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Even if we never get Stellar Blade on PC, action-RPG Aikode looks comparably swishAnother student of the school of Nier: Automata
Another student of the school of Nier: Automata
Image credit:ACE_19111545
Image credit:ACE_19111545
Tucked away in the corner of this year’s Day Of The Devs at GDC I discovered a lavish, strangely unattended action-RPG, in which austerely beautiful young women in elaborate skirts kick the bejazus out of each other on fields of whirling flowers. That game wasAikode, the work of Spanish solo developer Ace.
AIKODE DEMO FULL OFFICIAL GAMEPLAY (ALL EASTER EGGS AND NO-HIT DIFFICULTY)Watch on YouTube
AIKODE DEMO FULL OFFICIAL GAMEPLAY (ALL EASTER EGGS AND NO-HIT DIFFICULTY)
Both Stellar Blade and Aikode take inspiration fromNier: Automata, but Aikode seems more obviously reminiscent of the Yoko Taro opus in its love of meta moments and philosophical grandiloquence, the specific cut of its skirts and its ethereal, high tech world. Said world is Somnium, which is “doomed to an endless cycle of death”, and appears to straddle both timelines and genres: there’s a cyberpunk metropolis, a replica of Tokyo, a steampunkville and some kind of cloud citadel featuring cats, which you can either pet or kill.
There’s a relationship system, too, and sex (if you enable the associated game settings). But what you’ll primarily be doing in Aikode is fighting. The game’s third-person combat is firmly of theDevil May Cryschool, with a big emphasis on dodges and parries and pattern recognition. Enemies range from groups of humanoid one-attack-wonders to monstrosities bigger than buildings that must be taken on using a grappling hook. I didn’t get much sense of this during my 10 minutes with the demo at GDC, but your weapon apparently has three modes - gun, sword and scythe. Switching between them on the fly is necessary to overpower more sophisticated opponents. It all looks very swanky, with animations that could also be dance moves.
20-something developer Ace is something of a wonderkid. As discussed in thisIndie Games Devel interview, Ace started out tinkering in Unity at the tender age of 13, before shifting over toRPG Maker. Aikode, which entered development a couple of years ago, is Ace’s first “proper” videogame project. Naturally, the creator’s relative inexperience and apparent shortage of resources versus the baroque immensity of Aikode’s concept alarm me a bit. In the interview above, there’s talk of working 16 hour days, seven days a week, which - please, don’t do that to yourself. Speaking as a burned-out 30-something, there may come a point when you regret it.
Aikode doesn’t have a release date. I hope Ace doesn’t rush it. Read more about the setting and characters onthe official site. For more on the game’s inspirations beyond Nier, there’s alsothis piece on 80.lv.
