Light-hearted adventure games are well known for spanning a variety of settings. So long as the setting has terrain to traverse and reasonable obstacles to overcome, any setting can be used to serve as the basis or enhancement to a new game. The recently revealed Kalanoro by Red Raketa Studio has been earning attention due to it being set in Madagascar, with folklore from the region informing elements of the characters and story. The game’s reveal trailer was launched alongside the game’s Steam page, offering insight into what gamers can expect.
The trailer opens with an animation of the game’s lemurs having a meal, leading up to the introduction of the main character. She quickly leads her band of musical lemurs to free another captive lemur with her long hair. The gameplay that follows consists of many platforming sections, varying between basic position-based challenges to timing-based and more precise jumps. Along the way, she encounters collectables and enemies, the latter of which she is able to defeat with the hair attack first seen in the trailer’s animation.
The second half of the trailer introduces the villain of Kalanoro, Raneny, a powerful witch who seeks to rule the land of Lemuia. She is seen viewing the hero through a screen as she laments the destruction of her schemes. Further gameplay emphasizes more difficult combat encounters and the main character’s core goal of bringing together a band of Lemuia’s greatest musicians. There is also a reference to how the prophecy that chose the main character is “bogus”, playing with the expectations that come with adventure stories.
Along with the trailer and Steam page, Kalanoro opened up its demo, which players have been engaging with to help the developers find bugs. Players will have the chance to play the game when it releases in the third quarter of 2026.