We would not blame you in the least if you had no recollection of Astaria. This was a suspicious project that was supposed to go into early access back in 2020 but kind of faded off the MMO scene entirely around that time. But as we all know, the good MMOs never seem to come back from the grave while the dubious ones keep turning up like bad pennies.
And Astaria is back, but this time it comes with a new name: Arvita. Like its former version, Arvita is staring longingly at early access but hasn’t quite embraced it yet, with an early access window of, er, Q4 2023. It may slip past that date, though.
Based on the past few years of Discord announcements, Astaria/Arvita looks to be the project of a very limited dev team. It’s run a few tests but has delayed its early access release numerous times since 2019. The game’s currently on the prowl for a publisher as it overhauls its combat system and upgrades to Unreal Engine 5.3.
“Arvita is a hardcore fantasy MMORPG with emphasis on social communities, crafting, party combat, territory capture and player vs. developer (PvD),” the developer describes. “The game’s hardcore aspects focus on difficulty, weight behind combat, item loss (on death or breaking), logistics (food, bandages, ammo, reagents, durability) and the inability to grow too powerful. The story is developed based on how players unfold major events or defeat cataclysmic bosses.”
