Deathbound

Deathbound is an upcoming Souls-like action role-playing game, which is being developed by Brazilian developers Trialforge Studio, and will be published sometime this year by Tate Multimedia, but the exact release day is still to be revealed. You will embark on a crusade through a medieval world, and absorb Essences during your way.

RELEASE DATE: 2024
DEVELOPER: TRIALFORGE STUDIO
PUBLISHER: TATE MULTIMEDIA
PLATFORM: PC

In Deathbound, you will find new characters along the way, and you will be able to absorb them as Essences. Every Essence has its own independent Health and Stamina, but if one of them dies, you die. There are different character classes in the game, and your main actions when fighting an enemy will be Fast and Heavy Attacks, and also Blocking, Parrying and Knockback. Some characters will have different kinds of attack, like a Leap Attack, and also long range weapons – crossbows, for example. You will gather experience points by defeating your enemies, and as far as Health and Stamina go, your Maximum Stamina is reduced by the percentage of Maximum Health lost, when you lose Health. You level up by acquiring new Skills – each Skill affects all Essences. The cost of Skills is based on your current level, and when you die, all current unspent experience is dropped at the spot of your death. Oh, and I forgot to mention that you can also Backstab your enemies. You do that by silently approaching unaware enemies from behind, and they receive critical damage bonuses – the backstabs, that is. You can only Backstab human sized enemies, though. Some items that you will come across still hold vestigial power from their previous owners, and they can be equipped to increase the power of all bound Essences.

So, you will gain skills, memories, and identities of dead warriors through the world, and be able to combine their personalities and combat styles. Switching between Essences is fluid and comes very handy, especially when battling different types of enemies. The game will also feature a party system that will allow players to create their own playstyle through talent trees. You are also able to use combined powers of your Essences with Morphstrikes. That way you can connect attack combinations and finishers that will leave no enemies standing. Ziêminal, Deathbound’s world, looks very dope with its brutal architectures, and tons of unforgiving monsters that will stand on your way while progressing through its bloody streets.

I am always very intrigued by Souls-like games, and the only con with playing them, is the fact that I am not very good at them. Blocking and parrying are two of the most important things in this genre, but I am more of a “hack and slash through everything you see on your way” guy. On the other hand, switching and combining Essences in Deathbound is a pretty interesting feature, since you can seamlessly switch between different weapons and attack variations. I might look into it at its full release, but I do not promise finishing it – not because it would be boring, but because I suck.