[p]Hello Heroes![/p][p]This year is finally coming to an end! This blogpost will be a little special as it's not a "DLC blogpost" like usual, but we still have one more blogpost dedicated to the DLC coming up in January š So this time, we wanted to do a very special "Holidays" blogpost![/p][p]For The Last Blogpost (before 2026), we have a lot of things to discuss with you, so letās go![/p][p]Ā [/p][p]Ā [/p]
Meet the team of Tales of Torment!
[p]Some of you may know us from the Discord server (and if you havenāt already, join our awesome community), but we thought the holidays would be a cool time to know more about the people whoāve been working hard on the DLCs of the game š So, everyone working on the DLCs of The Last Spell had a little something to share with you all![/p][p][/p]
Manon Fontaine, Producer:
[p]My job is a bit of a mix between a happiness manager and a living reminder. I make sure everyone is in the right mindset to do their work: prioritizing certain tasks so we can make a trailer for marketing, postponing other parts because the game designers arenāt sure yet (to avoid changing everything fifteen times), and regularly reminding everyone about small details we had put aside. Basically, my goal is to offer the team a space where they can create calmly, without having to think about all of that. Itās not always easy, itās real teamwork, with constant adjustments. I wasnāt there for the release of DLC 2 because I was busy creating a little baby, so Iām really excited to be part of the release of DLC 3! And during the holidays, between two snails (yes, Iām Frenchā¦), Iāll probably finally finish Cult of the Lamb. Honestly, itās a bit like my job when I think about itā¦[/p][p]Ā [/p]
Victor Ternisien, Game Designer:
[p]Hello! Victor here. You may remember me from the recent blogposts. I'm one of the Game Designers on the team, and I tend to focus a bit more on the balancing & numbers side of the game. I am currently hard at work trying to balance out all of the things we are adding in the new DLC, which represents... a LOT, given the vast amount of Epiphanies we have added. Beta testers have given us ample feedback, and the challenge is now to improve as many things as possible, while staying within the development schedule and keeping the content accessible to newer players.[/p][p]During the winter break, I plan on playing a bit of Victoria 3's newest DLC, and probably a lot of boardgames with friends and family - my favorite at the moment being "Earth", which I wholeheartedly recommend if you are a seasoned boardgame player.[/p][p]Ā [/p]
Robin Fau, Game Designer
[p]Hello! My name is Robin, aka Biggs, and Iām in charge of the GD team for the DLCs of The Last Spell. Thanks to the team, we were able to put in place the different features of this DLC (and the previous ones, of course)ā¦ And how cool was it to work on that![/p][p]Iām especially proud of having been able to experiment so much on this DLC and make it a bit more roguelike and unpredictable, while respecting the philosophy of the game.[/p][p]Offering systems like divergences and Ordeals was something complicated to put in place, but it turned out to be very fun to allow players to show their capacity to adapt and also try new strategies. And itās all connected by the Epiphanies, Ā that really let you create your fantasy of overpowered hero saving whatās left of the world![/p][p]And outside the systemic design, I also work on the whole narrative parts and the localization of the DLCs. (Nothing better than a dwarf yelling on an elf!)[/p][p]During the holidays, Iāll probably play Sulfur (Hello Simon!), and probably find a hack & slash that Iāll play way too much during the holidaysā¦ (Letās face it, we all know itās going to be Path of Exile 2).[/p][p][/p]
Morgane Lainard, Game Designer
[p]Hi there I'm Morgane, one of the game designers on the team. I focus on the user experience. I'm making sure that, when we are adding new content, all players, regardless of experience or play type, have the information needed to understand the new systems and that this info is delivered in an efficient manner for smooth and efficient decision making without sacrificing challenge or fun. [/p][p]Which is quite the challenge with a game like The Last Spell! [/p][p]By collecting and compiling feedback from the Discord and from the beta surveys, we could see that you all have very different play styles and wants and needs from the game. While making this DLC that affects a lot of game systems, it's been a fun juggling act for us to confront that feedback with our creative vision, while taking into consideration the experience of new and very experienced players alike.[/p][p] I also try to improve usability wherever possible within our dev constraints and budget. [/p][p]During the holidays, I will live my best dwarven life in the last DLC of Return to the Moria and prepare to GM the Tainted Grail tabletop RPG.[/p][p]Ā [/p]
