My Next Games is happy to reveal Soulblight, a top-down roguelike game that brings the real meaning of the genre back to the RPG.
Do you fondly remember nights spent with friends over a pen ’n’ paper RPG? Do you pine for the days when RPGs were about truly playing the role of your character rather than leveling up and collecting loot? Are you one of the people who still enjoys taking part in LARP sessions? Then you should definitely follow the development of Soulblight, as it may turn out to be the game that you’ve long been waiting for.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s the announcement trailer for your viewing pleasure to introduce you to the world of Soulblight:
On the face of this wretched world there is a gaping wound. The Temple, once glorious, now forsaken, hides secrets of forgotten machinery. Magical matter is born there when space-time ripples and loses its meaning… and at the heart of it all is an anomaly. A tree shrouded in a mystical liquid, luring those brave enough with its promises of greatness. Do you dare seek its power? Do you wish to drink from the Soulblight?
Soulblight is a top-down roguelike – or, more specifically, as the developers prefer to call it, “rougelite” – that takes the genre’s mechanics and expands on them.
“Computer RPGs are in a strange place right now. When you take a closer look, it turns out that pretty much every game with leveling mechanic calls itself an RPG these days. And your only role as a gamer when playing those games is to travel through awesome worlds maxing out your stats and grinding XP at every opportunity. For us personally this has become more mundane than enchanting over the years,” said Jakub Lisiński, designer at My Next Games.
“At the same time, we look with nostalgia at our pen and paper RPG memories. Back then, gaining XP was only a part of the fun, and truly becoming the character was the bigger and more meaningful part of the experience. Sometimes role playing could stand in the way of solving the quest at hand, but we’d identify ourselves with our characters and they felt more alive that way. Video games these days are different. You can’t expect players not to fight giant spiders just because their character has arachnophobia, for example. That way they will miss out on precious loot and XP. And they know the game will penalize them for it as it becomes more difficult. So if we want players to actually role‑play, there need to be special mechanics that will encourage them to do so. This is why we’ve created something which we call the Taint System,” Lisiński added.
Soulblight is built around the literal meaning of RPG. So, instead of focusing on XP grinding, the developers decided to design and introduce a unique Taint System. While traveling through the shattered reality of the Temple, gamers will receive personality traits based on their choices. These will later become the main source of their strength. However, to harness these traits, players will have to act accordingly. Becoming an alcoholic, for example, will mean that the gamer will be rewarded for getting drunk, but at the same time, from that point on being sober might prove unbearable.
SOULBLIGHT’S MAIN FEATURES:
•A unique Taint System designed to encourage role playing.
•Tons of weapons, armor, and utility items.
•Dynamic and tactical combat build around stamina management and distance control.
•Optional stealth approach that complements fighting.
•Randomly generated, visually breathtaking levels.
•High difficulty level emphasized by permadeath mechanics.
•Gameplay-driven narrative.