Summer is here, and together with the heat and the ruthless caresses of the Sun it is time for gaming expos, festivals, and showcases galore! Summer Fest is behind us, Indie Indie Indie was a delight to watch, packed to the brim. Guerrilla Collective showcase - checked! Devolver Digital Direct, State of Play, you name it. As always, gaming shows to be the powerhouse industry, the number of games that jumped on my radar reached nearly half a hundred! Of course, if I were to talk about every single one, this post would be unreadable, so as usual, going to focus on cool-looking indies releasing this month. Let's roll!
DRAGON IS DEAD | Release Date: 7th June
What if Blasphemous and Castlevania mashup was a proper roguelike? We've got Dragon is Dead, it seems! A beautiful-looking game, with sharp, crisp pixel art, detailed up the wazoo, where you take on the role of the Dragonslayer and a simple quest - to, indeed, slay an evil dragon. However this time around we are not sticking to a single hero or a linear progression, this is not meant to be Metroidvania. This time we'll see roguelike progression, with a promised plethora of skills, weapons, and builds to cook up to our heart's content.
I admit, I am not a huge fan of the 2D Hack-and-slash genre. I played Blasphemous for a while, and jived well with Dead Cells, but it never managed to hook me in for long. Nonetheless, Dragon is Dead looks promising. It's beautiful, that's a given, and I'm a sucker for good art in games. Everything here will hang on its promise - will the progression make each run feel different? Will the growth in power and overcoming obstacles thanks to it be dynamic enough to keep me invested? We'll see! I am sure there are plenty of players more than happy to bite into this title.
TRACKS OF THOUGHT | Release Date: 10th June
Now, this is interesting all around. You're a cute bug, on a train, but something mysterious and uncanny happens during your run-of-the-mill commute. Suddenly everyone on the train got struck by amnesia, forgetting almost everything about the ride. Why are we here? Where are we heading? Is this even a train for real? Confusion of such magnitude would spark... emotions. Passengers will get defensive. Frantic. Manic! Stress rises, and conflicts bubble under the lids of composure, so there's only one sensible way to combat this - talking things out.
This is another new thing that hooked me in and made me look forward to this game. The "battle" system is all about conversation, in a very unique way. Instead of some regular dialogue path with options, instead of relying on high charisma stats, you will mentally duke it out in a card battle of wits! Use different thoughts and conversation techniques in the form of cards to calm down situations, ease worries, and figure out the truth of the mysterious mass amnesia.
It's clever, it's unique and as a cherry on top - looks great! Can't wait to get my mittens onto this game.
#BLUD | Release Date: 18th June
There is just one thing that made me instantly wishlist this title - its style. It is astonishingly beautiful, sharp, and clean, with superb animations for every action. Every move, every interaction, and every character is hand-drawn to perfection, focusing on exaggerated, kinetic actions. Simply put, it looks out of this world, and for me, that's a huge selling point.
But on top of the impeccable style, it looks fun. Real fun. Fast, simple combat, cooky characters, comedic, and slightly dark premise. All that served as a dungeon crawler RPG, promising great action bits running on very high energy. It's like a cartoon from the late 90s turned a little bloody and became a game. The style reminds me a solid bit of Dexter's Laboratory, Evil Con Carne, and even a smidge of Invader Zim - all formative shows that I will love forever. So as you can imagine, this wasn't a hard sell for me. Excited to play it!
CRAB GOD | Release Date: 20th June
It can't be just me, right? We are getting Crab games left and right, something is in the air. Did humanity as a whole realize that Crab is the perfect form of natural evolution? Did the idea of Carcinisation set in proper in our collective minds? Crab reign supreme. And what crab can be better than a Crab God? In this game, we become the ultimate crab lifeform and guide our little crustaceans to glory! Guide your colony through oceanic depths, defend the precious eggs, and protect the coral reef. And all that in the form of a roguelike strategy game, where each new stage offers new challenges - as well as rewards and evolutions for our crab army.
I like the concept, I like the style. It looks fun, and engaging - of course it will depend heavily on the challenges facing us, as well as a possible variety of ways to go over them. But what I've seen so far is promising and I am holding my fingers crossed for this game and its success!
TAVERN TALK | Release Date: 20th June
Visual novels hold little appeal to me. Not that I don't get their appeal, but I would rather sit down with a good book or put on an audiobook when doing some other hobby. Of course once in a blue moon, a stunning piece of visual novel emerges - like Disco Elysium (yes, yes, it's an RPG, not a visual novel, but come on, it's all about talking, reading, and interacting with characters) or Slay the Princess.
How does Tavern Talk hook me in then? Well, on top of talking to a diverse cast of fantasy characters, we mix up and serve drinks and potions - a fun little activity to have on the side. But also collect rumors and tidbits of info from all the customers to create quests! This is the part that titillated me the most, a very fun idea to make the conversations fuel some more activity, to give purpose beyond wanting to witness the stories. Those little puzzles and activities should make for a nice change of pace between the talking, and so, it might keep me invested from start to finish.
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