Are you a fan of dark, unforgiving worlds where everything's against you and there's no end in sight? Well, bully for you! Buka Entertainment has a 2D fantasy combat game in the works for Switch that you might want to keep a weary eye on — if 2020 didn't grind down your enthusiasm for unrelenting bleakness, that is.
Demon Skin is the freshly-announced title from developer Ludus Future (or LUDUS FUTURE, if the shouty caps of the press release is to be replicated) which features 2.5D combat in a grisly world, with RPG-style skill trees, weapons and other trinkets that you'll use to battle a menagerie of fiends, brutes and other demonic spawn in a fight for survival. It's always a fight for survival when pointy weapons are involved.
As you can see from the trailer above (and the screens below if you scroll down), the game gives off a 2D Souls-ian scent, with the merest whiff of 'Vania. Apparently you take control of a Wanderer — a violent chap who loves nothing more than lobbing axes, looting downed demons and generally getting stuck in. The PR blurb highlights "an intuitive combat stance system", so the focus appears to be on slow-and-steady combat. It's out in two weeks on PC, with console releases to follow later in the year.
Sound interesting? Here's some extracts from the PR blurb with some more info, plus some screens for flavour:
Sophisticated combat system. Improve your skills by mastering various stances for lightning-fast parrying and inflicting maximum damage with spectacular finishing moves! Keep an eye on the level of stamina and other indicators of the character’s physical condition - all these features directly affect the outcome of the battle.
An extensive skill tree. Gain experience to learn new combos and enhance health, stamina, and attack power.
Dozens of enemy types. From skeletons, zombies, and spiders to werewolves, lizards, and golems - fighting each of them requires a different approach.
Huge arsenal for killing monsters. There are more than 30 types of edged and blunt weapons at your disposal and each type is only effective against a certain type of enemies. You can even destroy enemies with your bare hands - it’s not as effective but still a lot of fun.
Secrets and artifacts. Some rare and ancient artifact weapons are hidden in the secret places of the game world. Find it to unlock the impressive super skills after achieving a certain level.
A demon on the outside, a demon within. Collect shards of Crystal and become even stronger, build up your bone armour and turn into a fearsome demon.
Gloomy landscapes in the spirit of dark fantasy. From the icy wastelands and deep dungeons to the twilight forests and abodes of the undead. This cruel world lives a life of its own, but terrifying creatures that inhabit it are not always hostile. On your way, you will not only meet enemies but also powerful allies.
Let us know below if the trailer piqued your interest.
Comments 14
The sasquatch creature's face looks like an animatronic...creepy.
Looks cool, but it doesn’t look very readable.
Doesn't interest me, but I'm someone here would like it.
Looks pretty cool, although it does kind of remind me of the 3ds Lords of Shadow game, which wasn't all that great.
Honestly, looks visually nice but kinda-sorta barebones.
Is this going to be another uninspired roguelite? Hope not.
I love the 2d soulslikes but there's something that visually puts me off. Maybe it's sort of too intense color wise? And as such it reminds those cheap hidden objects games?
It's God of war 2-D! Looks kinda cool I guess.
@OldManHermit yeah Castlevania Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate and the Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate game have basically destroyed the concept of 2.5D in my mind. I don’t mind depth to backgrounds like the 3Dish effect from Shovel Knight or Ori and the Blind Forest or Hollow Knight but when you have a Metroidvania that relies on a sprawling map and revisiting places you can’t have the map look 2D but also go “around corners”. This game may or may not be a Metroidvania I’m just giving my opinion on the 2.5D games I played which involved that genre.
@fR0z3nS0u1 with all the deaths in the trailer it’s definitely either rogue-like or souls-like.
Very original /s
I think it looks pretty rad, I wanna play it. A demo would be most welcome!
Doesn’t look all that fluid, and it seemed hard to read the screen when watching the video from my mobile phone. Not sure how much more legible is could be in the switch handheld screen.
another demon type indie game, awsome
So, only way to present the game was the character dying every 5 seconds. No thanks.
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