Shiro Games proved it is not done with the strategy genre by unveiling WarTales at the 2021 PC Gaming Show. The studio hopes to tie a gritty atmosphere and story with turn-based combat in a grounded but fictionalized medieval world.

Shiro Games is a rising star in the indie games space, founded in 2012 with its first game released in 2015. Known mainly for Evoland and Northgard, the studio's recent announcement of WarTales strays from the studio's established action-adventure library, set in a gritty post-bubonic plague world akin to A Plague Tale: Innocence.

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The trailer keeps details about moment-to-moment gameplay short and vague, and the Shiro Games website does not have more information available as of this writing. The trailer shows a few seconds each of freeform exploration, a top-down turn-based battle between humans and wolves, the ability to enter towns, the ability to trade with townsfolk, and statistic markers floating above town buildings not unlike those seen in the Sid Meier's Civilization series. Shiro Games appears to want to keep the more in-depth elements of this game a mystery for now, but a lot of important information about the game can be gleaned from the trailer.

The setting of WarTales is in an apocalyptic time that appears to draw inspiration from the real-life bubonic plague, a plague that, much like the Great Plague of WarTales, destroyed a large portion of a continent's population. The world depicted in WarTales is set after the fictional Edoran Empire falls to the Great Plague, leaving the area's population in disarray. The game is framed as a historical retelling of "WarTales," fictional historical stories from the time period about important battles, and takes a more personal and character-driven approach than other medieval strategy games like Crusader Kings 2.

WarTales takes on a more realistic tone and setting than Shiro Games' previous works, which usually took on more cartoony visual design. Much like Northgard, the characters use period-accurate weapons such as swords and spears, and unlike Evoland, the story and visuals look to be grounded in reality, in order to tell more believable medieval tales. This relatively grounded setting, however, is undercut by a shot of a sinister-looking giant monster hidden among a forest, suggesting WarTales will be closer to fantasy than the rest of the trailer suggests.

For strategy game fans, WarTales could be an exciting announcement even if the trailer limits what it shows of the game, though fans who like more direct and visceral control of their gameplay always have other options for similar aesthetics, such as the recently-released Chivalry 2. Shiro Games has experience with strategy games, being the developers of Northgard, so the studio has the potential to deliver compelling gameplay and interesting stories alongside the gritty graphics the trailer shows off.

WarTales will release on Steam in 2021.

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