Athenian Rhapsody follow-up Tales of Tuscany announced

Publisher Top Hat Studios and developer Nico Papalia have announced Tales of Tuscany, a “WarioWare-soaked open-world RPG” follow-up to the 2024-released Athenian Rhapsody. It will launch for “whatever you play games on,” including PC via Steam, in 2026.

Here is an overview of the game, via Top Hat Studios:

About

Tuscany has been obliterated by the evil wizard Thunder Goober for his own personal entertainment! Play as Lambypoo and adventure through the broken land of Tuscany, either making friends and having them join your team or defeating enemies for their EXP in your efforts to save your cousins and reunite Tuscany…

Each journey through Tuscany is completely unique to the player at the wheel, and you’ll be awarded something called a Rhapsody each time you complete the game—a postcard which details your entire playthrough which you can trade cross-platform between friends! You’re tasked with reuniting Tuscany, but nobody is telling you how… do whatever you want!

What Kind of Stuff is in This Game?

Tales of Tuscany is a fast-paced, hilarious RPG where you control your own story. Build a team of misfits to take on bosses with and make choices that shape the world around you! Features include…

• Befriend Every Enemy, and They’ll Join Your Team! – In Tales of Tuscany, you don’t have to defeat enemies for their EXP… if you’re clever, you can find a way to BEFRIEND them, and they’ll join your team—complete with their own stats, BURST skills, and personalities. Pretty much every enemy in this game can join your party, aside from some special bosses… You can even find shiny versions of them all, too!
• Varying Battle Mechanics… What Genre Even Is This? – Crucial battles throughout your journey will flip the battle mechanics upside down! You’ll find yourself carving pumpkins, surfing waves at the public pool, filling out paper work, and even stealing money from old people to progress through Tuscany!
• This Game is Hilarious – Look, I might be a little bit biased because I did make the game and now I’m writing this, but… This game seriously is pretty funny. It’s lighthearted, goofy, and not over the top with toilet humor or anything. It’s like a fine, tasteful sort of funny that leaves your soul feeling nice and gets your social battery all charged up.
• A Whole Button Dedicated to Going “Baaa” – It seems pretty funny and pointless, which it could be, but… Using the “Baaa” button allows you to interact with the overworld in new ways—destroy rocks for items and money, speak to NPC’s, blow up cars and shatter windows, this “Baaa” has powers greater than we will ever understand!
• Choose Your Own Adventure! – Tuscany is left in a state of disarray… which is the perfect time to come in and make everything worse! You can actively choose to rebuild your Village and unlock epic upgrades such as the ability to defeat enemies in the overworld using your “Baaa,” changing Lambypoo’s color, and many more amenities—or, you can take advantage of the chaos and grab control of Tuscany through brute force… Your decisions small and large will all shape the world around you!
• Trade Collectibles Cross-Platform – Earn a postcard called a “Rhapsody” at the end of every unique playthrough that you can trade amongst your friends cross platform! These Rhapsodies are highly customizable, and contain all of your stats and decisions, plus an awesome photo that you get to take in-game!

Bla Bla Bla I’m a Sheep. Alright I Get That Part. What is Like, the Actual Story?

The world of Tuscany was an ancient, undisturbed land until the evil wizard Thunder Goober shattered through the atmosphere from the realm of Elysium—he then struck Tuscany with a giant bolt of lightning, completely obliterating your home town and sending all of your cousins flying all over the map! The hole in the atmosphere also began leaking EXP particles, which when collected by Tuscanos makes them stronger, but also crazy!

Now, Lambypoo has the chance to travel around Tuscany and save every cousin, which will help to rebuild new facilities at The Village—but Thunder Goober may have an underlying reason for causing all of this mayhem… No spoilers, you have to play the game! Hehe got you

Can You Explain the “Rhapsody” Part Again? (I Was on the Phone With My Mom, Sorry)

Okay listen up buster—this game is a choose-your-own-adventure, which means you can choose your own adventure. You can choose to collect an obscene amount of EXP, just a little bit, or none at all—you can choose to help or harm many characters around the world for reasons of your own and circumvent issues in more ways than one… Through all of these choices, a visual recreation of your Tale (in Tuscany) is created for you to bring into the real world and use to share your experience with friends. Tales of Tuscany is not meant to just be a singe-player-game, but also serve as a communication tool to share your experiences and compare/contrast amongst your friends, and even trade valuable keepsakes if you really trust each other.

Is This Game “Good” And / Or “Fun”?

Yes it’s so good. You can join a multi level marketing scheme, roll around a spicy dung-beetle-ball, get a corporate job, blow up cars, shoot your friends out of cannons so they explode, and there’s even a public pool. I know I mentioned that before but seriously who doesn’t like the public pool it’s the best place on earth…

Watch the announcement trailer below.

Announce Trailer