Tucked away within the nook of this yr’s Day Of The Devs at GDC I found a lavish, unusually unattended action-RPG, by which austerely stunning younger girls in elaborate skirts kick the bejazus out of one another on fields of whirling flowers. That recreation was Aikode, the work of Spanish solo developer Ace.
I have been desirous about Aikode within the run-up to the discharge of Stellar Blade, out as we speak on PS5. Stellar Blade is, by most accounts, fairly good, regardless of its Keep Puft Marshmallow fixation on wibbly butts and boobs. Eurogamer’s Jessica Orr praises the sport’s “killer tunes” “vibey, flow-state fight” and “transformative laborious mode”. Whether or not it will ever come to PC is one other query: I realized as we speak that there are puzzles within the recreation that characteristic PS5 controller icons, which suggests a firmer attachment to Sony’s platform than we guessed once we wrote up Stellar Blade’s announcement final yr. If it does not, I believe Aikode will make an important different. I simply hope its developer does not burn out making it. There’s quite a bit happening right here – take a look at this video:
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Each Stellar Blade and Aikode take inspiration from Nier: Automata, however Aikode appears extra clearly harking back to the Yoko Taro opus in its love of meta moments and philosophical grandiloquence, the precise lower of its skirts and its ethereal, excessive tech world. Stated world is Somnium, which is “doomed to an countless cycle of dying”, and seems to straddle each timelines and genres: there is a cyberpunk metropolis, a reproduction of Tokyo, a steampunkville and a few sort of cloud citadel that includes cats, which you’ll be able to both pet or kill.
You play Aiko, a “Kyao created by The Order”, who “comes throughout a puppet that can lead her to the worst of futures – her personal previous.” Therefore the a number of timeline component. The sport’s environments characteristic “lots of” of NPCs who observe a day by day schedule, along with aspect actions similar to fishing, clothes or coiffure customisation and arcade minigames. You may discover them on foot, trip a motorcycle or take to the air on fairy wings.
There is a relationship system, too, and intercourse (in case you allow the related recreation settings). However what you will primarily be doing in Aikode is combating. The sport’s third-person fight is firmly of the Satan Might Cry college, with a giant emphasis on dodges and parries and sample recognition. Enemies vary from teams of humanoid one-attack-wonders to monstrosities larger than buildings that should be taken on utilizing a grappling hook. I did not get a lot sense of this throughout my 10 minutes with the demo at GDC, however your weapon apparently has three modes – gun, sword and scythe. Switching between them on the fly is important to overpower extra subtle opponents. All of it seems very swanky, with animations that may be dance strikes.
20-something developer Ace is one thing of a wonderkid. As mentioned on this Indie Video games Devel interview, Ace began out tinkering in Unity on the tender age of 13, earlier than shifting over to RPG Maker. Aikode, which entered improvement a few years in the past, is Ace’s first “correct” videogame venture. Naturally, the creator’s relative inexperience and obvious scarcity of assets versus the baroque immensity of Aikode’s idea alarm me a bit. Within the interview above, there’s discuss of working 16 hour days, seven days every week, which – please, do not do this to your self. Talking as a burned-out 30-something, there might come some extent once you remorse it.
Aikode does not have a launch date. I hope Ace does not rush it. Learn extra in regards to the setting and characters on the official website. For extra on the sport’s inspirations past Nier, there’s additionally this piece on 80.lv.