Ever since the release of FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls in 2009, the action RPG genre has never quite been the same, in regards to gameplay. The game laid down an innovative, addictive, and difficult combat system that can be frustrating if you are not patient. Demon’s Souls laid down the concept which would then be improved with the company’s next game, Dark Souls. From here, the rest is history. Other companies have been inspired by the combat system of Dark Souls and made it their own. Some examples include Team Ninja’s Nioh, Hexworks’ The Lords of the Fallen and Neowiz Games, and Round8 Studio’s Lies of P. Now though, Tasto Alpha is bringing their take on the souls-like to Steam next year in the form of Witch of Oblivion.
Announced at the recent IGN Live Broadcast, Witch of Oblivion is an open-world game with a souls-like combat system. At the event, we were shown a trailer that gave us a first glance at the combat and synopsis of the game. The protagonist is Lyva, a witch who awakens after a years-long hibernation. She has no recollection of her life and journeys across an open-world forest setting to recover her memories and take on deadly monsters.
The trailer is intriguing, with the presentation taking an anime art style that works well with the game’s mystical combat. But the thing that caught my eye was not the trailer, but the company itself. Indie studios are responsible for some of the best and most memorable games of this century. Hades, Cuphead, and Super Meat Boy are all perfect examples. Tasto Alpha, if the team can pull the game off, has the potential to be viewed as a truly committed, talented team in the same light as Supergiant Games, Studio MDHR, and Team Meat.
The company consists of two people, Tomo Ikeda (Director and Game Designer) and Takuma Okubo (CEO & Lead Programmer). Okubo has previous credits working for BottleCube, an indie company responsible for mobile games that have been ported to the Nintendo Switch and Steam. Ikeda on the other hand served as lead planner and scenario writer for Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility and was the director of Lollipop Chainsaw, the cult classic 2012 zombie game. All of this lays the foundations for an impressive souls-like game.
Witch of Oblivion is now available to wishlist on Steam and is scheduled to release in 2025.
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