When you think of indie games, you probably think of cozy, wholesome adventures. Well, not all indies fall into that category. Certainly not upcoming souls-like Deathbound!
Publisher Tate Media and developer Trialforge Studio have worked together on almost every game they’ve made, and announced today is a game that’s no different.
While the studios have made games like Kao the Kangaroo, Urban Trials, and Voodolls, the new game Deathbound is a massive departure, being an action RPG similar to Dark Souls.
Deathbound takes place in a world named Ziêminal with two factions, the church of Death and the church of Life, where you’re a walking science experiment, able to absorb the essence of those who came before you.
The trailer doesn’t showcase many features of the game, which are buried in the Steam page or Website, so I’ll go over them here.
What To Expect From Deathbound
Deathbound’s defining mechanic is the binding and morphing system. When you come across a fallen warrior, you absorb their essence and add them to your party; this allows you to swap to them on the fly.
This means you can switch from a defense-oriented build to a more combat-oriented one whenever the situation demands it.
There are things called “Morphstrikes,” while they don’t elaborate much on what that means; I’ll assume that means you get extra combos and attacks whenever you seamlessly morph in the middle of a combo.
This system seems to live and die on how in-depth you can make your builds and combat styles; we’ll have to wait and see on that aspect.
The world seems brutal, merging medieval architecture and design with incredible technology and experimentation.
The monsters you’ll fight and the other people you’ll encounter might all be the subjects of the same experiments your character has gone through, and according to the Steam page, they’re based on the five stages of grief.
The city of Akratya is where most of the game will take place, and it’s a brutal location. It’s in the middle of a war between the two factions, and neither care for you.
The streets are filled with bodies, and the only clean places are the arenas and churches; plus, the architecture is said to be brutalist with some extra technological advancements.
When can you play Deathbound?
There is no definite release date for Deathbound, and given it seems like a way more massive undertaking than anything Trialforge Studios has taken on before, I’d give it till at least 2024 and maybe later.
Their previous games were released only a few months after their announcements, but Deathbound has no planned release date.
Once it does release, it may stay Steam exclusive for a while. They’ve only announced a PC release on Steam, but it will probably come to other platforms later for you console players.
Almost all of Tate Multimedia’s games were multiplatform on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Switch, so you can expect this one to (eventually) follow.
Further Reading
If you want more brutally difficult indie games and some coverage on more games like Deathbound, stick around because we’re right up your alley.
Hardest Indie Games of All Time
Thymesia PC Review: A Unique Spin on Soulslike Combat
Someone Actually Beat Hades On ‘Impossible’ Max Heat Mode
- Core Keeper Announces Shimmering Frontier Update - September 22, 2023
- Hades 2 Overtakes Hollow Knight: Silksong as Most Wishlisted Steam Game - September 22, 2023
- DREDGE adds Boat Paint, Shipwrecks, and Craberrations - September 19, 2023