Midgaard as nails
Polish developers Mighty Koi have announcedThe Night Wanderer, a new sci-fantasy SoulslikeRPGwith metroidvania level design – yes, yes, tick those genre boxes! - in which you are a grim bearded swordsman exploring an alien world that looks a bit like pre-industrial Scandinavia.
Said grim bearded swordsman is Vuko Drakkainen, an elite mercenary embarked on a solo mission to Midgaard, “a planet inhabited by beings remarkably reminiscent of the people of our Early Middle Ages”. Plot-thickening detected. Midgaard is surrounded by a radiation field that distorts and damages advanced technology – hence the crashlanding of your drop-pod, and hence you having to fight things with a blade, like some kind of caveman.
You are, at least, accompanied by a biological AI, Cyphral, who is wired directly into your nervous system and is able to “greatly increase your strength, reflexes, and endurance” – the basis for a level-up system, I’m guessing. Enemies shown so far include gangly little freaks with stuff growing out of their backs, and some kind of big Shelob-looking asshole with the head of a Mindflayer.
The game is based on Jarosław Grzędowicz’s book series “Lord of the Ice Garden”. Polish videogame developers in general have a pretty great track record for adaptingsci-fiorfantasystories from other media, and this certainly has atmosphere, though I can’t say I’m jumping at the chance to play another moody bloke with a blade. Here are some concept artworks of the title character and a few locations.
