As more and more games have been introduced in the metroidvania genre, the scope of abilities that players can use to interact with the world expands as well. This is exemplified in the upcoming Akatori developed by Contrast Games and published by Games Harbor. While the games that inspired the genre leaned more heavily into combat, Akatori promises to take a more modern approach of placing a heavy emphasis on platforming sections and abilities. The games recently had its release date announced along with an accompanying trailer.
The trailer opens on a series of platforming sections featuring the main character, who the Steam page identifies as Mako the teenage girl. Raised in the Firebird Temple, Mako’s journey will take her around the land of Akatori with the help of a mysterious bird companion to save it from the Amber Storms. Among the abilities revealed in the trailer, Mako is able to wall jump, glide, dash, and double jump, stringing each together to traverse both large open areas along with confined platforming challenges.
Akatori will also feature seven different biomes with different obstacles, visuals, and enemies. The enemies themselves will be fought using up-close staff combos while either grounded or in the air. Combat can also be expanded in typical metroidvania fashion by finding new abilities for Mako’s staff hidden throughout the world. In return, the over 20 unique enemy types in the trailer are shown to be able to perform their own combo attacks on the player, encouraging mastery of enemy behaviors. Finally, the game will also confront players with several bosses with unique fighting styles from one another.
The final shot of the trailer sees Mako descending down into a mine alongside a group of divers. The full game is set to release on August 5th for PC and August 12th for consoles.