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 some of the 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 revealed by Kwalee, in The Spirit of the Samurai you struggle 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 distinct facet 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 spread of weapons together with katana, bow, and spear. The important thing right here is the best way that strikes are chained collectively. As you progress, you’ll unlock a lot of totally different assaults, every of which may have its personal specialties. A few of these is perhaps 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 must strive it to search out out.
Crucially, it’s as much as you the way you select to mix these abilities. You should 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 struggle – for those who’ve ever been up towards an Elden Ring boss and wished you might strip that slower third hit out of your combo string, in The Spirit of the Samurai you may. You too can use the appropriate stick as an alternate solution 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 fascinated about the nuances of weapon movesets, so that is very a lot enjoying to my pursuits. It jogs my memory slightly of the swap abilities carried out in Monster Hunter Rise, or – to return slightly additional – the equally designed combo system of stellar however oft-overlooked 2006 PS2 motion sport, God Hand.
The Spirit of the Samurai is about to launch within the fourth quarter of 2024. Kwalee says it is 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 definitely desperate to see extra – for those who’re in the identical place, you may wishlist it now on Steam.
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