Demonicon

Demonicon is a role-playing game with action combat set in the Dark Eye universe. The player takes the role of Cairon who searches for his sister Calandra who fled from a forced wedding. Unfortunately evil forces have something sinister in its sleeve for the siblings... While the universe is usually known for high-fantasy stories, this game is set in the Shadow Lands and deals with darker themes.

The character system is loosely based on the Dark Eye system: the protagonist earns adventure points (AP) by solving quests and killing enemies. However, the game does not have classes or character levels: AP are directly invested into the Cairon's abilities. Those are divided into attributes (which either directly influence combat-related statistics or talents), combat moves (use endurance) and four spells with three upgrades each (use mana). Talents are skills which are used outside combat (e.g. convincing other people, picking locks or crafting); they are both influenced by attributes and can be directly increased. The game does not use dice rolls for talent uses and requires a certain value for success.

Combat is hack & slash based: Cairon fights his enemies with melee weapons and uses his dodging roll, special abilities and spells when necessary. The goal is to have long uninterrupted hit series for bonuses. Besides fighting, the game emphasizes dialogues and moral decisions (for example what to do with a cannibal or which faction to support) which have consequences along the way. Each chapter is set in a confined area, e.g. the city Warunk, which can be explored, but the majority of the game is spent with main and side quests.