Children of Zodiarcs is the next Square Enix Collective game, release date set

Cardboard Utopia's deck and dice RPG Children of Zodiarcs stormed Kickstarter earlier this year by accumulating more than five times its original ask. Part of the Square Enix Collective, it's now got a launch date—July 18—and new trailer to boot.

The latter looks something like this:

Citing everything from Final Fantasy Tactics to Shinning Force, Tactics Ogre and board games and collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering, Children of Zodiarcs' raison d'etre is to "both recapture and build upon the spirit of the tactical RPGs that so captivated gamers during the 16-bit and 32-bit eras," so says its creators.

Although Cardboard Utopia is a new indie studio, its staff has worked on a number of big budget games, not least Eternal Darkness, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, The Warriors, and Far Cry 3. With Children of Zodiarcs, the team is clearly moving in a different direction but being smaller in size allows it to be more personable in its approach.

Creative director Jason Kim speaks to that point in a statement: "Having built a community of loyal fans thanks to our Kickstarter campaign, it feels really exciting to lift the lid on just when gamers will be able to get their hands on Children of Zodiarcs."

He adds: "It’s also a nervy time, too. We’ve put everything into delivering an experience that recaptures the joy people felt playing those tactical RPGs all those years ago, and because we’re a small studio, you can see the influence of each and every one of us in the game."

Over on the PlayStation blog, Kim describes he and his team's game as "turn-based, light-hearted with good character development but which [isn't] filled with an overly serious cast that would probably die if they cracked a smile!" With that, Children of Zodiarcs aims to tell a rich story, which also breaks "away from the norm."

Children of Zodiarcs is due July 18.