#everdeep aurora

This documents the tail-end of Next Fest, as well as my shift to watching new Let's Plays in real time in addition to watching Let's Plays from channel archives. So as you can imagine it doesn't have a ton of me actually playing full games myself!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (watched: PlayFrame): I can’t wait to be the only person in the world without an overwhelmingly strong opinion of this game

Cobalt Core (played): Super fun deckbuilder! I love the way the characters comment on the moves you make.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (watched: Welonz): I stopped watching this one. I actually wasn’t hating it! But every episode was over two hours long and I have other Let’s Plays to watch.

Deep Pixel Melancholy (played demo): Good, but very depressing. I'd need to be in the right headspace to play this one.

The Demons Told Me to Make This Game (played demo): I'm hype to play this one. I would also be hype to Let's Play this one, but I'm not keen to blur out that magic dildo every time it shows up onscreen.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (watched: Kikoskia): Kiko actually played The Secret Salami first but my love of alphabetization is confusing the whole matter.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami (watched: Kikoskia): Sean Chiplock played that stupid duck??

Everdeep Aurora (watched: Quasimofo): Jacob Geller made a video about this digging shit

Hades II (played): I actually haven’t been playing this nearly enough. I’ve only seen two of the new bosses.

The Inner World (watched: ZenBear): Main character sounds like the cult leader butterfly from Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

The Light at the End of the Ocean (played): A tiny little visual novel but it made me feel feelings.

Metahorror Therapy Session (played demo): Thinking about this one still makes me angry and I feel like the only way to get over it is by playing the full release. But I don't wanna.

Murder at the Ironwood Inn (played demo): I want more detective games to play but this was just kind of a crappy demo

Quantum Witch (played demo): The name alone meant I was inevitably meant to play this one. It's like it was formulated specifically for me.

Ritual of Raven (played demo): Very pretty and cute art, I wish it was something other than a Stardew clone.

The Royal Writ (played demo): Seemed super unique, I'm definitely checking this out when it's out.

Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker (watched: Quasimofo): Those evil versions of the main characters sure would have been interesting if the main characters had any kind of personalities to deconstruct in the first place.

Sorry, We're Open (watched: GSDBoxer): It's fun and bizarre listening to GSD reminisce so fondly about retail while playing this game about evil retail.

Until Then (played): This game is a time loop?!!??

Okay, even discounting real life stuff going on, jumping back to back between Hundred Line, Deltarune, The Summer Game Fest showcases, and Next Fest happening immediately after, I am exhausted with all these self imposed game obligations.

But the show must go on.

Beyond The Board

A puzzle game where you play as a Rook going, as the title suggests, beyond the board.

During a chess game, the ground suddenly falls out beneath the pieces and they find themselves in a vast tiled dimension beyond their understanding. (I hate it when that happens.)

The puzzles are either "Traverse this space, using turn-limited switches to reshape the map," or "corner the black chess piece using the asymmetrical layout." There's some interesting stuff done with the fact that the player can also be on walls as long as they're properly tiled, but it's not fully explored here.

The demo does have a boss battle, against the "eldritch king." He shoots lasers at you in set intervals, as a chess king normally does, and you have to move to jump between solving the puzzle and dashing for cover. It felt a bit trial and error.

Despite having a really abstract and kind of thin premise, I am really liking the games aesthetics and overall vibe.

Everdeep Aurora

A metroidvania about a little cat thing in the underground looking for her mother.

First thing's first, the presentation is really nice. I like how the palette changes from area to area. It gives spaces that would normally blend together some more identity.

General movement is alright so far. It's definitely at the early metroidvania problem of the player instinctively being able to tell their kit is incomplete. Oddly enough, the dig mechanic that seems to be the centerpiece of the game is barely used here.

The demo felt... weirdly aimless? The protag wakes up with a letter from her mother saying to meet in "their usual place." She walks five feet to the right, and suddenly the neighborhood kids in a dilapidated mansion are trying to scare her away by pretending to be ghosts. When that fails they set up a hide and seek game for the right to explore deeper into the mansion.

I do not know why I am doing any of this, or how it relates to my search.

The writing wasn't all "bad," though. There's some fun implied lore, stuff like a brewing workers revolt, vague statements about the surface being unsafe, and some implied history, but it's mostly vague hinting. There were also an odd number of NPCs with no dialogue whatsoever. Those could have been used to flesh out the scenario a bit more.

In conclusion, an interesting game whose demo doesn't put its best foot forward.

Prison of Husks

A late PS1/early PS2 styled soulslike, with a heaping helping of Fumito Ueda.

You play as a nameless "doll," who wants to escape the prison they wake up in. You fight other dolls and enemies with a sword. There's lore probably.

The game makes some major deviations from the souls formula. There aren't any player stats, just weapon stats, and enemies don't respawn with saves. It seems to be stripping away most of the RPG aspects, and aiming for more straight action.

This game's parry equivalent, a perfect block, doesn't seem to stagger enemies, instead just auto-refilling your stamina. The player has armor points that let them tank a couple hints, and those can only be refilled with a crit. Crits are only available if you've emptied the enemy's refilling poise bar. It all comes together into a system that encourages aggression, while still trying to heavily punish player mistakes. The only thing missing is a good sense of "impact."

I'm enjoying the throwback graphics, but there's some odd disconnects. The game's presentation is deliberately low resolution, but parts of the UI and menus are way too crisp. I get it's probably for readability, but it clashes.

