Guacamelee! dev's next game, Severed, looks twisted, brilliant
A first-person dungeon crawler where you steal foes' limbs.
The Toronto-based Drinkbox Studios has a penchant for bright, colourful, cheery games like Mutant Blobs Attack and Guacamelee!, and while its upcoming game, Severed, is certainly bright and colourful, it's anything but cheery.
Revealed in the following trailer, Severed follows the story of a "distraught warrior" who seemingly slices off enemies' limbs then claims them as her own. Brutal!
The core gameplay will be a first-person dungeon crawler with gesture-based controls in the vein of Infinity Blade. But unlike Chair's medieval brawler, Severed will feature non-linear exploration as players feel their way through this foreboding world. Lead designer Greg Lesky likened the level structure to Mega Man in an interview with Destructoid. "You can go down one path, or you can try going down one path and if it's not really working you can go down a different path and try that path, get the new piece of armour or whatever it is from that path, and then try that first path again [as] you'll be more upgraded."
Furthermore, there will be a magic system that can be used for both combat and exploration as you'll be able to interact with the environment to find secrets, ala The Legend of Zelda.
Severed will also feature a soundtrack by Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, whose music you can hear in the reveal trailer above.
So far Severed is slated for mobile devices in spring 2015, but it could spread to other platforms as well. According to Destructoid, the developer would consider other touchscreen platforms like the Vita, 3DS and Wii U, as well as other motion-based affairs like Kinect and the PlayStation Move if it makes sense. Other gesture-based mobile affairs like Fruit Ninja made the touchscreen to Kinect transition, but Infinity Blade did no such thing, so we'll have to take the wait and see approach to this one as Drinkbox tinkers around with various dev kits over the next year or so.