Simon Hembert, Programmer
[p]This DLC is really different from its predecessors. As a programmer, I spent quite some time thinking about the architectures of the new features and create their foundations in the code. During the last few weeks, Iāve been working on improving the code and improving a million little things after the feedback we got during the previous betas.[/p][p]More generally, on The Last Spell and our other games, a big part of my work is about integrating the UIs because we have a LOOOT of UIs.[/p][p]During the holidays, Iāll probably keep playing Sulfur, an extract shooter (I blame my coworker Robin for introducing me to the game) and also Rocket League because Iām addicted to it š[/p][p][/p]
Frederic Durey, Programmer
[p]Hi, I'm Frederic and one of the programmers of the DLCs! In this DLC I mainly worked on epiphanies, it was fun to implement different effects. [/p][p]I hope that with the content this dlc brings, it'll please a lot of players and that they will have fun in trying to play differently than they usually do. [/p][p]Regarding the holidays, i think I'll play "And roger" and maybe finish "Coffee talk episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly". And if I find the time, start a chaos dwarves campaign in Total War Warhammer 3".[/p][p][/p]
Adrien Feugere, Artist
[p]Hi, Iām Adrien, Iām the main artist on the DLCs of The Last Spell! I also was in charge of the animations for the base game, so Iāve been working on the game for quite some time now![/p][p]I love working on the skills of the game, but I got to work on some of my favourite ones in this DLC! Iām very proud of the identity of the skills I was able to give to some of the weapons.[/p][p]As a small holiday present, here are some animations I worked on for the epiphanies of this DLC[/p][p]Ā [img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/f7b10cd72f2764ca71a381c395b85e9e17547b8c.gif"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/e3f435f57f3bcc7b3f4a602fd79700f359dd470e.gif"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/78c4ed731268bdec59aca61b69ddbe05add113aa.gif"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/959791b5b8ccdb2e0c465c2c9f3a64e7f1ac9459.gif"][TAG-100][/p][p][/p]
Bruno Laverny, Comms
[p]And itās my turn! Iāve been the main voice of Ishtar Games for quite some time now (almost 9 years!). Iām kind of multitask as I handle social media, community management, marketing, strategy, supportā¦ On this DLC specifically, I worked on organizing the beta sessions, oversaw the blogposts, pretty much everything related to the steam pages![/p][p]I had my birthday just a few days ago, so I know Iāll probably spend way too much time on JRPGs, this year Iāll play Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, and Iāll take way too many pictures of my guinea pigs and my cat.[/p][p][/p]
A Steamdeck update is coming!
[p]Weāre aware that a lot of Steamdeck users had some feedback regarding The Last Spell on the deck. We know this one has been a long time coming, but we can officially say that an official Steamdeck support is coming to The Last Spell next month![/p][p]So, if youāre getting a steamdeck under the tree this year, youāre in for a very good time! (on top of all the amazing games verified on steamdeck!).[/p][p][/p]
Modding
[p]As you may remember, we included modding in our roadmap that we had released last year. Modding is something that we REALLY wanted to do for a LONG time, but with ambitious DLCs and not infinite resources, thatās something we havenāt been able to properly do.[/p][p]Unfortunately, we had to make the decision to cut our ambitions on modding for The Last Spell, at least for the time being.[/p][p]That being said, we do have a little thing youāll be able to mod before the release of the DLC, so please look forward to it![/p][p]Ā [/p]
Some fun numbers
[p]As you may remember, in May 2024 we added some analytics to the game to understand analyze playersā behaviors so we can have more data about the balancing of the game, for instance.[/p][p]For the first time, here are some fun numbers that we collected during that time:[/p]
[p]Players launched more than 1 million runs[/p]
[p]Most played maps: Lakeburg, Gildenberg, and then Elderlicht[/p]
[p]We also have the most used perks:[/p]
[p]Mana Growth for tier 1[/p]
[p]Magic Fuel for tier 2[/p]
[p]Runic Gift for tier 3[/p]
[p]Critical Master for tier 4[/p]
[p]Big Game Hunter for tier 5[/p]
[p]Finally, we can talk about skills![/p]
[p]The most used skill is Centipedes (Druidic Staff) with over 4 million (!) uses[/p]
[p]The deadliest skill is Shred (Axe) that killed over 2 million enemies[/p]
[p]Ā [/p]
Happy Holidays!
