Momodora creator Guilherme “rdein” Martins recently announced Bombservice’s next title, Record of Dorathia. A turn-based dungeon crawler RPG, the game focuses on the magi, twelve weavers of fate who were briefly mentioned in Momodora: Moonlit Farewell.
Developed by the four-person team responsible for creating Momodora II, Record of Dorathia puts you in control of a party that finds itself transported to a location known only as the Observatory. The party was summoned by the magi Monna, whom you enter a covenant with to find the lost soul of her sister, Alma.
Combat is turn-based, with many of your actions having a limited number of uses. Record of Dorathia places emphasis on status effects (of which there are many), and victory requires you to exploit enemy weaknesses as well as manage various buffs and debuffs.
Bosses are also susceptible to different status effects, meaning your experiences fighting lesser monsters will not go to waste. As an example, while lesser enemies hit with the Sleep spell are vulnerable to a guaranteed critical hit, using the same spell on a boss applies the Drowsy status effect. This reduces their attack power and agility for a set number of turns.
Rdein is also working on what he calls a “Willpower” mechanic. By landing critical hits, targeting weaknesses, and getting kills, you gain one stack of Willpower. Obtaining three stacks allows you to buff your next action and not consume one of its uses. In addition to offensive actions, the Willpower mechanic also works on support actions such as healing and reviving fallen party members.
The game’s party system features four active characters and eight classes. The Dark Knight and Oathkeeper classes fall into the “tank” role, the Cleric and Oracle fill the “healer” and “support” roles, and the Blademaster, Monk, Hunter, and Witch serve as the four main “attacker” classes. Each class has a distinct playstyle, and you can customize the color palettes of each of your party members.
Record of Dorathia was inspired by “choose your own adventure” books and began life as a digital gamebook experiment created by rdein in 2019. While he would change it from a game to a tabletop RPG later on, it eventually fizzled out and was left unfinished. Fast forward to 2024 and the release of Momodora: Moonlit Farewell, and rdein started dedicating his time to what would become Record of Dorathia.
Rdein admits that working on an RPG has been very challenging as opposed to his previous work on Momodora. While Momodora’s basic actions such as jumping could be programmed in one afternoon, Record of Dorathia took weeks and months of work just to get things feeling exactly how the devs wanted them to be. Rdein cites the Chrono series, Final Fantasy, Etrian Odyssey, and Pokémon Gold/Silver as inspirations for Record of Dorathia.
Record of Dorathia is currently in development and will not feature AI use of any kind. A trailer and Steam page are planned for the near future. You can keep up with the game’s updates on rdein’s X or Bluesky accounts.
Related: Beloved indie metroidvania series Momodora ends on a high note with Momodora: Moonlit Farewell
