At GDC 2025, I watched a walkthrough of one of many early ranges of Possessor(s), the following recreation from Heart Machine. The studio usually goes for motion video games however mixes in a bit little bit of one thing else–2016’s Hyper Mild Drifter had RPG components, 2021’s Photo voltaic Ash was an adventure-platformer, and 2025’s Hyper Mild Breaker is a cooperative roguelike. Possessor(s) is a metroidvania or, as Heart Machine prefers to name it, a search-action recreation (which, truthfully, is such a greater time period for the style).
A sidescroller, Possessor(s) sees you play as two characters: Luca, a teenage woman, and Rehm, the demon possessing her. I did not get to see the occasions that led to their partnership, however the Heart Machine workforce defined that the beginning of Possessor(s) sees Luca caught up in an interdimensional disaster that rips a gap within the sky and kills everybody she loves–it’s solely due to the intervention of the unusual horned man now inside her that she survives.
Rehm additionally provides Luca synthetic legs (I do not know what occurred to her authentic legs, however I assume the total recreation will clue us in), in order that she will leap greater and survive falls from any top, and Luca makes use of these new prosthetics to navigate the now-quarantined metropolis in hopes of escaping it and studying extra about how the disaster occurred. The duo often converse about their considerably completely different views of demons and the company accountable for most the whole lot within the metropolis, assuaging a lot of the sense of loneliness that I’ve come to anticipate in different search-action video games.
Because of Rehm, Luca is ready to maintain her personal in a world that desires to kill her. Fight is in opposition to the possessed objects and other people of the city–demons way more feral than Rehm have corrupted all method of issues within the metropolis. I was stunned when a potted plant that had been pretending to be completely inanimate and innocent sprung to life proper as Luca walked previous it, and the devs mentioned that loads of demons will undertake that technique of hiding in plain sight by pretending to be seemingly regular elements of the world. When a battle does get away, mechanically, it appears to be like an entire lot like enjoying Tremendous Smash Bros., with an emphasis on combos and air juggles. It appears to be like extra participating than Hyper Mild Breaker, however I did not get hands-on time with Possessor(s) so I cannot say someway for certain.
Like its style contemporaries, Luca unlocks extra skills over time, which open up new choices in fight and open up new areas of the map. I did not get an opportunity to see this in motion, nevertheless it seems like it really works identical to how upgrades are dealt with within the likes of Hole Knight, 9 Sols, Tremendous Metroid, and different comparable video games, with an open-ended, interconnected world that enables gamers to discover in whichever course they’ve entry to.
Stylistically, Possessor(s) is the largest departure from Hyper Mild Drifter’s visuals–not dangerous by any means, however shocking all the identical since each subsequent recreation from the studio has adopted that artwork course fairly intently. The colours are definitely comparable, however Possessor(s)’s characters look hand-drawn, and bolder strains and flashier colours for the animations make assaults and actions seem like one thing from a comic book ebook or manga. It’s very cool, and at the very least by way of artwork course, Possessor(s) is my favourite of Heart Machine’s video games. It wasn’t in any respect what I was anticipating, however the recreation intrigues me all the identical, and I cannot wait to leap into it myself later this yr.
Possessor(s) is ready to launch for PS5 and PC someday in 2025.