[p]And with that final note this blogpost comes to an end![/p][p]Now, weāre going to take a well deserved rest, sleep and eat way too much.[/p][p]We canāt wait to launch Tales of Torment, coming early 2026! š Ā [/p]
Final Beta of Tales of Torment DLC - January 5-12th
[p]Hello Heroes![/p][p][/p][p]We hope you're doing okay. We're getting closer to the release of Tales of Torment DLC (like VERY SOON, and we will announce the release date BEFORE the holidays!), and next month, we're going to have the FINAL Beta of this DLC.[/p][p][/p][p]As you may know, we've done several closed betas prior to that one, with a small group of players who helped us very much in fine-tuning the new systems of the new DLC, and we can never thank them enough for giving us so many valuable feedback![/p][p][/p][p]As the release of Tales of Torment is soon upon us, we want to do one last closed Beta.[/p][p]IMPORTANT[/p][p]The goal of this beta is :[/p]
[p]To collect feedback regarding the balancing of the DLC[/p]
[p]And to chase all the bugs who managed to get past our devs[/p]
[p][/p][p]This Beta will take place from January 5th to January 12th, but all selected players will receive an invitation before December 23rd.[/p][p]As this will be aĀ private Beta, you will be required to sign an NDA andĀ you won't be able to share it online with other players outside the beta.[/p][p]Requirements:Ā [/p]
Final part DLC 3/4: Ordeals + DLC Title Announced! (+ a date for our new game!)
[p]Hello everyone![/p][p]Phew, third blogpost already about the DLC! Weāre getting closer to the release (early 2026!) and weāre making great progress on it.[/p][p]This month, we organized a private beta with some selected members of our community, and that beta allowed us to improve some of the new systems (more on that in the blogpost!). We want to thank our amazing beta players for their involvement and their many comments and feedback posts <3[/p][p]And weāre VERY happy to finally announce the name of the DLC: The Last Spell: Tales of Torment![/p][p]Today, weāre going to talk about another new mechanic of the DLC: Ordeals! And once again, Iāll let Victor, game designer on The Last Spell, take over this blogpost![/p][p][/p]
Presenting Ordeals
[p]Hello once again! Iām here to talk about Ordeals, the third new mechanic introduced in this DLC. If you recall the diagram from the last blogpost, hereās what Iām talking about:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/71582e6e3e326b9158f28e66740a0c464327b60e.png"][/p][p]So, whatās an ordeal ? Ordeals are short-term objectives that will appear during nights, and let you gain Memories if you complete their requirements. Hereās an example:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/3d28d08cfa668aa7b97ec28e464acb3f7383621d.png"][/p][p]Ordeals are composed of:[/p]
[p]A main action: dealing damage, killing enemies, using skills... it requires the player to do the following action a given amount of times.[/p]
[p]One or two additional constraints: in this case, there are two. One is āTarget has a Negative Alterationā, and the other is āTarget is at full healthā. This means that the player has to deal damage to enemies that have a negative alteration AND are at full health.[/p]
[p]A time limit: the player has to complete the Ordeal within the time limit. After that, the ordeal will disappear. The time limit generally ranges between 1 and 4 turns.[/p]
[p]A reward: how many memories the ordeal will grant if you complete it.[/p]
[p]Ā [/p][p]We have a multitude of actions and constraints. The general idea of Ordeals is to force the player to do something they would not naturally do, so that it is an added challenge. Here are a few examples:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/64b00389b405fca966392657ceb66c8478adc4d6.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/a219e8699058fd5be285e2f4e25c065aa851e9df.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/580608eaf25feab05eaae9ee6b23bfad390183e8.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/082ff982313026dc6256e82bd9ae1ce6893cfa0c.png"][TAG-80][/p][p]Ā [/p][p]There are also Ordeals that require you NOT to do something for a given amount of turns:[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/15f11c5394166e096c79a7d0f62d7dab93eb0336.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/da51f798620f657c9af35d8b84b013875d6d2fde.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/86cb345cf614aa3bae0666b269cb67fd23ecd1d7.png"][/p][p]Ā [/p]
The System
