Darkness, Death, and Maybe the Tin Man

What the report says

A bizarre-looking RPG, a reboot of a legendary visual novel, a Souls-like and a Hades-like walk into a bar, and… find themselves in the land of Oz? Look, this week’s games wouldn’t be frequenting the same bars, but that’s okay. The games in this edition of RPGs Coming This Week cover a lot of genres and tastes. We already have a review of one of them up, but hopefully the others live up to their potential as well. Let’s jump in!Intro by Mike SalbatoEntropy – August 18th (Windows, Early Access)Entropy is the next title from developer Lovely Hellplace, taking the low-poly, dark fantasy aesthetic sensibilities of their previous game Dread Delusion and adapting that striking visual style to a more traditional turn-based RPG framework.

I played the demo during Steam Next Fest and fell in love with the foreboding setting of the Gloaming Isles. The game wears its SaGa series inspirations on its sleeve, with an equipment-based skill system and potential for permanent character injury or death if they fall in battle enough times. The grueling, strategic combat encounters combine well with the dark, oppressive atmosphere, and there is a vast world map to explore with a wide variety of potential events, each stranger than the last. These events range from typical RPG encounters like bandit ambushes, to bizarre happenings like a sudden storm that rains down…human teeth.

Although the game is releasing into Early Access, the level of polish on display in the demo is quite impressive, and the more open-ended, non-linear nature of the quest (another nod to the SaGa franchise) seems poised to ensure that coming back after successive updates will reward curious players with new encounters and events gradually, rather than impeding the narrative progression in a more linear title.by Ben LoveGrim Trials – August 20th (PS5, Switch, Switch 2, XBX, Windows)If you think Grim Trials looks like “We have Hades at home,” then, well, you’d be kinda right!

Key details

But Indonesian dev Glory Jam couldn’t have picked a better roguelite for inspiration for their biggest game yet. Avelin is a young woman who’s deeply in love. The only problem is: she’s dead! As Avelin, players must navigate a series of trials to escape the Academy, a school for aspiring Grim Reapers headmastered by Death, and climb back to the world of the living and the loving.What seems to set Grim Trials apart from Hades is the weapon and item crafting and expansive skill trees that carry over from each run—oh, and the heavy metal music, of course.

Like the cast of gods and heroes of mythology in Hades‘ Underworld, Grim Trials has a variety of original characters populating the Academy that test and strengthen Avelin, as well as push her along her coming-of-age journey through the afterlife. Let’s just hope the game can fill the big shoes—er, sandals, that it aims to. by Matt WardellMortal Shell II – August 20th (PS5, XBX, Windows)Developer Cold Symmetry returns with Mortal Shell II this week, the follow up to their debut title Mortal Shell. One of the earlier indie Dark Souls-inspired action RPGs back in 2020, Mortal Shell differentiates itself with its “shell” system, where the wraith-like protagonist inhabits the bodies of different warriors (like a hermit crab donning a new shell) to gain access to different builds and equipment.

Further complementing the “shell” concept is the hardening mechanic, where the player can briefly turn to stone at any time to deflect enemy attacks (taking the place of a traditional parry mechanic). I played a bit of the first game, and found it had interesting ideas but the execution was flawed; environments were repetitive and lacked the detail and craftsmanship of FromSoftware’s work, and the combat never felt quite right.Mortal Shell II, as evidenced by a demo released earlier in the year on Steam, takes those core ideas from the original and refines & expands them.

More from the announcement

The combat animations are more fluid, the environments more detailed and well-crafted, and the whole experience has a new layer of polish to make the core combat feel weighty yet responsive. Probably the most notable improvement is the wider (and weirder) variety of playable shells. Instead of the generic knights and rogues of the first game, the shells in the sequel range from gun-toting mercenaries or scythe-wielding skeleton warriors to a pugilistic sheep!