Outward

Outward is an open-world fantasy RPG developed by Canadian studio Nine Dots Studio, which was released on March 26, 2019. The game can be played in co-operative multiplayer both online and locally (through splitscreen). The game focuses on exploration as well as the concept of the player being a commoner rather than a hero, and features several survival game aspects.

New Player Guide
See the New Player Guide for advice for first-time players, and a more in-depth summary of Outward's major systems.

Game Support
Please contact the developer, or visit their Discord if you need support.

You can also Submit a Bug Report with the official Google Form.

Version History
See Version History for a list of updates to Outward.

DLC
The following downloadable content is available for Outward:
 * The Soroboreans
 * The Three Brothers

Gameplay
On top of more traditional Action RPG gameplay, Outward includes several survival aspects, such as having to carefully watch one's temperature, hunger, fatigue and Drink. It's also possible for the player character to suffer from such conditions as a cold and other diseases. Losing all of one's health in battle can lead to a variety of consequences, including being imprisoned by enemies or being brought back to safety by an NPC.

The game has an auto-save system, meaning the player is unable to manually save and return to earlier saves upon death or other such setbacks. While the game has a magic system, spells were specifically designed to be challenging to obtain. Similarly, skills and stat increases must all be earned by completing quests for NPCs or paying experts to receive training. Quests have multiple outcomes, and success or failure can permanently affect the game world and how the story progresses, such as a character being convinced to stay in a faction, or an important city being permanently destroyed if the player fails to kill certain characters.

Story
The game starts with the player character, an inhabitant of the city of Cierzo, getting shipwrecked off the coast of their home city. They had previously inherited a debt called a Blood Price from their ancestors, a debt that must be periodically paid. A Blood Price affects all members of a given family, and the voyage was meant to pay it off. Now penniless, and despite having barely survived the deadly wreck, they are given only five days by the desperate townsfolk to pay off this debt and retain the family holdings.

Once this debt has been paid, or the players home has been seized, the player is given multiple ways to react to their unfair situation and the true story begins. They can free themselves of their bloodline by joining the Holy Mission of Elatt, enter a new spotless bloodline by helping the Blue Chamber Collective, or free themselves of the entire system through the Heroic Kingdom of Levant. These three factions are trapped in a stalemate; the Blue Chamber wants to uphold the current status quo, the Kingdom of Levant wants to overthrow the unfair Blood Price system and let people live for themselves, and the Holy Mission similarly rejects the bloodline and social systems upheld by the Blue Chamber but only because it hinders the forming of a unified front against the common enemy of mankind, an otherworldly force called the Scourge.

After the player joins a faction, the stalemate starts to crack and global events begin to progress. The main part of the story consists of parallel storylines, one for each of these factions, all of which are perspectives of the bigger story. Main quests have time limits, though these are typically at least one month.

Nine Dots Studio
Creative Director
 * Guillaume Boucher-Vidal

Vice-President
 * Natasha Collin

Programmers
 * Aurélie Clémençon
 * Pier-Luc Tremblay
 * Pierre-Tuan Vallée
 * Philippe Vincenti
 * Nathaniel Morasse-Gaudreau

Game Designers
 * Simon Roof
 * Sven Mestas
 * Dominic Carpentier

Intern Game Designer
 * Mika Rivard

3D Artists


 * Alexandre Desveaux
 * Pascal Maltais
 * Étienne Vanier
 * Jules Riou

3D Animator


 * Gabriel Vézina-Thibodeau

Concept Artist


 * Sharam Sunstrum

Writers


 * Philip Eloy
 * Gautier Knittel

Senior QA


 * Pierre-Alexis Bourgoin
 * Samuel Pronovost

See Also
 * Silverjack Audio (Audio/Music)
 * Deep Silver (Publisher)
 * Grip Digital (Console Port)