Lost Spirits of Kael Is "a Mix Of Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls"

[Steven Bogos]

Lost Spirits of Kael Is "a Mix Of Shadow of the Colossus and Dark Souls"

[vimeo=64599958]
Pablo Coma, the solo developer of Lost Spirits of Kael, shows us the first official trailer of a game about loneliness and finding one's way into the unknown.

Lost Spirits of Kael is a gorgeous hand-painted 2.5D RPG about loneliness and finding one's way into the unknown, described by its creator as Shadow of the Colossus meets Dark Souls. Solo developer Pablo Coma says that while it is his first foray into video games, he has worked as a CG artist and music composer for the studio that brought us The Smurfs, of all things. Seems like the perfect guy to be working on a game where the main character is lost in a creepy forest covered with graves.

But despite his more cheerful past work, the trailer and concept for Lost Spirits of Kael looks pretty good. Coma says the game will feature a unique atmosphere with strong feeling of being alone and lost, and music that features many harp and piano solos. He says he is solely responsible for everything about the game, from the art to the PR, so you really have to hand it to the guy for being proactive.

"Lost Spirits of Kael is an action-RPG with focus on atmosphere. You play the role of a young painter who has lost his inspiration and tries to get it back in the Forest of Kael. There, he meets a mysterious harpist who covers the forest with magical mist by playing her harp. Lost in this creepy forest covered with graves (but no zombies), he will have to find his way out. But the forest has mystical powers that makes finding one's way nearly impossible, and some of its inhabitants will try to stop him."

Fans of challenging games that are sick of this generation's hand-holding will be pleased to hear that "non-careful players may have to restart the game from the beginning!" I'm sure this point may have piqued the interest of those of you who cut your adventure game teeth on Kings Quest, which had no qualms over forcing you to restart the game if you forgot to do something.

If you want to help fund Lost Spirits of Kael, Coma says he is doing a kind of "OST-funding," where he has released some of the songs that will feature in the game for sale, in the hopes of raising the funds needed to produce the full game. You can buy the tracks from the Rablo Games website. [http://rablogames.bandcamp.com/]

The game is due out for PC sometime in 2014.

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[hazabaza1]

Really? 'Cos it just look like another indie platformer featuring a small child with a somewhat large head.
Not gonna shittalk it before it's out or whatever, but I'm not quite impressed yet.

 

[josemlopes]

Really? 'Cos it just look like another indie platformer featuring a small child with a somewhat large head.
Not gonna shittalk it before it's out or whatever, but I'm not quite impressed yet.

Yeah, to say that its like Shadow of the Colossus because it has a kid and Dark Souls because it doesnt smack the player with information its a very thin way of connecting the three together.

GTA is like Gran Turismo meets Quake because you drive around cars and shoot guns.

 

[Legion]

From the trailer it looks like one of those games that has an excellent idea behind it, but the reality of it doesn't live up to what you expect. From watching the trailer, I can't say it's piqued my interest when it comes to the game-play aspect, but the music and the description does make it sound quite good.

It's not out until next year, so I think it will be something I will keep an eye on, but I don't feel that hyped for it.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Did anyone else got the impression from the title (before watching the trailer) that the game was like fighting collossus size monsters (Shadow of the Collossus) and getting killed from them result in starting the game from scratch (Dark Soul)? Still I can see why it has hint of Shadow of the Collossus (the exploration side of that game).
Anyway it look ok, I may feel differently if I had a go on that game.

 

[King of Asgaard]

described by its creator as Shadow of the Colossus meets Dark Souls.

Yeah, with hype like that going around, this clearly won't measure up.
Just saying, taking games of that calibre, and comparing your game to a combination of the two will inevitably disappoint.

 

[FancyNick]

He exaggerated a bit with the comparisons going by the trailer. I see a few similarities but nothing to say it was a mix of the best features of those games. Best of luck to him but I am so far uninterested.

 

[Ukomba]

Just not feeling it. Game play isn't that impressive and the art style just isn't doing it for me.

Not sure comparing it to Shadow of the Colossus or Dark Souls helps the case, those names bring up very specific imagery and this game just doesn't come close. They couldn't possibly meet those expectations.

 

[dmonkoff]

It looks... niegh.
The strong points of dark souls were it's rpg system/fighting mechanics, and the strong points of SOTC were it's visuals/giant bosses.
I don't see either.

 

[Incomer]

Judging from the trailer the guy, who's apparently behind everything when it comes to this game, has very girly voice.

I'm kind of surprised that the initial wave of responses is more or less negative. Is there really so much hype behind the game or is it that little bit of what you might call arrogance by which I mean comparing itself to rather dear (by now) classics?

 

[Symbio Joe]

Count me in if there are three Vikings to meet.

 

[l3o2828]

It's a mix between a gorgeous and fun game that presented a new approach to gameplay, which is still very much unique; And an unbalanced frankly mediocre, in my opinion, unreasonable game. Okay. Good.

 

[kailus13]

Is there really that much of an overlap between fans of Shadow of the Collosus and fans of Dark Souls?

 

[Gatx]

I know that Shadow of the Colossus had more unique elements to it than fighting giant bosses, and this game is tapping into that method of storytelling, but there's ICO for that. Don't make a connection to Shadow of the Colossus unless you have giant ass bosses that you can climb all over.

That aside I love the mood of the video, a bit more iffy on the art style.

Is there really that much of an overlap between fans of Shadow of the Collosus and fans of Dark Souls?

Enough for Dragon's Dogma to exist.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Is there really that much of an overlap between fans of Shadow of the Collosus and fans of Dark Souls?

Well, Dark Souls is my 2nd favorite game ever made, and Shadow of the Colossus is my 4th, if that means anything. Also, we got Dragon's Dogma out of the equation (seems someone mentioned that).

To the developer, those are some huge, important titles to be tossing around in the context of a solo indie project. If you try not to bite off more than you can chew this could be a very interesting game, however.

 

[Canadish]

Is there really that much of an overlap between fans of Shadow of the Collosus and fans of Dark Souls?

For what one opinion is worth, they're both my favorite games of their respective generations.

Speaking of which, I feel mislead after watching that trailer. Very disappointing looking.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Well if that isn't just a little gem of sensationalisation. I highly doubt that it's going to have the same scale of epic world as SotC or the depth of combat of Dark Souls. Merely being a game inspired by them does not mean it's a mix. And considering he didn't have to apply a Transient Curse to block those ghosts, I declare it a gross overstimation!

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Any comparisons to the aforementioned games that the director has made, based upon the trailer, are completely fictional and meant to stir up interest in their game.

It looks more like a Quest for Glory title, only without any sort of charm, and the voice in the trailer reminds me of BMO from Adventure Time.