How well would you do trying to find your true self amidst a nightmare?

From developer melessthanthree, comes the beautifully stylish and hand-drawn “Nightmare Action-RPG” LUCAH. As of writing, the game reached its Kickstarter goal with 471 backers pledging $22,017. This crowdfunded project, produced by Kevin Wong, is the result of the collaboration between lead developer Colin Horgan, sound artist Nicolo Telesco and artist/game designer Briana Lei. Check out the trailer:

The ambiance of LUCAH is made mystical with its religious imagery and borderline-abstract electronic music. At the forefront of the flashing lights and intriguing artstyle is the wonderfully flowing and crescendoing combat. As Horgan describes in this interview, LUCAH draws inspiration from PlatinumGames’ Bayonetta. Hacking and slashing are your main mechanics along with the classic RPG element of gaining and applying new abilities and attacks.

“Style” is the main component of the game’s combat, as the developer expresses in this thread:

…the thing is, as you start to get better, you’ll see these advanced techniques help a ton – the game rewards stylish play in a lot of ways ex. finishers & hold attacks have a hidden value where they’ll take out weakened enemies under a certain threshold, even if their hp isn’t 0…

there’s a bunch of things i wont spoil, but the game is designed so that the coolest/most expressive play is also the best strategy, but you generally have to be confident you can pull this kind of stuff off to do it in the first place!! almost like…you yourself have to grow…

…your first time through will be rough. it kind of has to be, but that’s ok. if you keep at it, the game will teach you to be beautiful…

Horgan’s video update from last December showcases the essence of LUCAH‘s take on stylistic combat:

Sans music it’s clear that the dark game world is brought to life through color-tearing attacks and explosive reactions.

Through social media, the developers are responsive to the fans of their game, giving the strong impression that community feedback is invaluable to the end product:

Don’t worry, there will be some assist options to help if the game ends up being too difficult!

— no more stories (@melessthanthree) April 25, 2018

Though LUCAH is still in Alpha, a downloadable demo is available for Mac & PC on melessthanthree’s Game Jolt, Kickstarter and itch.io. The developer estimates the playthrough of the demo lasts 45 minutes and highly recommends using a gamepad or controller.