on Kickstarter in 2018, and released for PC on March 26th, 2019. It is set in a Steampunk fantasy world called Ree'Fah, where implants or items allow users to wield light and dark either, and humans live side by side with Eleores, the general name given to the multiple species of anthropomorphic animals (who in turn call humans "Liv").The story begins with a nation of Bespierre attacking its neighbour Brann. Both are majorly Liv; however, Brann still considers its Eleore inhabitants citizens, whereas Bespierrian laws enshrine discrimination against them, to the point it's legal to enslave them. While fending off an assault on his hometown, Brann warrior Alister Garuda is challenged by a Valkyrie - a Besperrian warrior riding a hoverbike. He manages to latch onto her ride, and fights her there, but is ultimately pushed off, and falls into the Forest of Shadows.
There, he finds a pile of dead bodies, all wearing identical cargo pants. Only one of them is still alive, and it's a boy named Kiba. He lost all his memories, but it soon becomes apparent he can interact with the flows of ether without needing any equipment. Alister pledges to deliver him to the city to get taken care of: what he doesn't know is that the boy got his powers due to a savage round of human experimentation, and the Mad Scientist responsible has no intention of letting his only breakthrough get away that easily...
No relation to another 2019 game featuring a lot of anthropomorphic animals, Eastshade.
Tropes present in Grimshade:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Alister and Kiba make their way into the city from the Forest of Shadows through these. In fact, Alister literally decides to follow the trail of sewer water as a way to get into the city.
- Anti-Grinding: There's a fixed number of combat encounters and you get absolutely no experience from them, only raw materials.
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only have four characters active in your party at any one time.
- Back Stab: Ruby can instantly slip behind the enemy to stab them in the back.
- Blob Monster: Large toothy blobs of dark ether that spit damaging energy are some of the first enemies you fight.
- Bloodless Carnage: During battle, combatants may bleed in response to some physical attacks, but their fallen bodies are absolutely unblemished.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Darcy decides to rob Alister of the crystal he found (over the objections of his underlings who don't want to piss off a Champion), the battle is over in one turn, as it only takes a single backstab for Darcy to incapacitate Alister.
- Dialogue Tree: The conversations are carried out in this manner. Kiba can even question himself on the decisions he's making, with the player then providing an answer they feel would best fit his personality through a dialogue tree.
- Easy Amnesia: Kiba, a boy found by Alister in the forest, remembers his name and nothing else.
- Equipment-Based Progression: The main kind of progression in the game, as there's no experience to earn or levels to gain, so gaining or crafting new equipment becomes paramount.
- Evil Vizier: Gorsk, the advisor of Brann King Wilhelm Ainheim. He also managed to take control of the king by pumping his blood full of dark ether.
- Evolving Title Screen: The main menu shows the characters in your party. As it gains new members, the title screen correspondingly expands with new additions. Similarly, the loading screen will show the current members of the party running underneath it.
- Flunky Boss: King Wilhelm Ainheim regularly teleports in reinforcements through his dark ether powers.
- The Good King: King Wilhelm Ainheim, the ruler of Brann. Unfortunately, he got mind-controlled by his advisor Gorsk after he managed to pump him full of dark ether.
- Glowing Eyes: Dark Progenies, the first creatures of the dark you encounter, have eyes that glow bright purple.
- Hand Blast: King Wilhelm Ainheim can attack with a jet of dark ether from his palms.
- Heel–Face Turn: Sillie, the Valkyrie who Alister fights in the opening, joins your side at the end of the first act.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Subverted, as the starting hero and the most heroic character in your party, Alister, fights with a spear. Meanwhile, the only sword-like weapon user is Sillie, who fights with a rapier, but is a Bespierre Valkyrie, and initially antagonistic to your group.
- High-Class Glass: Gorsk Pershaw, the advisor to Brann King, wears a monocle.
- Idiot Hero: Alister balances between being merely naive and this.
- Item Crafting: Present, though rarely used.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: One of the issues in the release version of the game.
- Magic Missile: The militaries of both Brann and Bespierre have soldiers who cast magical projectiles from their staffs.
- Mook Medic: Bright Mothers are essentially nuns that heal allies during combat.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: Characters who run out of HP during combat are merely downed, and will recover if you win the fight. However, they'll also gain a permanent injury on all but the easiest difficulties.
- Notice This: The interactable objects are highlighted in yellow.
- Old Master: Charlie, the badger-like Elorian, is the oldest character in your party. He served with Alister's father, and acted as a mentor to Alister when his father died.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: All factions have these, as their role is to protect the ranged combatants directly behind them from getting hit by physical attacks.
- Shock and Awe: There are electrical attacks. A target hit with them once has a "Spark" status effect. Getting hit with them again converts "Spark" to "Discharge", which then becomes "Shock". If the target lives long enough to receive a fourth blow, it gets outright stunned.