The demo is pretty dense, featuring both some hidden areas and two bosses. My main complaints at the moment are technical. One enemy, when strafing me, looked less like they were stepping and more like they were gliding in A pose. I was also able to cheese the demo-end boss by getting it clipping halfway into the ground.

Generation Exile

A management game where you try desperately to keep a dying generation ship alive after the attempt to flee a ruined earth goes pear shaped.

I am bad at management games in general, and tend to bounce off them early. This game caught my interest because it seemed more plot focused. If there's a good story hook, I can imagine dragging myself through the learning curve. It worked for Lobotomy Corporation, after all.

That wasn't what I got. That isn't to say the trailer is lying. It's just that it seems special events are not frequent. The cast seems procedurally generated too, so it doesn't look like there will be much overarching character arc stuff. I'm sure there will probably be an overarching mystery to follow, but I could not get near it before I just got frustrated by my ass building placement, wanting to start over.

Whether or not its an especially good management game on its own merits is someone else's wheelhouse. Not a great judge of this genre.

Neon Inferno

You're two badasses who run n gun their way through both the NYPD and the yakuza. That's all you need to know.

This is an arcade ass arcade game, for better and for worse. The default difficulty is "arcade," and every other option dials it down from there.

The presentation is top notch. This is some quality spritework. A lot of the art direction feeds back into some of the game's more interesting gameplay decisions.

The game is a Metal Slug-ish run-n-gun, but both the player and enemy sprites take up more screen real estate than usual. To add more threats, there's also a foreground layer of enemies to deal with. The player can shoot into the background, but they can't move while doing so. Combine this with a chunky hitbox, and it's a game where you can easily get checkmated if you aren't keeping enemies under control.

The player does have some extra defensive options, but they're intentionally limited. There's a dodge roll, but it's a relatively short and slow one. There's a bullet parry, but only special green bullets can be reflected.

This is a game that demands not only good reflexes and spacial awareness, but also a little bit of routing and optimization. Which means, depending on your tastes, it'll either be a nail biting challenge or drudgery.

2D adventure game Everdeep Aurora will launch for Switch and PC via Steam on July 10 for $19.99, publisher Ysbryd Games and developer Nautilus Games announced. It will support English, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese language options.

“When thinking about how to stage Shell’s journey underground into the confines of the Everdeep, we were confronted with the task of dreaming up a whole original civilization,” said Nautilus Games co-founder Mikel Ojea in a press release. “We had to ask ourselves how its inhabitants would go about their lives in this new, unexplored home. We ended up creating an extraordinary world that we’re proud to soon share with new explorers.”

Here is an overview of the game, via Ysbryd Games:

After apocalyptic meteor showers drive civilization underground, young cat Shell finds herself alone on the destroyed planet’s surface. Emboldened by a letter from her missing mother, she sets off on a journey into the vast Everdeep, trusty drill in paw, to reunite with her family. Bore through procedurally generated stone tiles to create platforming opportunities as Shell’s journey leads to underground landforms, gardens, mansions, and mysteries. Meet more than 20 of the Everdeep’s charming denizens, each with distinct musical themes, and fulfill their quests to earn their trust. Purchase new tools from Viktor’s pawn shop, but beware of Mur’s intention – despite their goofy nature and heart of gold, they might be just tricking Shell into doing their work. As Shell drills deeper and her newfound friends’ tunes fade from earshot, find comfort in the bonds they’ve created across a combat-free adventure. Return to the nostalgia of consoles past with Everdeep Aurora’s retro graphics and sound design, limited color palette, and square interface inspired by the Nintendo Entertainment System. Fully immerse in the visual storytelling of Shell’s world through smoothly animated cutscenes and satisfying color-grading transitions differentiating the Everdeep’s biomes.

Watch a new trailer below.

Release Date Trailer

2D adventure game Everdeep Aurora will launch for Switch and PC via Steam in Q3 2025, publisher Ysbryd Games and developer Nautilus Games announced.

“Choosing a limiting factor such as the small color palette available to the [Nintendo Entertainment System] forced us to challenge ourselves and create a whimsical world with built-in character,” said Nautilus Games co-founder Mikel Ojea in a press release. “We hope explorers find themselves in a simpler era as they immerse themselves in the Everdeep.”

Here is an overview of the game, via Ysbryd Games:

Venture through civilization’s subterranean refuge as Shell, a little cat on a mission to reunite with her mother after catastrophic meteor showers separate their family. Drill deeper and deeper into the Earth’s surface, creating platforming opportunities in the procedurally generated rocky tiles. Discover underground lakes and landforms, beautiful temples, dusty ruins, and mysterious laboratories. Forge new friendships with more than 20 of the Everdeep’s charismatic citizens and fulfill quests to strengthen their bonds. Find peace in Aster’s hidden garden, power up Shell’s drill with Remulus’ blacksmith skills, and find a familiar face among the Everdeep’s twists and turns with Ribbert’s guidance. Find comfort in each denizen’s musical theme as the underground world grows more lonesome. Everdeep Aurora takes a pixel out of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s code with its square interface, limited color palette, and retro graphics and sound design. Stunning visuals like smoothly animated scenes and color-grading transitions accentuate the vintage aesthetic and captivating visual storytelling of Shell’s adventure.

Watch a new trailer below.

The MIX Fall Showcase 2024 Trailer