Rise of Incarnates preview: Pit the world’s mythological hybrids against each other in a 2v2 arena

At Bandai Namco’s Global Gamers Day 2014, I had I opportunity to witness the debut Rise of Incarnates presentation as well as get some hands-on time with the game. Rise of Incarnates is a 2v2 arena game. Earth has had numerous cultures over its run, each with its own mythologies; from these ethos rise mythological creatures – gods and demons. In Rise of Incarnates, certain humans have bounded with these beings of legends and thus have been granted supernatural power. The developers compared to this game a fighting/shooting hybrid.

In the demo there were four characters to choose from: Mephistopheles, Ares, Lilith, and Grim Reaper. At launch, the developers are expecting to have about 20 characters available. You play as a “human” who has powers of one of these mythological beings. Some characters can become a fused hybrid and gain their power directly, like Mephistopheles. Other characters, like Ares, can summon the being into the fight to devastate those who stand in its path.

The fights are 2v2, so make friends. You and your partner fight at the same time against two paired opponents. With shared lives and health pool, there are numerous strategies on how to take on your foes. Do you try to do two separate battles of 1v1, do you attempt a 2v1 situation, or do you constantly swap? The choice is between you and your partner. The best part about having a partner is that you have someone to blame when you lose.

There will be several different arenas to battle in. The one I experienced was a post-apocalyptic New York, which was pretty horrifying in a beautiful sort of way. The model for this game will be free-to-play with an in game market, similar to how League of Legends works. There isn’t a pay-win-model and the things you can purchase are characters and costumes. There will be revolving free characters you can test-drive and you'll have the option to purchase them permanently.

There isn’t a current release date but there is an alpha sign-up available today. Rise of Incarnates will be released on PC via Steam. Also, to support the game’s lore, there will be a long series of comics being released. These comics are being drawn by a “well known artist” who they wouldn’t name.  For the hardcore, they are looking deeply into the world’s top eSports leaders to make the game as competitive as possible. Will there be leaderboards? Yeah, there will be leaderboards.