Remember when you’d walk around in an RPG and your party would trail behind the leader, unmoving or maybe (if they were lucky) having two frames of animation that would turn on and off? Other than the Dragon Quest games, not many titles have deliberately copied that retro look. Enter AntharioN, an indie CRPG from Orphic Software.

Having just revealed its release date as July 15th, Orphic Software also recently opened the game’s Steam page as well as a pre-order form via their own website. Though it’s easy to pass it off as another old-school indie RPG, the long years of development it has been subjected to have given it quite a bit more depth then you’d expect.

So what exactly is AntharioN? Other than emulating the style of Origin’s early Ultima games, it promises to focus on complete freedom by allowing the player to do whatever they want so long as they are ready to face the consequences. The idea is to allow the player to do anything, go anywhere, and play in any style they so wish. With a large world and a completely open-ended storyline, that shouldn’t be too hard to guarantee.

Borrowing mechanics from some of his favorite RPGs, Ari Rae-Silver mentioned in an interview a few years back that the goal with AntharioN was to create a living breathing world similar to what was first seen in Ultima 7. NPCs have real schedules that involve them walking about town and having a meal at the local pub. Every single item can be interacted with in some fashion. If you see it, you can steal it…but be prepared for citizens to tell the guards, which in turn bring more guards to the area as they chase you through town. The idea is interaction, sandbox gameplay and complete freedom. Quite a lofty goal for an indie CRPG.

Of course there are those cute character designs too.

You can read more about AntharioN on Orphic Software’s Orphic Software’s website. The title will be available for PC, Mac and iOS.