"Sony's latest State of Play was filled with spectacle, but amongst the juggernaut reveals like Wolverine, one indie game, Chronoscript: The Endless End, managed to cut through the noise. Announced for PlayStation 5 and Steam in 2026, this 2D action-adventure from DeskWorks and Shueisha Games doesn't just promise an intriguing story about a cursed manuscript; it challenges how we think about game art itself."
"Over the past decade, indie game aesthetics have polarised around two ideas. On one side, pixel art reigns supreme, embraced for its nostalgia and scalability in the likes of Shinobi: Art of Vengeance and Celeste. On the other hand, sophisticated 2D styles - the inky line art of Hollow Knight and the watercolour minimalism of Gris - dominate when indies aim for prestige. Both are familiar, both beautiful, but both carry an air of expectation."
"Every environment feels like it was dashed off in a fever dream, then animated before it could be erased. The result is not comfortable. It's uncanny. The lines never settle, as though the manuscript itself resents being looked at. This is where the game's uneasy world breathes: in the unsteadiness of the drawn line. And it's where art and game design converge wonderfully."
Chronoscript: The Endless End is a 2D action-adventure coming to PlayStation 5 and Steam in 2026 from DeskWorks and Shueisha Games. The game centers on a protagonist trapped inside a never-ending, cursed manuscript rendered in hand-drawn, sketch-like visuals. The aesthetic rejects pixel nostalgia and polished illustrative styles in favor of messy, imperfect lines, ink bleeds, and twitching enemies. Environments feel dashed-off and animated before erasure, producing an uncanny, unstable atmosphere. Unsteady drawn lines serve as a gameplay and atmospheric device, and the game occasionally ruptures its own rules to unsettle expectations and merge art with design.
Read at Creative Bloq
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