Seville-based studio Quickfire Games has announced alongside publisher Firesquid that Prelude Dark Pain, a dark fantasy tactical RPG, is launching into Steam Early Access in late July, and there’s a demo live now.
Tacticon 2026 was the perfect opportunity to give the long-awaited turn-based strategy-RPG hybrid its definitive early access date. July 27 has been locked now, but curious players can play the new demo today on Steam.
When it releases in early access, Prelude Dark Pain aims to offer over 15 hours of gameplay in its first act, “following the story of 9 playable heroes (Soren, Tizon, Tammais, Maya, Sade, Gala, Rufio, Urza, and Rayder)”. The protagonist is Soren, “a retired warrior, now living as a blacksmith, who will mark the steps of a great revolution following an attack on his family”. The full game will feature over 20 playable heroes, all with unique skills and roles.
The game’s turn-based combat and flexible build system (more on that later, as we have a meaty interview on its way) is built on a mix-and-match style allowing players to choose different heroes and very distinct classes separately. This includes ranged DPS, magic support, assassins with access to traps and turrets, and much more.
The grid-based combat follows turns in the style of classics like Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre, with visual influences coming from Darkest Dungeon and other modern dark fantasy games. Outside of battles, sidequests, crafting, and base management add more stories and content on top of the central adventure. We’ve been told it’s a massive RPG that plans to rapidly grow in size while quickly tackling player feedback during early access.
For now, Quickfire Games is limiting Prelude Dark Pain to PC via Steam, but there are plans for a console release following a successful Kickstarter last year and satisfactory playtests. Stay tuned for our extensive interview with producer Nacho Requena on the game’s deep RPG systems, the roadmap ahead, and much more.
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