Gamescom Future Games Show earlier today introduced a developer presentation for the upcoming stealth platform game Ereban: Shadow Legacy. The presentation delivered by Alex Alonso, one of Baby Robot Games’ founders and game designers, walked us through the coolest base mechanic of the game: the Shadow Merge. He also explained some of the inspiration behind the game. Check out the full video below.
In Ereban: Shadow Legacy, you play Ayana, a descendant of a now-extinct race of warriors who utilized shadows to fight. Her mission is to infiltrate a suspicious megacorporation called Helios to investigate their motives and possible role in the disappearance of her people. Along the way, she will have to dodge or fight robotic enemies in this sci-fi city, and the choice between fight and flight will have consequences for her to deal with.
Ayana is the ultimate stealth warrior because of her ability to merge with the shadows around her. In the developer presentation above, Alex explained that inspiration for this ability came from a couple of places. First, the team was inspired by many stealth games that let you obscure yourself in the shadows and hide from sight. They just wanted to take that a step further and have the main character be able to become the shadows and move through them. That’s where the second source of inspiration comes in: Splatoon! The developers liked how Splatoon allowed movement through ink and wanted a similar movement for shadows that could be expanded on.
The result is the base mechanic of the Shadow Merge. Ayana can slink along the ground under her enemy’s feet to remain undetected. She can also use the shadows to climb walls or slide under fences, so much more of the environment is accessible to her than it would be in most games. She can even move from shadow to shadow and with the shadows of moving objects, or she can jump off of great heights and be absorbed into a shadow. There’s so much that this ability allows her to do that it must come with at least some limitations. If an enemy shines a light on her in shadow mode, she will become visible again. Also, she can’t just stay in the shadows constantly. If she has been using Shadow Merge for too long, she is booted out of the shadow, regardless of whether there are enemies around her.
The whole concept is heightened by the gorgeous style of the game. It’s both a gritty urban sci-fi setting and an artistic display of mystic powers. Ayana even seems to glow purple or blue in the dark when she isn’t in a shadow merge! Ereban: Shadow Legacy is coming soon in 2023. It will be available on day one with Xbox Game Pass, but will also be available on PC and Xbox Series X|S. Add it to your Steam wishlist today!
