As Disciples: Domination gears up for its February 12 release, I got the opportunity to check out one final demo as well as pick developer Artefacts Studio’s brain regarding the strategy RPG sequel’s length, turn-based battles, and more.
Set 15 years after its predecessor, Disciples: Domination continues to chronicle the journey of Avyanna, a Nephilim born from the union between a demon and an angel. After freeing the people of Nevendaar from the oppression of the gods, she became the queen of the realm.
This new role, however, carried a heavy burden, leading her to gradually abandon her duties. Her companions also left, bringing us to the start of Disciples: Domination, a strategy RPG sequel that establishes its darker narrative tone from the get-go.
But while Domination is the second part of a saga that publisher Kalypso Media envisions as a trilogy, developer Artefacts Studio assures me that new players can hop right in without an issue.
“You can start with Disciples: Domination because [as the game begins] we have a cutscene that [recaps] the events of Liberation,” Game Director Cristophe Garnier explained. “You can understand the story without knowing what happened in Liberation.”
Game Designer Matthieu Surgot noted that “if you’ve played Liberation there will be some troops, some references, some characters that [help you] see the link and what happened in between the two games.”
Anyone discovering the spin-off series through Domination, “will totally be able to get into the story and understand the world,” since while the sequel is “more of a continuation for the people who played Liberation” it also comfortably allows us to “jump in blindly.”
Although it aims for a darker tone and promises a handful of notable changes of its own, Disciples: Domination retains the chapter-based structure of its predecessor, largely because it is “driven by the narrative.”
“You have five chapters [to] unlock, and you will be able to [move] back and forth between regions, because when you progress in [one], something bad is happening in another region,” Garnier told me.
“You will also have some quests that will appear later when you come back to a region,” Surgot added.
To help her brave the dangers that lurk across Nevendaar, Avyanna can choose between one of four classes, each boasting two skill trees that focus on different gameplay aspects.
Where the Holy Regent plays like a support class that can also deal damage, the Witch Queen can become both a “true spellcaster” and raise minions from corpses.
The Warmaster thrives on the frontline, either as a damage dealer or a tank, while the Primordial Ruler can tap into the Elementalist tree to infuse weapons with the power of the elements or the Empress tree, which revolves around the newly-introduced collision damage.
The latter works in tandem with displacement, a new tactical option that gives characters the ability to push enemy units around the battlefield.
Despite not lacking options, we have to carefully consider how we build Avyanna, since we “will not be able to unlock all [of her] skills either in the normal playthrough or the Domination mode,” although the latter, which acts as a New Game+ equivalent, “[lets you] go further level-wise, so you will have even more nodes active.”
While these limitations might initially sound discouraging, I’m told that “it is recommended to experiment with the classes because you can quite easily respec by spending a bit of gold.”
Although Avyanna has new threats to face in Disciples: Domination, we will also get a taste of ruling the realm thanks to grievances.
These events see us listening to our subjects’ requests and responding to various issues that plague the kingdom. We do so by choosing one of several possible options, which impact our reputation with the game’s five factions.
We can ask relevant companions for their input, but it’s worth noting that certain decisions have “a lasting impact on the world.”
I also got to see a boss fight against a large dragon called Malekith that had multiple phases, with their transitions notably impacting the battlefield.
During one, Malekith coated certain tiles in lava, marking them for permanent destruction while extending a wide red line across the center of the battlefield.
When the transition triggered, the marked tiles crumbled while the boss breathed poison upon all units still present in the red area, dealing significant damage before landing on the other side of the arena.
Combat events also dynamically impact battles, requiring us to adapt our tactics. Enemies can call reinforcements if not killed quickly enough. Rocks can also fall on certain tiles, killing units who don’t get out of the way and adding obstacles to the arena.
Aside from working on new additions, developer Artefacts Studio has taken steps to address the complaints regarding the speed and number of turn-based battles found in Disciples: Liberation.
“The regular 100% speed during battle [has a faster pace] than Liberation, which of course impacts the faster-paced animation speed,” Surgot noted. “We rethought the progression and balancing of the units in order to have more impactful and deadly battles [to avoid situations in which] you have to chase one unit or a unit is healing itself repeatedly.”
He added that these changes aren’t meant to make battles easier across the board, but rather more “tactical and reactive.”
“If you misposition a unit, it will be killed quite rapidly, [unless it’s meant] to take damage. We really wanted to have standard battles that [are] less time consuming and more impactful battles like [boss or elite fights] to be a bit longer because [they are] more strategic and challenging.”
The team also tweaked Disciples: Domination’s grid size, some maps being “either the same size as Liberation’s or smaller, so you will be able to [enter] the fray quicker.” The biggest maps are “most of the time” linked to boss battles or “very special encounters that require a larger battlefield to express what we wanted to showcase in [these] particular fights.”
Finally, I asked about Disciples: Domination’s length, and Garnier pointed out that “[the team focused] on quality over quantity.” The amount of time required to get through the main story “is close to 30-35 hours,” but “if you want to do everything,” you can expect to spend “a bit over 50 hours” exploring Nevendaar.
Disciples: Domination is set to release on February 12, 2026, heading to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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