Confirmed: Shroud of the Avatar Will Have Female Playable Characters

The latest update to the Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter campaign doesn’t contain a wealth of new information; it basically summarizes and re-states more plainly several facts about the series that have been given in various interviews. For example, concerning the nature of the Shroud of the Avatar series:

Just as Richard Garriott conceived the original Ultimas as a Trilogy of Trilogies (Ultimas 1 thru 9), he has conceived Shroud of the Avatar as encompassing five, full-length games. Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is the first of this epic story, referred to as an Episode, with an estimated release date of October 2014. Forsaken Virtues will stand on its own as a full-length game, with at least 40+ hours of content (and probably much more).

Shroud of the Avatar: Episode 2, will be a second, full-length standalone sequel to Forsaken Virtues, released approximately one year after Forsaken Virtues. The remaining 3 episodes are planned to be released one per year, all as standalone games. They will utilize the same game engine, allowing players to migrate back and forth, traveling a continuum across all Episodes! Once released to the public, each Episode is expected to be priced as a full retail product!

And as a reminder, if you pledge at the $80 level or above at either the Kickstarter campaign or the Shroud of the Avatar website, you’ll get Episodes 2 and 3 as soon as they’re available, at no additional cost.

One piece of information that is new, however, is given evidence in the image above: Portalarium have confirmed that players will be able to select and adventure with a female character. (You can find a full-size download of the new concept art piece demonstrating this at our Concept Art page.)