals a fully voiced lead, which could raise the bar for storytelling in a pixel-art ARPG—especially if the “inner realm” memories deliver character beats instead of lore dumps.
Crucially, Hibernian Workshop comes off a commercial win with Astral Ascent. That matters. It means a functional pipeline for animation and encounter design, and a community already primed to back them. They’ve openly stated they’re aiming for international reach, and if they want to cash that check, robust localization and console parity need to be in the plan from day one. Their previous titles skewed hardcore; expect a challenge curve here too.
One promising sign: thousands are already following the campaign page. That can translate into a strong day-one spike, which is usually when indies lock in milestones and stretch goals without overpromising. Just remember: pledge for the game, not the swag.
This caught my eye because Hibernian Workshop knows how to make actions feel crunchy and readable, and the Arven/Kat concept could be more than a gimmick if it pushes you into creative problem solving. If the grapple and climb tools expand combat and exploration—and the inner realm adds meaningful progression instead of busywork—we might have a 2025 indie standout on our hands. If not, it risks being another pretty pixel ARPG with a cool elevator pitch.
Fallen Fates is a top-down action RPG with a clever dual-soul twist, high-caliber VO from Ben Starr, and a Sakuraba score—heading to Kickstarter on September 18. The potential is real; the proof will be in how deep the Arven/Kat synergy goes and whether the team avoids Kickstarter bloat. Keep your hype in check, your wishlist ready, and your pledge smart.
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