Hello PlayStation group—I’m Chris Stair, the artistic director of Squid Shock Studios, and I’m excited to have a possibility to share some insights into our first sport, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, a hand-drawn action-platformer coming out on PlayStation 5 on July 17.
Some of the huge inspirations for Bō are the 2D action-exploration video games I grew up enjoying. I really like the marvel and thriller that comes with exploration, the thrill of discovering new talents, and the sense of satisfaction whenever you determine out tips on how to use these expertise you’d discovered to uncover a secret path.
Some of my favourite video games in the style even have actually memorable traversal: bombing your self up a wall, launching your self off enemies, or simply backwards dashing via a citadel corridor. In Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, we wished 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 “circulation” state when all the things comes collectively—and wished to speak a bit extra about that with you at this time.
Get the circulation going
Bō isn’t succesful of doing a double bounce by default, so one approach you’ll have to be taught 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 skill to do a mid-air bounce. Should you strike one thing once more after that second bounce, you’ll glow once more and may do a 3rd bounce, and so forth.
You’ll ceaselessly mix this with Bō’s Pogo transfer to get much more airtime. Should 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 bounce skill too, enabling you to carry out one other mid-air leap proper afterward.
And so long as there are objects or monsters in the setting to hit, you may hold Bumping and Pogoing principally indefinitely, staying airborne for so long as you may sustain the rhythm. It turns into a bit sport of its personal.
Ultimately, you’ll uncover different traversal talents that allow you to sprint or smash downward forcefully via the air. We hope that as you play and get acquainted with your talents, 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.
Bother brewing
These talents aren’t only for motion; they energy your fight expertise, too. One vital 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 function in your whole journey.
If you strike enemies together 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 possibly can then use that tea in a quantity of methods, comparable to restoring your well being (if yow will discover a second of peace) or summoning one of the Daruma Dolls you’ve collected, which unleash some of the sport’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 might be. And the approach 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 larger and better off little foes, constructing momentum to blast the boss’s head with a potent Daruma Doll strike. All with the purpose of making it pretty easy to be taught, however difficult and rewarding to grasp.
The boiling level
Whereas we drew loads 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 partly impressed by tales of Princess Kaguya and Momotaro. Many of the yokai and monsters that Bō battles signify our personal artistic 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 reaching objectives and luck. Bō may accumulate and equip a variety of Omamori, amulets that grant you bonuses to customise your gameplay.
There’s much more so that you can discover and plenty of extra methods to search out your circulation 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.