Hello PlayStation group—I’m Chris Stair, the artistic director of Squid Shock Studios, and I’m excited to have a chance to share some insights into our first sport, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, a hand-drawn action-platformer popping out on PlayStation 5 on July 17.
Among the massive inspirations for Bō are the 2D action-exploration video games I grew up taking part in. I like the surprise and thriller that comes with exploration, the fun of discovering new skills, and the sense of satisfaction when you determine methods to use these expertise you’d discovered to uncover a secret path.
A few of my favourite video games within the style even have actually memorable traversal: bombing your self up a wall, launching your self off enemies, or simply backwards dashing by means of a citadel corridor. In Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, we needed to create a motion and fight system with its personal distinctive, rewarding rhythm—one thing that may make you’re feeling such as you’ve entered a “move” state when the whole lot comes collectively—and needed to speak a bit extra about that with you at this time.
Get the move going
Bō isn’t able to doing a double bounce by default, so one approach you’ll must be taught early on is what we name the Bump. When Bō strikes an object or an enemy with the Equinox Workers whereas airborne, you’ll glow teal, supplying you with the flexibility to do a mid-air bounce. If you happen to strike one thing once more after that second bounce, you’ll glow once more and may do a 3rd bounce, and so forth.
You’ll regularly mix this with Bō’s Pogo transfer to get much more airtime. If you happen to press down and strike an object whilst you’re on the descent, you’ll not solely instantly bounce up and get some top, however you’ll reset your bounce potential too, enabling you to carry out one other mid-air leap proper afterward.
And so long as there are objects or monsters within the setting to hit, you’ll be able to hold Bumping and Pogoing principally indefinitely, staying airborne for so long as you’ll be able to sustain the rhythm. It turns into a bit of sport of its personal.
Ultimately, you’ll uncover different traversal skills that allow you to sprint or smash downward forcefully by means of the air. We hope that as you play and get aware of your skills, you’ll begin to see alternatives all through the sport for all of this stuff to work collectively—enemy spawns throughout a boss battle, seemingly incidental environmental objects, curious platform placement—and get into a very rewarding groove.
Bother brewing
These skills aren’t only for motion; they energy your fight expertise, too. One important element of the motion is the mystic Tea Kettle you get early on from Asahi, a rabbit tentaihana (a sprite-like being) who performs a central function in your whole journey.
While you strike enemies together with your Equinox Workers, together with if you Bump or Pogo, you’ll siphon their vitality into the kettle and brew up some tea. You may then use that tea in a variety of methods, corresponding to restoring your well being (if you could find a second of peace) or summoning one of many Daruma Dolls you’ve collected, which unleash a few of the sport’s strongest assaults.
The Daruma Dolls particularly love scorching tea. The warmer your tea is if you summon a Daruma, the extra devastating their assault will likely be. And the way in which you warmth up your tea kettle is, you in all probability guessed it, by staying airborne in fight so long as you’ll be able to. So, we actually tried to create a system the place airborne agility and fight prowess are intertwined.
We designed Bō’s areas and encounters round this concept. Seemingly uncrossable chasms with an archipelago of enemies who function your path. Boss battles the place you’re bouncing larger and better off little foes, constructing momentum to blast the boss’s head with a potent Daruma Doll strike. All with the aim of creating it pretty easy to be taught, however difficult and rewarding to grasp.
The boiling level
Whereas we drew a variety of inspiration from 2D action-exploration video games, the world and gameplay additionally draw loads from Japanese folklore and traditions. The character of Bō is partly impressed by tales of Princess Kaguya and Momotaro. Lots of the yokai and monsters that Bō battles symbolize our personal artistic twists on traditional folktales, like your confrontation with the huge Hashihime who guards the bridge in Bō’s world. Bō powers up the Daruma Dolls by discovering ink to attract extra eyes, which in our actual world is linked to attaining targets and success. Bō may gather and equip a variety of Omamori, amulets that grant you bonuses to customise your gameplay.
There’s much more so that you can discover and lots of extra methods to search out your move for your self, ready in Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus. We hope you’ll test it out when the sport arrives on PlayStation 5 on July 17.
