Hand-Drawn Metroidvania ‘Afterimage’ Releases Next April
Developer Aurogon Shanghai and publisher Modus Games have announced in a new trailer that Metroidvania game Afterimage is set to release on 25 April next year. The game will be available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
Afterimage tells the story of Renee, a girl suffering from amnesia who is seeking to recover her memories through journeying in the vast and magical Engardin world. It is a world filled with beautiful and varied landscapes of all kinds but is also a world where the vicious corrupted are on the hunt for clueless travellers and helpless victims. The selling point of Afterimage is its hand-crafted backdrops and how they enrich the scenery and the overall outlook of Engardin’s topography, not to mention how they bring every counter to life with smooth and fluid moving enemy sprites.
Afterimage introduces a semi-open world with over 15 different areas and more than 150 enemy types. Renee will also be able to utilize several abilities and a wide selection of unique weapons and magic builds. The game appears to be subtly teasing replayability as a feature as it mentions the first run will take players at least 25-30 hours, but stretch goals on the game’s Kickstarter page mention an extra ending, as well as a Boss Rush stage and a new playable character to be added as DLC after launch.
In this game, you can form your combat style by combining main weapons with sub-weapons, and imbue your main weapon with extra qualities like elemental buffs and healing spells to gain an edge in battle. The team has spent a lot of time perfecting the quality of the animations and attack visuals, as well as the skill tree to help you create and enjoy your preferred play style. The team wants to replicate Castlevania’s sense of exploration, so it will be filled with NPCs to talk to, interesting lore and hidden areas.