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Action RPG · Open worldOut now
Ashen Meridian
A cartographer-turned-warden maps a continent split by a frozen eclipse in this weighty, stamina-driven action RPG.
ReleasedSep 24, 2026
DeveloperLanternfall Studios
PublisherNorthgate Interactive
PlatformsPC · PS5 · Xbox Series X|S
8.5Our scoreGreat: read review
About the game
Ashen Meridian is set on the Verge, a continent where the sun stopped moving three hundred years ago and left one half in permanent dusk and the other in scorched noon. You play a royal cartographer pressed into service as a warden, charting the line between the two halves while the ruins along it start to wake up.
Combat is deliberate and stamina-driven, built around a stance system that lets you shift between a guarded “ledger” posture and an aggressive “compass” posture mid-combo. Every map you draw becomes a usable item: completed charts reveal shortcuts, reposition fast-travel waystones, and unlock modifiers for the region’s bosses.
Lanternfall Studios’ first open-world project pairs a hand-built main path with a sprawl of optional ruins, each with its own small story told through the notes of the surveyors who went in before you.
Our review
8.5/ 10
Great · reviewed on PS5
Ashen Meridian review: a cartographer’s action RPG that makes every map feel earned
Ashen Meridian is a demanding, deliberate action RPG whose cartography system turns exploration into a reward loop all its own. A sluggish opening and a few overstuffed late-game regions hold it back, but the combat, the bosses, and that eerie half-lit continent will stay with you.
News
Ava Lindqvist on Why Ashen Meridian Got Smaller Before It Got Better
Lanternfall’s game director explains the decision to cut the Verge down to a single band of land, where the stance system came from, and why every map you draw is also a weapon.
Two Lanternfall Veterans Open Kindling Works, a Lisbon Studio Built to Stay Small
Former Ashen Meridian leads Jonas Ekberg and Sade Adeyemi have founded a 22-person studio with a hard headcount cap and no publisher, at least for now.
Guides
Ashen Meridian Beginner’s Guide: Everything to Know Before You Cross the Line
Which origin to pick, how ledger and compass stances really work, where to spend your first Ash, and why finishing every chart makes the Wardens easier to beat.