[p]Now that you know how an ordeal works and what it looks like, hereās a bit more about the system in its entirety, across a whole night.[/p][p]Each night, the player has a āquotaā of 3 ordeals to accomplish. If that amount is reached, a certain amount of Memories is awarded as a bonus, which we call the Covenant Bonus. After that, all current ordeals disappear, and no other ordeals can be completed for the night.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/91432ec29668265df9fc444b46048958619131ea.png"][/p][p]For the record, this is a recent change we have made after feedback from our beta testers. Before, we had no limit on the amount of Ordeals players could complete during the night. This meant that, in order to maximize the Memories you obtained, you had to try and complete every single Ordeal that showed up. Because of this, Ordeals quickly turned into frustrating chores for our players.[/p][p]With the Covenant system, players just have to find 3 ordeals they want to complete every night, and can thus ignore the ones they dislike or find too difficult to achieve in their current situation. Generally speaking, during a night, 6 to 8 ordeals will show up, which means you have to complete -at best- 50% of them.[/p][p]Now, in terms of UI, hereās where the ordeals will show up during the night:[/p][p][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/a1e436854c651334e5ca0b0e6565eacd17960873.png"][/p][p]To recapitulate our intentions: Ordeals are meant to break the repetitiveness you can sometimes encounter during runs, where every turn feels like it plays the same. These short-term challenges should change that, while making you progress toward the next Epiphany.Ā They are also meant as a counterpart to Divergences. While Divergences can be planned for and are visible ahead of the night, Ordeals rely more on surprise and quick adaptation during the night.[/p][p]Thatās it for Ordeals, but Iāll keep this blogpost going for just a bit longer to show you a few more epiphanies.[/p][p]Ā [/p]
More epiphanies
[p]As promised in the last Blogpost, here are a few more examples of Epiphanies that you will be able to activate in your runs. As a reminder, Epiphanies are bonuses that last for your entire run, and that can be obtained by collecting Memories (if you want more information on them, you can read the Blogpost here).[/p]
Less is more
[p]Less is more is an epiphany that grants a perk to all heroes. It grants a LOT of experience gain, but this bonus is reduced for each Hero you have.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/8b988bdd671ffa898e545cf62f4f93bfe08618ee.png"][/p][p]This is an epiphany you will want to take if you like to focus more on having a small number of very strong Heroes, instead of recruiting a lot of Heroes.[/p][p]Ā [/p]
Extended Reach
[p]Extended Reach is an Epiphany that increased the range of all melee skills, allowing them to reach one tile further.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/8bb51476e823b9f6611cfa5fcd50630cd20508ac.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/d3e6c048bd0c7bd8e090f37797a3ab004961c41b.gif"][/p][p]Ā [/p]
Holy Ground
[p]And here we have Holy Ground, which grants a special perk to all your Heroes: as long as no enemies have entered the Haven during a night, the Hero gets +20% Damage.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/320c437950d20e0ddd29cbfd9edbbac3ffd2d973.png"][/p][p]Ā [/p]
Corrupted Weapons
[p]Lastly: in the previous Blogpost, I teased a screenshot of what looked like new versions of existing weapons. Today, Iāll be presenting you what they are: Unique Weapons.[/p][p]For each weapon, the DLC adds an Epiphany that grants the player a unique version of this weapon. Each of them also has a name.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/04ffd0cfd46f1958fc4a1f2a2eeab78fd4c9d65f.png"][/p][p]These weapons have 3 main advantages:[/p]
[p]Their damage automatically scales with the Heroās level, so they will keep being relevant for the entire run[/p]
[p]Their damage is adaptative[/p]
[p]They have a unique new perk[/p]
[p]They are Unique Items, so, like other Unique items, you can only equip one per Hero.[/p][p]Here are two examples of what Unique Weapons look like:[/p][p]Ā [/p]
Flayed
[p]Flayed is the Unique version of the Tome of Magic. It comes with the unique perk āEye of the Stormā, which will automatically cast Stray Lightning and random enemies every 3 Mana Spent.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/3652de722af8d359ad808c0f3b2297fc63dcd500.png"][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/4e45c84a43dc27eb92e7b55917b6dfae23a644dd.png"][/p][p]Ā [/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/c3fb603798eb53d5b97b40bb93dd07d33581640d.gif"][/p][p]Ā [/p]
Bloodtendon
[p]Bloodtendon is the unique version of the Shortbow. It has upgraded AoEs on all of its skills.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/2860fc4ca92712f83104807d7632603776f542ad.png"][/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/35576831/54112d59c2e509e71675907aa55da041e9d2fb01.gif"][/p][p]And this is just an extract of the many Epiphanies youāll be able to play with in this DLC. Once again, weāll show you a few more in the next Blogpost. See you next time![/p][p]Ā [/p]
One Last word: our newest game, Dead in Antares, comes out on February 19th 2026
[p]As you may know, the Ishtar Games studio is made of two teams currently:[/p]
[p]The āTLSā team, working on the DLCs and the post-release support of the game[/p]
[p]The āDead in Antaresā team, working on the new game of the āDead inā series[/p]
