Path of the Teal Lotus, out July 17 – PlayStation.Weblog

Hello PlayStation group—I’m Chris Stair, the inventive director of Squid Shock Studios, and I’m excited to have a chance to share some insights into our first recreation, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, a hand-drawn action-platformer popping out on PlayStation 5 on July 17.

Among the large inspirations for Bō are the 2D action-exploration video games I grew up taking part in. I like the marvel and thriller that comes with exploration, the fun of discovering new skills, and the sense of satisfaction when you determine easy methods to use these abilities you’d discovered to uncover a secret path.

A few of my favourite video games within the style even have actually memorable traversal: bombing your self up a wall, launching your self off enemies, or simply backwards dashing via a fort corridor. In Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, we needed to create a motion and fight system with its personal distinctive, rewarding rhythm—one thing that may make you’re feeling such as you’ve entered a “movement” state when every part comes collectively—and needed to speak a bit extra about that with you immediately.

Get the movement going

Bō isn’t able to doing a double soar by default, so one approach you’ll must study early on is what we name the Bump. When Bō strikes an object or an enemy with the Equinox Employees whereas airborne, you’ll glow teal, providing you with the power to do a mid-air soar. When you strike one thing once more after that second soar, you’ll glow once more and may do a 3rd soar, and so forth.

You’ll regularly mix this with Bō’s Pogo transfer to get much more airtime. When you press down and strike an object whilst you’re on the descent, you’ll not solely instantly bounce up and get some top, however you’ll reset your soar skill too, enabling you to carry out one other mid-air leap proper afterward.

And so long as there are objects or monsters within the surroundings to hit, you may preserve Bumping and Pogoing principally indefinitely, staying airborne for so long as you may sustain the rhythm. It turns into a bit of recreation of its personal.

Finally, you’ll uncover different traversal skills that allow you to sprint or smash downward forcefully via the air. We hope that as you play and get accustomed to your skills, you’ll begin to see alternatives all through the sport for all of these items to work collectively—enemy spawns throughout a boss battle, seemingly incidental environmental objects, curious platform placement—and get into a extremely rewarding groove.

Hassle brewing 

These skills aren’t only for motion; they energy your fight abilities, too. One important part of the motion is the mystic Tea Kettle you get early on from Asahi, a rabbit tentaihana (a sprite-like being) who performs a central position in your whole journey.

Whenever you strike enemies along with your Equinox Employees, together with whenever you Bump or Pogo, you’ll siphon their vitality into the kettle and brew up some tea. You’ll be able to then use that tea in numerous methods, similar to restoring your well being (if you will discover a second of peace) or summoning one of many Daruma Dolls you’ve collected, which unleash a few of the recreation’s strongest assaults.

The Daruma Dolls particularly love sizzling tea. The warmer your tea is whenever you summon a Daruma, the extra devastating their assault shall be. And the best way you warmth up your tea kettle is, you most likely guessed it, by staying airborne in fight so long as you may. So, we actually tried to create a system the place airborne agility and fight prowess are intertwined.

We designed Bō’s areas and encounters round this concept. Seemingly uncrossable chasms with an archipelago of enemies who function your path. Boss battles the place you’re bouncing greater and better off little foes, constructing momentum to blast the boss’s head with a potent Daruma Doll strike. All with the purpose of creating it pretty easy to study, however difficult and rewarding to grasp.

The boiling level

Whereas we drew plenty of inspiration from 2D action-exploration video games, the world and gameplay additionally draw loads from Japanese folklore and traditions. The character of Bō is partially impressed by tales of Princess Kaguya and Momotaro. Lots of the yokai and monsters that Bō battles signify our personal inventive twists on traditional folktales, like your confrontation with the large Hashihime who guards the bridge in Bō’s world. Bō powers up the Daruma Dolls by discovering ink to attract extra eyes, which in our actual world is linked to attaining targets and success. Bō may acquire and equip a variety of Omamori, amulets that grant you bonuses to customise your gameplay.

View and obtain picture

There’s much more so that you can discover and plenty of extra methods to search out your movement for your self, ready in Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus. We hope you’ll test it out when the sport arrives on PlayStation 5 on July 17.