Eric Lang’s samurai successor to Blood Rage, Rising Sun, is finally coming to Kickstarter next month

Contain yourselves: after months of heated anticipation, Eric Lang’s epic samurai game Rising Sun finally has a Kickstarter launch date.

Said to be a spiritual successor to Lang’s lauded Viking strategy title Blood Rage – in that it sits in the same ‘big box’ series and features the same designer, artist, publisher (CMON) and miniature sculptors – Rising Sun takes lengthy negotiation-centric game Diplomacy as its inspiration as opposed to Blood Rage’s tactical action-orientated roots in Risk.

Set in Feudal Japan, Rising Sun sees players managing their clans of samurai, deciding when (and when not) to fight wars, engaging in alliances (and inevitable betrayals) with their rivals and leveraging hostages. There’s also a mythical element, with players able to recruit monsters to aid in their conquest.

According to the scant details available, the game uses the concept of honour as a core mechanic, with players gaining and losing respect as a result of their actions – which can ultimately lead to the suicidal act of seppuku.

“Normally you want to be high in honour because it gives you tremendous bonuses in game,” Lang has said of the system. “However, there are a few strategies (like the usage of [the] hideous Oni) that reward the dishonourable.”

As you might expect from the follow-up to Blood Rage, there will be plenty of plastic minis, pictures of which CMON has been teasing on Facebook in recent weeks.

Rising Sun’s Kickstarter will go live on March 7th.

Lang isn’t hanging around, either – the designer has already confirmed that he’s started working on the next mythic big box game, which “won’t be done for at least a year”.