[p]And, weāre very happy to announce that Dead in Antares is releasing on February 19th 2025![/p][p](And donāt worry, weāll have a release date for Tales of Torment DLC soon, and itās coming out sooner than you may think).[/p][p][dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2511800/Dead_in_Antares/"][/p][p]The āDead inā series and The Last Spell share a lot of the same DNA (complex, hard games with RPG elements), so if you liked The Last Spell, thereās a high chance you might find a lot to love in Dead in Antares! š[/p][p]Thereās a free demo for Dead in Antares, so feel free to try it yourself![/p][p]Ā [/p][p]Take care, heroes! <3[/p]
Patch 1.12.20.2
[p]Hello Heroes,[/p][p]we interrupt your summer to bring you a small-ish update for The Last Spell, AND an update for the apocalypse achievements![/p]
Apocalypse Achievements
[p]Apocalypse achievements now require the player to complete a map with a certain Apocalypse Level active, instead of a certain amount of modifiers. This is more similar to how it worked before, and should be less confusing to players[/p]
Localisation fix
[p]Fixed two translation errors in German in the Metashop entries related to starting the game with a helmet or a usable.[/p]
[p]Fixed a translation error in Ukrainian in the "How to Play" tab related to panic.[/p]
Bugfix
[p]Fixed a bug where the Perk Death Denial didnāt work when a hero was killed by the perk Boom [/p]
[p][/p]
TactiCon VOD - Few against Many: designing overwhelming tactical encounters
[p]Hello Heroes![/p][p][/p][p]We hope you're okay! Today, we have a small update about DLC 3 of The Last Spell, and a VOD to share with you all![/p][p][/p]
TactiCon 2025 - Few against Many: designing overwhelming tactical encounters
[p]As you may have noticed, The Last Spell is part of the official Tacticon 2025 selection![/p][p]Tacticon is a premier Steam-based digital event organized by publishers Firesquid and Hooded Horse, for its fourth year, celebrating the best from the world of strategy, management, and simulation games from tomorrow until July 21. This yearās event is kicking off with another showcase hosted by Hooded Horseās own Renee April, with cool trailers, reveals, and announcements revealed during the 60-minute broadcast. [/p][p][/p][p]Victor and Robin, game designers on the game, spoke at a roundtable with the devs of Cataclismo and Diplomacy Is Not An Option about the topic "Few against Many: designing overwhelming tactical encounters".[/p][p]In real-time strategy and turn-based tactics games, nothing is more thrilling than when players are massively outnumbered by undead hordes, swamped into armies of pixels or a crowd of angry knights... and still hold the line! Let's explore how to design challenging battles where small squads or fragile defenses face overwhelming enemy forces. From last stands to carefully calculated retreats, both in real-time and turn-based systems, let's unveil the meticulous design schemes and crafted recipes of making games where the few battles against the many.[/p][p][/p][p]We were so glad to talk about this complex but fascinating topic with such talented people![/p][p][/p][p][/p]
An update about DLC 3
[p]On the dev side, the development of DLC 3 is going smoothly! We organized a closed Alpha a few days ago with a very small group of players to playtest it and give us their first impressions.[/p][p][/p][p]Mind you, this was a really early version of the DLC 3, but we wanted to do it to see if the concept in itself worked (as it's NOT a map/race/weapons DLC). Good news is that feedback was really positive![/p][p][/p][p]We still have a lot of work to do on this one, but we're most likely do other betas before the release of the DLC :) [/p][p][/p][p]This is all today![/p][p][/p][p]Take care <3[/p][p][/p]
The Last Spell X Songs of Silence Bundle
[p]Hello Heroes![/p][p][/p][p]It's finally summer in here, and we've survived the first heatwaves of the year. We're working hard on the third DLC for The Last Spell, and we hope you'll like it.[/p][p]As we announced before, this will be very different from the first 2 DLCs, but we hope you'll like them as well![/p][p][/p][p]In the meantime, we have a VERY cool bundle to announce. Our dear friends at Chimera Entertainment, makers of the AMAZING Songs of Silence (we still can't get over this GORGEOUS art!), just released their 1.4 Major Update last month, and gave us the opportunity to make a bundle with The Last Spell![/p][p][/p][p]And Songs of Silence is currently 50% off on Steam![/p][p][/p][p]If you like epic battles, formidable heroes, and tactical battles mixing 4X and autobattle, you do NOT want to miss this one![/p][p][/p][p]If you already own The Last Spell, you can get Songs of Silence for 10% off! (and vice versa if you already own Songs of Silence ;))[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/56213/The_Last_Spell__Songs_of_Silence/"][/p][p][/p][p]Take care, heroes! <3[/p]
Patch 1.20.0.1
[p]Hello Heroes![/p][p][/p][p]A new patch is available![/p][p][/p]
Balancing
[p]Increases duration by 1 turn for debuff added by āUpgraded Enemiesā apocalypse on Runers' skill[/p]
Patch 1.2.20.0
Hello Heroes!
