Upcoming Pirate Metroidvania Mixes Hades-Style Visuals & Soulslike Combat On Switch Next Year
Developer Mad Mimic and publisher Light Up Games have announced that the pirate metroidvania Mark of the Deep will be landing on Switch in January 2025.
You might remember that this one was initially scheduled for an October 2024 launch — a date which, obviously, wasn’t met — and while it’s never ideal to see a nice-looking game delayed, the new release window isn’t all that far away.
For those who missed the initial announcement, Mark of the Deep sees you shipwrecked on a cursed island (the worst type of island), forced to fight your way through all kinds of nasties in an attempt to reunite your crew. There’s a metroidvania structure to the exploration, and the developer highlights a certain Soulslike approach to the combat — so expect to see a good few dodge rolls.
Looking at the new gameplay trailer (above), we couldn’t help but be reminded a little of Hades in the game’s isometric camera, action animation and overall visuals. Obviously, there are no roguelike elements to contend with here, but we’d be surprised if Supergiant’s journey through the underworld didn’t provide at least a sliver of inspiration on the design front.
You can find a rundown of the game’s story and key features, and a handful of screenshots below:
A pirate ship wrecked on a mystic and cursed island, till then known only by myths n’ tales. In this diversely hostile environment, Rookie needs to face a wide variety of dangers to find his lost crew.
However, by exploring the eerie biomes and fighting abyssal monsters, he will learn that the Island was cursed centuries ago, when the cultist leader of the Old Folk – the native inhabitants of the island – imprisoned the Leviathan, in search of obtaining immortality.
Features:
– Get new abilities that change how you fight enemies, traverse the environment, and unlock new paths!
– Experience challenging but fair combat against a diverse set of enemies!
– Find your missing crew and bring them to the crew’s HUB!
– Upgrade your weapons and abilities!
We still don’t have the specifics of exactly when Mark of the Deep will drop anchor on Switch in January 2025, but we’ll be keeping an eye out over the coming weeks for more information.
We were lucky enough to go hands-on with this one at Tokyo Games Show this year and we liked what we saw. Here’s hoping that the full game can keep the good times coming.
What do you make of Mark of the Deep? Will you be checking it out next year? Let us know in the comments.