There’s a particular style being displayed in the Kickstarter trailer for Savior, a game being developed by Starsoft. Using a pixelated art direction, Savior echoes of Metroidvania classics and old-school Prince of Persia titles with a focus detailed animation and fluidity of movement. Starsoft claims on their Kickstarter page that the game is in pre-production, looking for a more direct funding source from those interested with stretch rewards for a Switch version.
Savior is being called an open-world action adventure game where players take control of Sam, who finds that she is right in the middle of a civilization on the cusp of big changes thanks to conflict between The Chosen and the Fallen. This conflict is spurred on by a clash of ideals revolving around a religion built around The Daystar, a star that shines day and night. Apparently, it is from this star that the Arcadians were given The Holy Creed and anyone opposing it are banished, tossed into the depths of the planet.
Those that survive the fall become The Fallen, whose people mostly dwell in the city of Bastion, which definitely has some Rapture vibes of Bioshock fame. The hero Sam, who has no memory of her past and nothing to call her own, discovers a hidden power that just might save Arcadia from catastrophe.
Most of these story beats come from the Kickstarter page and inferences, but this feels like it could have a lot of parallels, allegories, and symbolism that’s often scattered throughout good fiction. It seems as if there’s quite a bit of rich lore here and even at a glance it feels thoughtful and meaningful. Of course, we won’t know for sure until the game is complete but there’s a lot in the story and visual elements that make me want to know more about Savior.
I’ve been aware of Savior for a few weeks now as we got a press release on it a while back to raise awareness. It’s a project that immediately caught my attention due to the animations, character designs, and different approach to 2D combat. For most Metroidvania titles, combat is mostly positioning in relation to attacks. Knowing exactly how high to jump to miss a blow or strike a weak point is what fuels most of the Castlevania titles. In Metroid, it’s all about evading attacks and keeping shots on target. However, in Savior, the combat looks more similar to something like Punch Out, where one really has to watch what the enemies are preparing in order to react appropriately.
There’s a lot more flow to this battle system though, almost like a dance.
Most exciting for me is that there seem to be moments were enemies can be used as platforms; there’s one instance in the trailer where the hero dodges a larger dude, only to vault off his weapon to reach a higher spot with a chest. I’m hoping that these opportunities are present so that shortcuts can be achieved by knowing ways to use enemies more like tools rather than roadblocks.
While Savior was not present at PAX West in a traditional sense, the game’s Project Lead Weston Tracy was, accompanied by Dan Adelman (recently known for his work with Axiom Verge and Mages of Mystralia). I chatted with both of them about the project on the showfloor.
I asked Tracy what his favorite aspect of Savior was, who responded with their approach to animation for both movement and combat.
“My favorite thing is the predictive animation setup that we have. So whenever you jump for a ledge, off a ledge, basically every jump is predictive so it’s context sensitive. So if you’re diving for a ledge the character will like throw their arms out and grab it or dive when jumping into water. It makes it feel a lot more fluid and intentional and I’ve always missed that in other Metroidvanias that I’ve played so we wanted to make that front and center.”
“We do the same thing with combat where one can strike and return back with a smooth animation. We have a ton of different animations for different height strikes and blocks and dodges and stuff.”
I also asked Tracy if there was any interest in seeing Savior as a speedrun.
“Yeah, I’ve watched tons of Games Done Quick and I would love to make [Savior] something that was a good fit for the speedrunning community. I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to look. There’s a bunch of dialogue and RPG elements to the game but I think the players could just have really quick conversations to get through that. I’m not planning on having a lot of cutscenes but the dialogue is functional to the game progression so you kind of have to have those conversations but you can have them quickly.”
“I hope that players like Savior,” Tracy said in closing, “It comes from a place of deep respect for the genre and years and years of playing Metroidvania games. Castlevania and Metroid are two of my favorite franchises and I’ve really done everything I could to take the things that I love about those franchises and reinvent them.”
Tracy also listed Super Metroid and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest as some of his favorite titles in the genre but he also has recently fallen in love with Hollow Knight and really enjoyed The Messenger. “There’s a lot of good stuff out there,” he assured, “It is pretty cool to be an indie these days.”
Adelman said that they are excited to welcome new players into the Savior community. “That’s one of the key things that we’re looking for, aside from the funding that Kickstarter brings, that diehard community of fans who are going to try the various demos and give feedback so that we know we’re on the right path.”
“Since we’ve been playing our own internal builds for a long time, everything feels the way we think it should feel to us but put in the hands of a stranger for the first time and they might not get it.”
The full interview can be found on the Forever Classic Podcast.
All in all, Savior is an upcoming title that has my attention and it looks like Kickstarter backers will be able to get their hands on the game early with various demos. Wishlisting the game on Steam is encouraged but players can also get updates through their mailing list on their website or through the Kickstarter page.
We’ve got a lot more PAX West content on the way between now and the end of September. For now though, be sure to check out our list of the best indie games that deserved recognition.