Today is the 4th anniversary of The Last Spell, and what better way to celebrate that by releasing a good-old fashioned regular patch?
Fixes
Fixed contagion not being spread when a target has an immunity to a status,
Fixed skills with cardinals not displaying the cardinal icon if their max range was equal to 1 without modifiers when hovering items in the city's inventory,
Fixed bonepiles being loaded in the map if they had 0 hp left (happens when quitting the game after scavenging a bonepile without waiting for the destruction animation),
Fixed trap icons being blank after taking the omen 'Omen of the Trapper',
Fixed Dwarves and Elves being able to get the 'Leapfrog' perk in their perk tree after using perk reroll while having the omen 'Omen of Leaps',
Balancing
Increases duration by 1 turn for all debuffs added by āUpgraded Enemiesā apocalypse,
Update of all scroll damage according to their respective skills,
Reducing Abalone Seed range from 15 to 6,
QoL
Added a perk tooltip alongside the race tooltip when the race has a perk,
Added range preview when the perk Epidemic is selected,
Modified attack preview secondary icons for dispel & purg
Don't forget to update your game!
The Last Spell celebrates its 4th anniversary!!
Hello Heroes!
Today's the day: The Last Spell officially entered early-access 4 years ago!!
And wow, those 4 years went by so fast. In the meantime, we:
Left early-access on March 9th 2023
Released 4 major updates during early-access
Released 2 full-fledged DLCs + 2 major free updates
Released 70 (!!) builds of the game
Sold over 500k units of the game (THANK YOU!!!)
And so much more!
Words aren't enough to express how grateful we are to the best players in the world: YOU!
We're currently working on the third DLC of the game, and although we cannot say much about it, we CAN say that it will be VERY different from Dwarves of Runenberg and Elves of Amberwald...
So please stay tuned for more news about it!
On another note, last month we launched a little contest to ask YOU for something related to The Last Spell. And we couldn't help but smile (and mayyybe there were some tears involved) at how much this game means to you. Thank you <3
First and foremost, we want to congratulate wuhuli for their amazing comic about The Last Spell.
There are sooo many cool details that we looooved so so much. Thank you for this amazing submission <3 We'll contact you to ask your address to send you a very special TLS shirt!
We also want to highlight some of our other favourite ones!! <3
Adam Janec: There is so much about it that I love, especially the music, audio-visual feedback and rutheless difficulty. All my favorite games have great music, The Last Spell is one of them. Music is definitely underrated when developing games, but this just hits perfectly and it pays off. Also, The Last Spell was my first pixel-art game that I gave a chance. Pixel art has never grown on me before and I was very sceptical of any pixel-art game. The Last Spell's artstyle is just something else that made me fall in love with pixel-art. Now I'm a big fan of those. Also I always wanted to play turned based combat games, but it has always been such a slog. I lost interest in all of those after several hours, but the fast paced combat in The Last Spell is great. I think i played like 30-40 hours in the first week of playing, I was so hooked in. There is so many things you did well, and especially in fields I lost hope in. It shows that you guys are true gamers.
Phoenix840: I've never lost a hero to clawers or any of the other enemies (that I remember), but I have blown up several of my own heroes via collateral damage. The first and most memorable was when I first discovered friendly fire, by accident. Final night of Gildenburg vs the final Harpy. I had one hero hitting the Harpy in melee range to whittle it down, but it wasn't quite enough. One of my other heroes had a lightning scroll from the book of shadows. Cast it on the Harpy. Killed the Harpy and won the run, but it also killed my hero who was standing right next to the Harpy when it propagated. That's when I realized I shouldn't do that in the future.
The second time was when I had a hero who got hurt real bad during Glenwald, so he hung back and attacked at range. Well, there was another ranged hero with a cannon right next to him. I didn't pay attention to the overheat status, and despite being very careful to keep the wounded hero from the hoard, the real enemy was the cannon's overheat. He didn't survive the night.
There have also been a couple BOOM related incidents. I won't go into details, but wow that's a powerful perk, and I can confirm it does also hurt your other heroes. Doesn't matter how much HP, armor, and block you have, when your ally overkills a basic clawer with a 3k damage critical, you're not likely to survive the splash damage.
elementalscion: My first time breaking Glenwald's seal was a turning point for me (screenshot attached). Up until that point, I had been just barely getting by, and had already failed Glenwald previously. I ended up beating the dryads on turn 13 (which I remember being described as "impressively slow") with the magic circle on the brink of destruction. Something clicked with me after that run, and I went on to beat Elderlicht on my first try. I think that Glenwald run was the point where I really started loving the game.
