"Dark Souls-inspired games tend toward grim and gritty aesthetics, but it doesn't have to be that way. As 2024's Another Crab's Treasure proved, sometimes a colorful game with a cute animal as a protagonist can make a surprisingly good fit for the Soulslike genre. Now, a newly announced game is taking a similar tack, this time with a sword-wielding mouse in the lead, and Nintendo 64-inspired art and gameplay thrown into the mix."
"Finite Reflection, developer of the cult hit minimalist Soulslike Void Sols, just announced Mouseward, a very different take on the genre that looks just as promising as its last release. This time around, the developer is ditching the abstract style of Void Sols for a cute, low-poly look that brings to mind old-school collectathon platformers. And after getting an early look at its demo ( available now on Itch.io), I'm convinced it could turn out even better than the last game."
"Technically, the whiskered hero of Mouseward is undead, brought forth from their grave by a mysterious meteorite, but that doesn't make them any less cute. Mouseward takes place in a setting reminiscent of critter-based fantasy like Redwall, populated by all manner of rats, badgers, and other woodland creatures. The preview version available now takes place in a town built across the banks of the river, with criss-crossing bridges and scaffolding turning the small settlement into a sprawling maze of back alleys and rooftops."
Mouseward is a colorful, low‑poly Soulslike from Finite Reflection that replaces Void Sols' minimalist abstraction with Nintendo 64–inspired collectathon aesthetics. The player controls an undead, sword‑wielding mouse resurrected by a meteorite, exploring a critter‑based fantasy world populated by rats, badgers, and woodland creatures. The available demo is set in a riverside town with bridges, scaffolding, alleys, and rooftops creating platforming and exploration opportunities. Core Soulslike mechanics include stamina‑based attacking, dodging, and jumping, plus bonfire respawn points. The stamina system is more forgiving than typical Soulslikes, though some fatigue with stamina mechanics remains.
Read at Inverse
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