One take a look at new stop-motion Metroidvania The Spirit of the Samurai is greater than sufficient to seize your consideration. Mixing the side-on 2D motion of Hole Knight or Ori and the Will of the Wisps with a spooky, horror-tinged Japanese setting paying homage to Nioh, its lovingly handcrafted animations make it one of the vital eye-catching video games I’ve seen shortly. But after sitting right down to take a more in-depth take a look at Gamescom 2024, the extent of management you’re given over the way you combat is what’s actually received me over.
Constructed by Digital Thoughts Video games and printed by Kwalee, in The Spirit of the Samurai you combat towards once-dead warriors introduced again to life by a robust Oni. You step into the position of three characters – samurai Takeshi, tiny spirit Kodama, and warrior cat Chisai – every of whom brings a unique side to the gameplay. You’ll must make the most of each weapon and trick at your disposal to tackle the undead warriors and monsters rooted in Japanese mythology as you discover this distinctive 2D Metroidvania.
The main target of fight falls, as you’d count on, to Takeshi, who could make use of a variety of weapons together with katana, bow, and spear. The important thing right here is the way in which that strikes are chained collectively. As you progress, you’ll unlock numerous completely different assaults, every of which might have its personal specialties. A few of these could be extra apparent, reminiscent of a quick swipe or a long-ranged poke, whereas others would require some experimentation. Maybe a sure transfer is superb at coping with shield-bearing enemies; you’ll must attempt it to search out out.
Crucially, it’s as much as you the way you select to mix these abilities. You need to use your unlocked assaults to construct customized combos, every of which will be assigned to varied directional inputs. This offers you full freedom over the way you combat – when you’ve ever been up towards an Elden Ring boss and wished you could possibly strip that slower third hit out of your combo string, in The Spirit of the Samurai you’ll be able to. You too can use the suitable stick as an alternate approach to ship assaults, permitting you to manually make use of any directional combo no matter your present dealing with.
Whereas The Spirit of the Samurai’s distinctive look was already sufficient to seize my curiosity, seeing its combo system in motion completely grabbed my consideration. I spend most likely extra time than I ought to interested by the nuances of weapon movesets, so that is very a lot taking part in to my pursuits. It jogs my memory a bit of the swap abilities applied in Monster Hunter Rise, or – to return a bit additional – the equally designed combo system of stellar however oft-overlooked 2006 PS2 action game, God Hand.
The Spirit of the Samurai is ready to launch within the fourth quarter of 2024. Kwalee says it’s best to count on it to be round eight hours in size, that includes roughly 1,500 handmade animations together with animated cutscenes and full voice performing all through, carried out in English by voice actors of Japanese heritage. I’m actually wanting to see extra – when you’re in the identical place, you’ll be able to wishlist it now on Steam.
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