MSC: Beating Lakeburg for the first time, with one injured hero left, the entire haven covered in monsters, final barrier breached, down to the last mage, and with a final action point to crit a backstab on Cetusia. I call this final image of what remained "The last turn."
Morel/The Cat Game Master I remember playing the Prologue when it came out. The same day on which the game went into early access, I bought it. It immediately became one of my all time favourite games, for 3 major reasons:
First of all, the game hits so many of my soft spots: I do love rogue likes, tactical strategies, brutal difficulties, pixel art, as well as dark fantasy settings. The Last Spell was, and still is, one of more unique and special games to me, which others can't match in the same way.
Secondly, the music. Few of the tracks from the OST are in my playlist, and the whole OST is used by me to this very day in all my TTRPG games as ambience & combat music. It is so good!
And lastly, the game inspired me quite a lot. The whole appeal of the game, and all the mechanics, ended up pushing me to create something very special to me. Around 2-3 years ago, I made a simple TTRPG inspired by The Last Spell, called ''Fighters of The Dawn''. Few of my friends already played it, and I hope to run some more games in it :D I'm still improving it, but I have way too many of other projects. While it is hard to show such a thing as a whole, I've sent some screenshots here, to give a vague idea about it. Also, can't wait for the board game to come. I'm gonna use the minis for this game of mine as well xd
Sean Murphy: Its hard to pick a particular reason from the rather impressive list. I think at my core, the one that resonates with me the most is simply how it tells a story but leaves room for interpretation and imagination. Which might sound silly or weird, but, I miss the days where you had more games that could do that. To be able to have a structure of a world but the ability to make up things in your head as you go along, essentially story building between your characters. The fact that the 'player character' is faceless and driven by your dialogue choices further allow for that element and allow you to sort of sink into the story.
To me, thats echoing of things from the likes Elder Scrolls, Sims, Dark Souls, RPGs of long days past, etc. Where you are there to do a job, but the journey along the way is what sticks with you because of how much you get to make it.
Boo-Sama: I placed a legend to follow in the image, so I'll just start with members from Team 1, my first game, to 8, my latest as of now.
-Team 1: My first team mostly went off without a hitch besides the entire city being on fire by the end of the boss, and me only succeeding because all other enemies dying after the last harpy dropped. Karola was honestly just an archer, but she stuck with me because she was my wake-up-call to how important mana management was in this game.
-Team 2: The entire team, Silkstorm, Tomaz, Samara, and ESPECIALLY Taillefer were all a joy to play with up until I got a wake-up-call to how much more difficult Lakeburg was compared to Gildenberg. Tomaz was the smelly neckbeard nerd who CONSTANTLY messed up or missed spells, Taillefer talked like that one "Old Spice" commercial guy who says "THE TICKETS ARE NOW DIAMONDS" while zipping around the place with the pistol, and Silkstorm hated both of them an wanted to go home. Samara was a late pickup who had the "Pirate" trait, and that just really stuck with me.
Sadly they're probably all dead, I don't know what canonically happens in the game after a loss, but I hope they're fine. Taillefer won't be the same though, he had a near death experience one turn and became a sniper instantly (coward).
-Team 3): I started with team 2 a bit once I found the button, but this is where I started getting a lot more invested in personally editing characters. I remember not liking ANY of the randomly generated characters (except stormy), so I just completely overhauled them myself. Lesie was a CQC mage who craved violence at all times, Stormy was my first attempt at making a proper sniper (failed), and Dewstinger was also there. There was also a dwarf who died on the turn everything went to hell due to a straggler crawler and this was my first introduction to mortality in the game. Leslie might not have played a super important role gamewise, but she would linger a bit into the next team.
-Team 4: Layla came in to avenge her sister with her friends Tanek and Miguel and by god THEY DID. Layla was the support mage, Tanek was the rogue, and Miguel the tank. They later picked up Arundurina, a weirdo none of them really wanted on the team, but her resume was completely spotless and she had a cannon which they needed, so they picked her up and she acted as the long-range watchtower support, and was honestly a massive MVP throughout the entire game clutching important last-minute kills while also covering any blindspots the team had, all from the center of the map! They also picked up Acel, who mysteriously died when Tanek picked the "KA-BOOM" perk and shot a little too close to him. Tanek has never fully explained what happened and his profile picture changed from a smile to a distant glance.
