As more and more companies have been doing over the past few years, 505 Games ran its first showcase event outlining what the studio is publishing in 2022. The company has a prestigious lineup of games under its belt, helping bring to life classics like Terraria, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
The showcase mainly focused on two upcoming games, both of which are promised to be available in some form over the next year. First is the survival/crafting adventure Among the Trolls, and the other is the action/exploration oriented Stray Blade. Things capped off with a CGI teaser trailer for a brand new title, Miasma Chronicles, which is dripping with mystery. We’ve put together a rundown of each game showcased to show what they’re all about.
Among the Trolls
For many, the sentence “Open-world survival/crafting game launching in Early Access” is the epitome of a bad time. Despite the occasional hit, such as Valheim, it’s a genre with a bad reputation thanks to years of cheap asset flips plaguing the Steam storefront. However, reputations can change, and Among the Trolls is the kind of game that might finally turn opinion around on Early Access survival/crafting games.
The core gameplay loop of Among the Trolls isn’t anything new. You’ll be chopping down trees to get wood, tying it to stones to make tools, and eventually, you’ll have a log mansion to call home. The twist with this game is that you can’t take anything from the forest without giving something back. The game’s fairy-tale lore is based on nordic shamanistic culture, so you must regularly make offerings to keep the creatures of the forest happy; failure to do so will lead to you being attacked until you do.
Having to maintain a balance of keeping nature happy while tearing it down for your own ends is something no other survival/crafting game has tried before. However, it needs to offer sufficient rewards for doing well – otherwise, it’ll just be frustrating to constantly give away your resources. The world is supposedly full of magical creatures, but the trailer footage didn’t show any of that off, and right now, although it’s very pretty, it doesn’t have anything to visually set it apart from the rest of the genre.
Since it’s launching in Early Access, these features will hopefully start to appear in Among the Trolls sooner rather than later, as they would make the game something special.
Stray Blade
For decades, video games have been letting you escape into a realm of fantasy where you can be whoever you want, but there has been a shocking lack of games that cater to the magical world of anthropology. Thankfully, in Stray Blade, anthropology is a lot less surveying archaeological sites, and a lot more hitting monsters with sharp things.
You’ll be exploring an ancient hidden valley with your magical companion wolf, Boji, who acts as your guide through the world and your aid in combat. Your bond with Boji is extremely important, as it allows you to unlock new magical abilities that can be used both in combat and exploration. The world is in a constant state of flux, and you should be going back to areas you’ve already covered regularly as things change over time. A camp of bandits could get wiped out by some monsters who set up a den, who then get slaughtered by the occupying army, and so on.
Each type of weapon uses a separate skill tree, meaning you’ll only earn experience towards the things you actually use. In theory, this allows you to switch up your playstyle every now and then for a challenge or change of pace, but in practice, games like Skyrim have shown that most people just stick to the type of weapon they like instead of switching to something less powerful for long-term gain.
If you enjoy exploration and modern Assassin’s Creed-style combat (plus magic) then this looks like a solid entry to add to the long list of games in that category.
Miasma Chronicles
The final game that we only got a tease trailer for is Miasma Chronicles. This is the next game produced by The Bearded Ladies – the team behind Mutant Year Zero – and this trailer seemed like there will be a greater focus on narrative than in the studio’s previous work. Nothing is known about the gameplay yet, but this studio has had success with XCOM-style tactics games in the past, so you can expect something similar here.
The teaser trailer shows one man and his robot in front of a magical glowing portal of unknown origin. The man tries to use some sort of power on it, fails, and that’s that. Hopefully, this is just one insight into a narrative with a much grander scope than what the studio has done before, as this small snippet of the characters made them seem quite likeable.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
