Shadow Labyrinth is the forthcoming 2D action platformer from our staff at Bandai Namco Studios the place gamers will management Swordsman No.8, summoned to a mysterious planet by the enigmatic Puck to finish a mission the place others have failed. The 2 will uncover secrets and techniques and battle large bosses of their wrestle to outlive. The idea of a darkish Pac-Man recreation is daring new floor for the model, delivering a singular expertise that current and new PAC gamers will probably be excited to dig into. Shadow Labyrinth emerges from the darkness on July 18.
Players might have seen that Puck seems fairly a bit like Pac-Man, and there’s the wonderful visible of an enormous foreboding and darkish Pac-Man chomping down on the physique of a downed foe. However Shadow Labyrinth’s inspiration from Pac-Man is greater than pores and skin deep, our staff labored to construct from the bottom up with cautious consideration of what it means to be a Pac-Man recreation.
The long-lasting maze is second solely to Pac-Man himself when contemplating the core components of a Pac recreation. We needed to use that precept to our recreation the place the characters are simply as necessary because the place the place we discover them. Arcade Pac-Man’s maze is immersive, and we needed to convey that to life on a broader scale. The map of this mysterious planet when seen zoomed out is itself a large maze, and like the unique Pac-Man, you will need to get accustomed to the maze to finest your enemies. The unique arcade recreation’s maze was set upon a background of darkness, Shadow Labyrinth takes this one step additional by having our story happen within the depths of outer area on a darkish and mysterious planet the place survival means more durable challenges in deeper ranges. You both attain the top or are consumed making an attempt.
While you method a Pac-Man arcade machine you’re greeted by a joystick, so we thought, controlling Pac-Man is kind of easy, proper? It’s only a joystick. However as you progress via every degree the on-screen action of dodging Ghosts will get intense. Shadow Labyrinth provides gamers a wide range of actions and weapons to make use of, however we needed the participant inputs to really feel pure, not overwhelming – like that straightforward joystick. We additionally needed to present the participant as a lot alternative as attainable, letting them select which course they want to discover first. Like unique arcade Pac-Man, the action in Shadow Labyrinth will get significantly intense and we felt that an approachable management scheme and the pliability to discover the instructions they’re inquisitive about would assist deepen participant immersion much like the unique arcade recreation.
There are in truth 3 modes of play in Shadow Labyrinth. Controlling Swordsman No.8 is all about weapon use and artfully dodging, and Mini Puck mode is all about exploring hidden and out of attain pathways. These in themselves really feel very Pac-Man, however the 3rd mode of play is successfully Shadow Labyrinth’s model of a Energy Pellet: GAIA, the robotic large with devastating drive. Utilizing GAIA, gamers can harm enemies which may have in any other case been too robust, break via limitations (a reference to the arcade recreation Tremendous Pac-Man), and truly eat enemies. However similar to a Energy Pellet, this energy is just not limitless, and have to be used strategically to, as Pac-Man followers say, “flip the tables” on your enemies.
Pac-Man is all the time consuming Dots, Energy Pellets, and Ghosts to degree up and preserve going. We needed to increase on the core idea of consuming in Shadow Labyrinth to incorporate consuming to defeat foes but in addition consuming as a method of powering up. Within the recreation, you’ll be able to select to eat enemies as a substitute of slashing them till defeated.
For those who do select to eat them then you definately’ll achieve totally different sources relying on the enemy you’ve eaten. These sources can then be used to accumulate and improve your skills. So, in Shadow Labyrinth too you will need to eat to progress, not solely to get additional but in addition to develop from prey to the apex predator.
However the place are the Ghosts? We didn’t neglect them. In Shadow Labyrinth, amongst most of the vile creatures you will need to destroy or be haunted by are the G-Hosts: parasitic organisms which have taken over monsters and machines of the planet to create one thing new and terrifying. These encounters function formidable boss battles becoming for the first antagonists of the arcade unique. You’ll encounter the G-Hosts primarily based upon Pac-Man Ghosts reminiscent of Pinky, by no means revealed till now, as twisted boss battles.
Shadow Labyrinth takes inspiration from the legacy of video games within the style in addition to being constructed utilizing the DNA of Pac-Man. However eagle-eyed avid gamers have already began to note clues that Shadow Labyrinth takes place within the bigger chronology of the UGSF (United Galaxy House Pressure) timeline: a shared universe that connects a lot of Bandai Namco’s space-themed video games. As gamers discover the huge map of Shadow Labyrinth’s world, they’ll encounter some acquainted wanting enemies like these from the Dig Dug sequence, Bosconian, and extra.
Shadow Labyrinth involves PlayStation 5 on July 18!