Developer Giant Squid has announced the upcoming PS5-exclusive adventure game Sword of the Sea, which looks like a cross between Journey and a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game. Revealed at the 2023 PlayStation Showcase on May 24, the title is what the team is calling its “most ambitious game to date.”
From the brief teaser shown during the showcase, Sword of the Sea features a breathtaking art style that fans of other Giant Squid games will expect. It seems the studio behind Abzu and 2020’s action-adventure game The Pathless will not disappoint when it comes to visuals.
While the debut trailer doesn’t reveal much about the upcoming indie game, it does more than a sufficient job at catching viewers’ interests. It shows a range of picturesque and relaxing desert locations, with partially covered ruins and skatepark-like structures breaking through the vast sand dunes. The game’s central mechanic seems to be sailing or hoverboarding around this mysterious world, and some fans will be immediately reminded of the endless runner mobile games Alto’s Adventure and Alto’s Odyssey, which also set players on a variety of sandboards to glide through a range of scenic and zen-inducing locations.
Sword of the Sea is set in an abandoned realm “where the terrain flows in constant waves” and the primary means of travel is the Hoversword, which serves as a skateboard, snowboard, and hoverboard. The player takes on the role of the Wraith, a mysterious being who has been resurrected in order to bring life back to the empty world. The Wraith will travel across the desolate land, venturing into various ruins, shipwrecks, ancient battlefields, and tombs to discover the hidden cultures within. But giant leviathans will stand in the way of the Wraith's journey, though it's still unclear whether these will be fought or just avoided.
Of course, Sword of the Sea will not just depend on its unique movement mechanic of traveling on hoverboards and navigating through "skatepark-like ruins" to attract players. As seen in the trailer, it will offer up incredible vistas that also rely on color and lighting to convey the beauty of the land the Wraith is voyaging through, and it seems like those who enjoyed the aforementioned Journey or Alto's games will be just as drawn in by the ambience of Sword of the Sea. And Giant Squid's new offering may also make good use of the PS5's DualSense controller features if The Pathless is anything to go by.
Developer Giant Squid was founded in 2013 by Matt Nava, who worked as art director for Flower and Journey by thatgamecompany before leaving to start his own studio. The distinctive style of the artist's previous projects appears to be making a welcome return with Sword of the Sea, which promises to combine the adrenaline and fun of a skating game with the exploration and meditative atmosphere gamers have come to expect from Giant Squid.
Sword of the Sea is currently in development for PC and PS5.
Source: PlayStation.Blog