Aether & Iron Preview | PAX West 2025

Influenced by tabletop games and visual novels, Aether & Iron is a narrative RPG that caught my attention at PAX West. While it’s still a work in progress, the voice-acted sections I played were impressively done. It quickly became one of the titles I’m most looking forward to.

The game’s setting and characters were the first things that intrigued me. I play as Gia, a smuggler hoping that the next job will be her last. It’s a trope I’ve seen before, but the environment and character interactions gave it a fresh feel. The story is set in 1930s New York, and while the characters’ attire and building designs reflect the era, the city itself floats in the sky, powered by aether, a resource tightly controlled by the rich and powerful.

During my interactions with characters, I had the chance to bluff my way out of situations or press for more information. These choices were determined by dice rolls, and while I was surprised by my luck, the game always showed me my chances of success. Talking to the team at PAX, it sounds like as Gia levels up, she will gain additional dice or bonuses to improve those odds. It’s a neat system, and I like the tabletop influence. Even when I failed a roll, it never felt like it ruined the experience.

The writing is excellent. New York may be glitzy on the surface, but Gia lives in the underworld, highlighting the contrast between the two worlds. Each character I interacted with also had surprising depth. For example, the mob boss I was working for came across as shady, yet the person I was sent to protect on his behalf saw him as kind and generous. Even the seemingly prim and proper woman I was guarding had an intriguing background. She is a scientist who believes in the good in people, but her research places her in the middle of political conflict. For much of what I played, the characters were fully voice-acted, which added even more weight to the story and the people within it.

Combat is part of the game as well, and I only had the chance to play one battle. The system revolves around cars, with the streets laid out in grids. Each turn, I had a set number of action points to move my vehicle and launch different attacks. I could also use the environment to take out enemies, though this apparently comes with the risk of earning a bad reputation. I did not run into that myself, since I played Gia as a smuggler with a heart of gold. What will be interesting to see is whether the combat stays fresh, given that car encounters are the only battle sequences in the game.

I left PAX West wanting to play more of Aether & Iron, which is always a good sign. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until next year to see how the full game comes together.