My fellow Defenders of Linirea, retreivers of the Hammer of Ages, slayers of
gods! You have done it all, besting any foe and overcoming any challenge.
But now, it’s time for a new world order. You can accomplish playing as the good guys, but can you do the same as the villains?
Kingdom Rush: Vengeance introduces to us the return of Vez’nan, the dark wizard who originally had possession over the Tear of Elynie and nearly conquered all of Linirea with his army of demons, orcs, trolls, and more. The tear has been in many other hands, notably the lizard king, Malagar, the Twilight Elf Queen, Malicia, an unknown alien, and even Sha’tra in the late future. But none are more worthy than the one true Dark Lord!
So, this thread is dedicated to the speculation and discussion over what we think will be present in the game and what we hope or wish is present. I’ll be more than happy to begin:
Here we see the lush, green, lively Linirea from afar, with a cameo from Twin Rivers, though this could just simply be a generic river to show us how verdant Linirea is. Looking closely, one can see many round, circular little bushes that
were not present in KR1, but were in KRO, where the Gnolls would hide to ambush us. Again, it could simply mean nothing, but the point of a thread like this is to find every detail and speculate on it.
The main focus here is, of course, the fact that we’re seeing Linirea again at all. My speculation here is that the game will take place primarily in KR1’s map, and not use Frontier’s or Origins’ map for the main campaign. Rather, the Elite Stages will tale us there, while the base campaign focuses on Vez’nan’s journey across Linirea to seek vengeance. After all, the site of his defeat takes place here.
This is the last image we see in the trailer of an environment. I‘ve chosen to post this now rather than later in the thread because of the clear contrast to the first image of Linirea. This is the same Linirea, now ravaged by Vez’nan and his armies. Due to it being shown at the end, I suspect this is the end of the game, with the Citadel as the final level. Of course, it’s very plausible to believe that this is shown at the end for the sake of contrasting Linirea
before Vez’nan’s return and Linirea
after his return, without any relevance to the direction of the main campaign. Linirea could very well be the
first set of stages, akin to KR1. Regardless of its position in the campaign, I strongly suspect that The Citadel will be the final stage for this set of missions, as it is featured right in the center of both images.
The next environment shown to us is this ice one. Unlike the Hak’raj mountains or Frozen Highlands where we see Sarelgaz, this one is much more watery, which makes me think of the Valoras terrain in the upper middle of the KR1 map. KR1 is the only game so far with any ice stages, so this supports the idea that we’re focusing on its map in this game.
The sparse ice platforms in the water lead me to believe that either the water or the ice is a hazard, with the other terrain being the ”safe” terrain. Whether it’s hazardous ice that cracks under troops’ feet or slows them down with shallow waters that can be traversed, or hazardous icy water that slows and damages units while the ice is the only solid ground available is a mystery to me. I really hope they use the environment to make a really awesome feel to the movement of units. Imagine a hero traversing the shallow, cold waters surrounded by ice platforms, with puddles and waves forming around their feet at each step. That level of detail couldn’t be expected from most other game studios, but with Ironhide, it’s something that might actually be there and that really means a lot.
So, what is Vez’nan doing here? Could he be seeking vengeance not only on the humans who foiled his plans but also the troll and spider minions that failed him? I personally doubt it, as it seems much more likely that he instead is traveling to the icy lands to find new evil beings to gain their allegiance, even if he has to fight his way there. The same pacts he made with Sarelgaz or Moloch could be made again with new creatures.
Though, considering the orc and demon towers shown to us by Ironhide already, I actually anticipate us seeing old faces when we journey to the frost lands, such as the trolls and spiders, and unlocking them as towers.
Here we see a much darker and warmer location. It feels very reminiscent of the Dwarves for the gold chests, bearded statues and even the door in the center of the picture with a prominent bearded face for a design. The cavernous nature of this environment also reminds me of the 2 environment types we already know are connected to the Dwarves: The Saurian stages and the Forgotten Treasures stages, both of which are cavernous. I don’t suspect this environment to be the same as either of them, though. It will likely be a new environment, perhaps the main home of the Dwarves, where Vez’nan will wipe them out to extinction.
If we are following the images in chronological order for the campaign, then it could be that Vez’nan is seeking aid from new (but also old) evil creatures in order to help him bring down the Dwarves.
Here, we see a Blackburn/Shadowmoon campaign’s signature zombie hand, cawing crow, and graves. All of which surround the ominous glowing tower in the center of the image. Could this be the Dark Tower, rebuilt to be bigger, badder, and have a lower tax rate? Or is it the towering fortress of some other entity, which we must assault as part of Vez’nan’s wave of destruction? Repeating my speculation for the ice levels, I could see Vez’nan seeking the help of the undead, even if he must fight his way through them.
However, of the environments shown, the grasslands, ice terrain, and now the dark terrain above all connect to the original 3 environments in KR1: The grasslands of Linirea from Southport to The Citadel, the snowy mountains from The Coldstep Mines up to the Stormcloud Temple, and the dark, rotten terrain from The Wastes up until the Dark Tower itself.
The Dwarven lands do not fit into this but they are certainly a welcome addition should the theory hold true that we are journeying back through all of KR1’s map. Maybe they’re even part of a mini campaign available upon release?
The demonic terrain here deceived me at first. I thought we were being teased with returning to the underworld in a really cool depiction of a hellish environment that had multiple layers of depth, with really low cavernous terrain accompanied by much higher terrain almost reminiscent of the city in the sky we saw at the end of Origins. However, I since realized this is much more similar to the previous picture of the Dwarven environment ee were shown earlier, with the statues desecrated and door busted open.
As with Linirea, we are shown the destruction of the Dwarves and their lands after Vez’nan achieves his vengeance there.
We see the same fate befall the ice environment. Why is it destroyed? Did Vez’nan seek vengance on those who failed him after all? Did he need to decimate this environment to show his power and force the creatures there to obey him?
We see a burning capital city in the middle there; the only time the center of the image wasn’t touched upon by me was for the ice environment.
This is it. Very beautiful and shiny, it seems unlike anything we’ve ever seen before in the series. Perhaps all of my previous speculation is far off from the truth, and we’re being introduced to some new ally of Linirea to defeat. Since Linirea houses the humans and the caverns house the Dwarves, could it be that this snowy environment is home to the Elves?
Not much is certain at this point other than we will be playing as Vez’nan’s forces, we will have Orc and Demon towers available to us, and we will be seeing Linirea again, before and after it is ravaged and burned like the other environments.
I have very high hopes for this game and confidence in Ironhide to deliver.
New heroes and towers!