Studio Ghibli-inspired cozy adventure game Into the Wind announced for PC - Gematsu
Publisher Three Friends and developer Bloom & Gloom have announced Into the Wind, a Studio Ghibli-inspired cozy adventure game where players to take to the skies on their sentient motorcycle-plane companion and explore the Adriatic islands of Santa Rosa. It will launch first in Early Access for PC via Steam. A release date was not announced.
“Into the Wind is about the joy of the journey,” says Three Friends co-founder and producer Albert Safstrom in a press release. “There’s a wonderful, tactile satisfaction to just driving around on the bike, whether you’re on the ground or in the air. You get into this rhythm where you make a delivery, grab an upgrade, and then immediately head back out just to see how the new parts feel. It creates a deceptively addicting ‘one more delivery’ loop that makes it very hard to put the controller down.”
Bloom & Gloom co-founder and game director Robin Hjelte added, “It’s no secret that we are fans of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Especially Porco Rosso struck me deeply, and I wanted to make a game about flying among freedom loving idiots in a romantic setting in the Adriatic sea. Into the Wind is our love letter to all that, and more that has been truly meaningful to us: anime, games, movies, summer evenings in the setting sun. It’s a game about momentum, flight, and great game feel, but also about just immersing yourself in the small moments of this world and its stories. We can’t wait for you to take to the skies of Santa Rosa!”
Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:
Drive, fly, and run deliveries together with your sentient motorcycle-plane, Ermes. Make friends, battle rowdy air pirates, upgrade your bike, decorate your home, explore the islands of Santa Rosa, and solve the mystery of your uncle’s disappearance.
It’s time to build a new life, far away from the mainland, out here among the aviation crazy, freedom loving islanders and sky pirates!
Drive, Fly, Deliver – Easy to pick up and deep in skill expression, we’ve spent a lot of time tuning Ermes to feel both physical and arcadey. Cargo has weight, and fuel matters. Roads, shortcuts, weather, wind, and bad landings are all part of the journey.
Earn Money, Upgrade Your Bike, Expand Your Business – Carry out deliveries all over the islands: some delicate that have to be handled with care, others heavy that make going up (or down) hill more difficult. Doing jobs earns you resources you use to upgrade Ermes, allowing you to take on more challenging deliveries and adventures.
Make the World Your Own – Between deliveries, you can customize both yourself and Ermes, and decorate and furnish your home and the base of your crew. Decorations need to be delivered back to base: each little thing has to be earned. Depending on what you bring back, and where you place it, you and your crew will get bonuses that help you progress further in the game.
Friendships and a Mystery to Solve – Your uncle Umberto went missing while investigating a mysterious cloud in the skies above Santa Rosa. By making deliveries, getting to know your crew, and learning more about Santa Rosa and its inhabitants, you can take on the quest of figuring out what happened to him.
Welcome to Santa Rosa – The world of Santa Rosa is a nostalgic and idyllic version of an archipelago in the Adriatic sea. Step into a vintage post card that smells of Italy: small villages, scenic routes, cafés that overlook the water, people needing their packages delivered, and a suspicious amount of flying pirates all coexist here.