To fill in the empty slot, Dunvarlina (Or Hunvarlina? I dunno) was recruited and was my introduction to making a proper siege unit who managed the turrets, manned a catapult, and kept the hoards at bay with the druid staff's slows while the turrets chewed them up. Zaniel was picked up with the spare money we had before the boss as a throw-away glass canon to help fend off hoard and chip at whatever the boss would be (I didn't know at the time). Dunvarlina ALMOST died, but we managed to clutch a win before she could.
-Team 5: Honestly I just wanted to unlock apocalypse modifers in Gildenburg.Gaelle looked cool though.
-Team 6: I actually missed recording one team I think, my first Glenwald team (it went very badly) so I went back to Lakenburg with some apocalypse modifiers on to get some practice and grind some stats.
Zuzanna is by far my FAAAVORITE character I've had generate. I only needed to give her a few tweaks to her appearance. She was a sociopathic fisherwoman who swept through entire hoards using a dagger, and a sword for mobility mixed with a side-arm pistol and scepter for momentum attacks. Gorvarlina was also cool being the big tank, but Zuzanna was SO MUCH FUN to roleplay and use, saying stuff like "I'm gonna gut you like a fish :)" before one-hitting a Bulky while everyone else watched in horror. I actually had to hold myself back from executing Prisha when she was badly wounded one time because Zuzanna had the badge that gave her the ability to execute ANY unit that was badly wounded, Including Prisha for some reason, and character-speaking Zuzanna absolutely would have done it, but I had to justify not doing it because Prisha was out entire backlane support... A part of me wishes I did though, for the funny, but the team would have been doomed if I had.
Zuzanna destroyed the sea-monster easily, and I'm trying to make her in a 3D game I play. She's not done but I wanted to get this in while the contest is active, so I'll keep you updated on that.
-Team 7: Honestly everything with this team was going fine until the boss. See, 2 of them were glass-canon snipers, and I was not expecting the boss to have a global attack with massive siege-destroying splash damage.
I never want to go back to Runenburg. The aftermath of the run is the background of the image, if you're curious.
Team 8: Finally we reach the last run I did, which was my Glenwald redemption run. Comapred to the Zuzanna run, it was very standard, but some highlights were how unstoppably strong Katharine was as a tank, killing EVERYTHING with spikey counter recoil that touched her, and her armor seemingly never breaking to anything, Duskclaw's constant positioning issues, and Durhunvar the Veteran being the siege captain/sniper that flew all across the map to help everyone in need, but I wanted to specifically pay some tribute to Belstinger.
Belstinger struggled finding a place on the team all game, jumping from being a sniper, to an assist mage, to finally an isolation assassin near the very end, but constantly struggling to keep up due to being very frail. Near the end though when the Dryads attacked and everyone was scattered trying to deal with the oncoming hoard and the constant plant spawns, another Dryad spawned near the top of the map Keen, the resident "Dryad Killer" with his orb with 2 death ray charges, could not reach before the turn was over. Belstringer, however, was able to reach it and take it down before we had to deal with ANOTHER wave of plant spawns, but losing her life just after managing to do so.
It's kind of a tragic story, like she finally found her place on the team, but lost her life right at the end when the sun was starting to shine. It's these little moments like this that really make me love The Last Spell! It can be funny, it can be scary, it can be sad, but it brings out all these unique emotions I don't normally feel playing most games, and I appreciate it a lot for that (even if most of it is just me being autistic and clingy with randomly generated characters I can edit)
That's my stories! Even if this doesn't win, I hope you enjoyed reading them and hope the dev-team and the fans have a great day!!!
Thank you so much for all those amazing stories and contributions <3 We have the best players, and we CANNOT wait for you to discover what we're working on for the DLC 3. It's going to be good.
Patch 1.2.19.2
Hello Heroes!
A new patch is now available, bringing some bugfix and balancing!
Fixes:
Fixed 'Falcon Seed'seed upgraded 'Flying Thorns' skill having 4 range instead of 6
Fixed 'BOOM!' perk damages not being properly applied on each target (the damages were reduced after each hit)
Fixed 'Manual Damage Trap' skill being able to affect the caster
Fixed 'Surgical Strikes' perk effects not being consumed when dropping below the Move threshold by using a skill
Balancing & QoL:
'Shower of Blows' perk bonuses are now reset at the start of each day
'Deadly Ranger' perk now shows bonuses before unlock
