Legends of Ethernal is the hot new game coming from Lucid Dreams Studio. A 2D platformer action-adventure game with art that reminds me of past game such as Limbo, Journey and Inside and combat/puzzles that evolve as you play; this game appears to have it all.
I was privy to an early showing of the game in late September and it looked very promising. I got the idea that Lucid Dreams is very passionate about this project and has put all their eggs in this basket, for good reason, as this game looks awesome. We were joined by Francis Lapierre, founder and technology director for Lucid Dreams Studio, and Maxime Grégoire, founder and CEO.
Story
The story of Legends of Ethernal takes place in the land of Arkanys, where you will play as the young boy, Wilfred. You are the son of a fisherman, but your parents have mysteriously disappeared. It’s then up to you as Wilfred to find the truth as to why your parents disappeared and save the land. On your journey, you will explore the land of Arkanys and visit different regions in it. You will be joined by Sao, your sidekick. A sort of flying light that can help you in the game. In the demo, we saw Sao point out a spot that enabled Wilfred to traverse a gap by shooting the spot and a platform appeared. I can say with full confidence that it’s fair to say that Sao will be very useful in certain situations and since they can talk to Wilfred, possibly beloved by players in time. The team explained that the story of the game was inspired by a Dungeons & Dragons campaign they played back in the day and was slightly inspired by Legend of Zelda, whose art style can definitely be seen as part of the inspiration for this game’s art.
Gameplay
The gameplay for Legends of Ethernal is inviting and well-structured. The staff that showed us the demo, Francis Lapierre and Maxime Grégoire, explained that there are going to be five different difficulty levels that enables different levels of accessibility. They said that the hardest mode was inspired by the top difficulty from Ori, another indie game that took the industry by storm. This mode will feature permadeath, as in if your character dies just once at any point in the game, you must restart the entire playthrough. A great feature that was mentioned is that you will not need to beat the game in order to unlock this hardcore mode. The game will feature many dungeons, as stated by the developers, with no need for new game plus. There will be checkpoints that are displayed at little fires and the on easy mode, if the player messes up too many times on platforming segments, the game will ask you if you need help and if accepted, will push you forward past the segment the player is struggling on.
Checkpoints will give the player health. If it is a blue CP, it will give you three health points. If red, it will restore all of your health.
A big part of the gameplay will include four different resources (Ethers). These Ethers will enable Wilfred to perform different actions. Blue helps Wilfred perform power attacks, yellow helps with bombs, red with healing, etc.
The gameplay reminded me a lot of Inside and Limbo, but seriously enhanced, with constant moving and platforming, throwing bombs, using different abilities and fighting unique bosses. It was very enjoyable to watch the gameplay during the demo and I found myself wishing I was playing it myself. There will be puzzles to solve throughout the game that will add to the gameplay, to ensure that it isn’t all chaos and fighting. Wilfred will be able to weapon craft as well. So while Wilfred will start out with a fishing rod due to his family’s profession; he will be able to move on to swords, axes, etc.
The game will run at 60 fps and the only reason as to why it looked slightly off during the demo was because it was a livestream, as I have zero doubts it will run very well after it drops for retail.
Art & Score
The score for this game is incredible. William Gough, whom the staff spoke very highly of, developed a fantastic score that featured an orchestral sound that was very different from games in this genre. The team specifically that they did not want an ambient soundtrack, that they wanted it to feel emotional and build up the scenes happening on the screen. The team also went on to say that it was very important for the game to be in their unique art style. They said they “really wanted an old school feeling…didn’t want pixel art.”
They also said they wanted the game to have this “papercut-style” that makes this game stand out from the others. It feels very hand-drawn and personal, which is what brought me in and kept me focused on the game throughout the whole demo. Grégoire and Lapierre also spoke very highly of the team’s art director, Véronique Bellavance. They complimented her art style and work ethic and showed full confidence in her ability to make a game’s art style top-tier.
All in all, Legends of Ethernal is a very interesting and fun game that Lucid Dreams Studio is very excited to release. It has all the looks of a AAA game, even if it isn’t and I can count myself as one of those will be just as excited when it drops on Windows, MaxOS, Xbox, Switch, Playstation and more. The game is currently scheduled to release on October 30th, 2020 and will retail for $20.00 USD.