Gabriela's Gate

Series of role-playing games loosely "inspired by" the mythology of the Taznikanze and the ancient World of Mana. The series has its widest audience on personal computers, though console ports do exist. Made by HeavyTungsten Games. (Formerly linked to Tasnicology but now operating under the aegis of Saeder-Krupp.)

Originally evolving out of a desire to build a computer game out of the classic "Vikings and Valkyries" tabletop RPG, the Gabriela's Gate games are set in a grim dark fantasy world of burly manly men and strong, busty warrior women. With lurid cover art and advertising promising "sex, swords, and sorcery," the game is noted for it's more "grown up" take on the genre. (Or, at least, an edgy teen's idea of "grown-up.")

Games in the series

• Gabriela's Gate. Mow just called "the first one" or GG1, is a bit too earnest in its desire to approximate table top mechanics which leads to some design and user-interface choices that seem clunky or outdated today. (For example, your character's inventory screen is broken up into his pockets, bandolier, and backpack.) The game is notoriously long (over 300 hours with both expansions) and a little bit dense. The main character has a dizzying variety of race/class combinations available and random stats. The game also has over fifty recruitable characters, though in practice it's really closer to five pallet-swapped characters. Part of the reason that the game had such size is that it was kind of a low-rez, low-tech game with graphics that were relatively primitive even for the day. It did, however, gain a lot of appreciation for a richly detailed world and tactical combat. Purists think this is the only true Gabriela's Gate game.

• Gabriela's Gate II: The 13th Warrior. (Now, confusingly called GGII, or sometimes GG13, or GGII:13). This is the big one, the one everyone knows. This was the studio's first game after coming under Saeder-Krupp management, and it seems Lofwyr wanted to make a splash in the video game sector. The developers cut much of the "fat" from the first game and doubled down on polish, trading the first game's giant quantity of stuff for quality, including dramatically better graphics, streamlined systems removing some of the old table top quirks, and a fully voice-acted cast of characters. Although the recruitable cast is smaller than the first game (only 12; the titular "13th Warrior" is the player created avatar), they are given much more depth and a relationship and romance system clearly inspired by the Tenbu Saga games. The game has received several major expansions and has a very active modding community.

• Gabriela's Gate: The Ties That Bind. (GGTTB, or "the handheld one.") This game is a bit of an odd duck in the series in more ways than one. For one, it was expressly developed for the Manaboy Handheld Gaming System, rather than personal computer or console. It also departs significantly from the dark, pseudo-realistic aesthetic of the series; due to the graphical limitations of a handheld device, the game opts for a more animated style. This led to many fans criticizing it for being "dumbed down" or "not dark enough," and the lack of a sex scene in the game has led it to be derided as a "kid-friendly" version. Part of the reason for this disjunction is that the game was originally made by another studio under another tittle and acquired by Saeder-Krupp partway through production, and then reworked to fit with the more well-known Gabriela's Gate IP. The game has a much narrower, more intimate scope than the other games, focusing on a family of explorers. The ending has been known to make grown men shed manly tears. Controversy over the art style and its handheld release led to the game reaching a small audience, but the people who played it love it.

• Gabriela's Gate: Chains of Helene. (CCCoH). A more action-oriented RPG featuring Helene, a breakout fan favorite character from GGII, and focusing more on Mnemosophylae, the in-game expy of Krace. The game as more visceral combat but de-emphasizes some of the "crunchy" RPG aspects, and follows Helene as a main character rather than a player-created hero. These changes from the main formula have led some to consider it "not a true GG game," although most people agree that Helene's various weapons and silky smooth combat showed that developer HeavyTungsten Games had unexpected action chops. (Leading to their vampire slice-and-dice game Scarlet Slayer.)

• Gabriela's Gate Mobile. A smartphone game that was briefly tested in certain markets, but Lofwyr killed it. "A regal being such as I, with a storied game series such as this, should not stoop to the crass cash-grab of the mobile market," he is reputed to have said.

• Gabriela's Gate III: An Age Undreamed Of. Still in development. Promising the RPG depth of the first game, the great story and cast of the second game, and the incredible combat of Chains of Helene, GGIII has some sky-high expectations. In some circles its become a joke that it's never coming.