The Cris Tales devs are making a new turn-based RPG with TWEWY vibes called Prisma

After exploring time as a narrative and mechanical device in Cris Tales, developer Dreams Uncorporated wanted to shift perspectives with their next RPG – literally

Dreams Uncorporated

After exploring time as a narrative and mechanical device in Cris Tales, developer Dreams Uncorporated wanted to shift perspectives with their next RPG – literally. They’re latest project is Prisma, another turn-based RPG, but one that has you changing between 2D and 3D to explore and move the narrative forward. That may sound a bit familiar, especially if you’ve played or watched Super Paper Mario, but as I saw during a brief preview with Dreams CEO Carlos Rocha, Prisma takes the idea of perspective further by filling its cast with multiple versions of the same person.

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Prisma is a proper multiverse setup, not one where a single Alma exists, and her changes cause divergences in the timeline that birth other Almas. Multiple versions of Alma live in different universes under different, sometimes extreme circumstances. Rocha said that, in addition to the idea of perspective, the team wanted to explore how circumstances change who we are and who we become.

I'm sure he's real nice / Dreams Uncorporated

The Alma you first meet has a comparatively normal life and works as an investigative journalist, a role Rocha said his wife, also an investigative journalist, inspired. There’s also a robot-like Alma, for example, who became that way after finding the world – and her emotions – too overwhelming to handle.

Alma recruits her emotionally neutral self and other Alma variants and has to contend with their viewpoints and demands throughout her quest. She can’t make them all happy all the time, and some choices will distance her allies. Rocha tells me certain quests and story avenues will change depending on which Almas the primary Alma chooses to side with, and different conversations with the Alma party will unfold depending on whose relationships are the strongest.

Even the important NPCs are different Almas, including the local merchant, an Alma who, Rocha says with a chuckle, fell so fully under the spell of capitalism that she decided to become a salesperson.

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Rocha says Dreams Uncorporated based Prisma, Alma’s home city, and all the ideas and creatures in it on Colombian folklore. Though Rocha doesn’t make the connection himself, I see in its creatures, style, and architecture glimpses of the same passion for a place and its culture that Square Enix poured into The World Ends With You. What you’re actually doing here and how changing perspectives helps advance the story is still a bit unclear, as Dreams Uncorporated kept most of the narrative details close.

Instead, I saw a fair bit of Prisma’s battles. It uses a physics-based system where things like angles and collision make an important difference to how your attack plays out.   Some of the rules seem a little arbitrary, admittedly. An enemy with a reflect status takes no damage from a direct attack, but if you bounce that attack off another object, it can pierce their shield. Logically, it shouldn’t, but the concept of thinking about the battlefield on multiple levels and how Dreams Uncorporated are using physics captured my interest regardless.

Prisma aims to use the actual field of battle in inventive ways / Dreams Uncorporated

Alma’s camera charges during battle, and once that charge maxes out, she can activate a special lens with unique effects. The first was a fisheye lens that curved the battlefield and let the party of Almas hook their attacks to reach behind the opposing team’s front line. I asked what tlese the camera could do and accidentally derailed the preview, but got a closer look at how complex later fights can become. 

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In one fight, the fisheye lens lets the party ignore a row of shielded enemies and strike their leader – another Alma with seemingly less savory motives. Rocha swapped it out for a lens with a shatter effect that smashes part of the battlefield. Attacks that pass through this shattered space will fragment and fly off in multiple directions, which is useful for targeting several enemies, but comes with risks of its own. Among other things, enemies can use this effect on you as well.

Dreams Uncorporated has a sizeable portion of Prisma completed, but the team is also planning a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to help ensure they can finish the project.