Video Games
Demo for Soulslike ‘Deathbound’ Arriving During Steam Next Fest on February 5 [Teaser]
Ahead of next month’s Steam Next Fest, Tate Multimedia and developer Trialforge Studio are gearing up for the release of the demo for their new take on the soulslike genre with Deathbound. Players will be able to get their taste of Deathbound‘s gameplay on February 5th, which will plunge players into the lower streets of Akratya, a well-worn battleground taken by the Church of Death.
The Deathbound Steam Next Fest demo will feature five playable characters, each with their own unique abilities and skill sets:
-
Raise steel as noble Therone Guillaumen, the right hand of Goddess Death.
-
Spear the hearts of the Death Soldiers as Iulia Tchevlaskia, a Cult of Life Freedom Fighter.
-
Put brute force on display as Agharos of Meriva, the closed fist of the Archduke.
-
Wield unrelenting magic as Olivia Heinz, chancellor to the King of Krulezgon.
-
Strike from the shadows as Anna Lepus, the disenchanted assassin.
In case you missed the original announcement last August, Deathbound is set in a crumbling civilization where the clash between fanatical faith and unnatural science has decimated the world of Ziêminal and the great city of Akratya. You are the product of the Essencemancers, a zealot sect of scholars of the forbidden knowledge to deceive death itself. However, this deception has come at a cost. You are now in a race against time to face your creators before the powerful Church of Death captures them and executes them as heretics.
In a twist unique to the Deathbound‘s gameplay, players will absorb the essences of fallen warriors found throughout their journey in order to harness unique powers and abilities. Deathbound offers the ability to craft catered playstyles through its 4-hero party system, where players can dynamically transform, swapping between characters seamlessly. The conflicts and synergies between the fallen warriors greatly impacts gameplay, so relationships must be balanced in order to survive.
Deathbound is currently in development for PC via Steam, with a release scheduled for this year.
Video Games
Bloody Body Horror Revealed in ‘Stellar Blade: Blood Rain’, Currently in Development [Trailer]
Shift Up has shifted things dramatically from 2024’s action-adventure game Stellar Blade, offering up a body horror bonanza in the newly announced sequel, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain. The sequel is currently early in development, but if the trailer is any indication, players will be in for plenty of body horror.
Continuing the story from the original Stellar Blade, Blood Rain will star a new protagonist named Eve. Earth has been abandoned, and what is left of humanity has fled to a Colony in outer space.
Shift Up had mentioned during a Q&A following its latest earnings presentation last month that development on Blood Rain (which was still unannounced at the time) was progressing smoothly, and was on track to meet their targeted quality standards.
Shift Up stated that with this new title it would be transitioning to a first-party service model, effectively moving away from the restrictions the game experienced with original publisher Sony, which had the game under an exclusivity agreement for the PlayStation 5. “This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the Stellar Blade IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively.”
Whether this means that Xbox Players will finally be able to play the original game (or its sequel) is still not clear. Meanwhile, Stellar Blade is reportedly being ported to the Nintendo Switch 2, but no official confirmation has been made.