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 harking back 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 better take a look at Gamescom 2024, the extent of management you’re given over the way you struggle is what’s actually gained me over.
Constructed by Digital Thoughts Video games and printed by Kwalee, in The Spirit of the Samurai you struggle in opposition to once-dead warriors introduced again to life by a strong Oni. You step into the function of three characters – samurai Takeshi, tiny spirit Kodama, and warrior cat Chisai – every of whom brings a special side to the gameplay. You’ll should 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 focus 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, akin to a quick swipe or a long-ranged poke, whereas others would require some experimentation. Maybe a sure transfer is great at coping with shield-bearing enemies; you’ll should strive it to search out out.
Crucially, it’s as much as you ways you select to mix these abilities. You should utilize your unlocked assaults to construct customized combos, every of which may be assigned to varied directional inputs. This provides you full freedom over the way you struggle – in the event you’ve ever been up in opposition to an Elden Ring boss and wished you can strip that slower third hit out of your combo string, in The Spirit of the Samurai you may. It’s also possible to use the suitable stick as an alternate option 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 in all probability extra time than I ought to eager about the nuances of weapon movesets, so that is very a lot taking part in to my pursuits. It jogs my memory a bit of of the swap abilities applied in Monster Hunter Rise, or – to return a bit of additional – the equally designed combo system of stellar however oft-overlooked 2006 PS2 motion sport, God Hand.
The Spirit of the Samurai is ready to launch within the fourth quarter of 2024. Kwalee says you need 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 appearing all through, carried out in English by voice actors of Japanese heritage. I’m definitely wanting to see extra – in the event you’re in the identical place, you may wishlist it now on Steam.
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