Stray Blade, an action role-playing game with metroidvania elements, might possibly support the new DualSense features when it releases on PlayStation 5.
Speaking with SegmentNext in a recent interview, CEO Leonard Kausch confirmed that developer Point Blank Games is “looking into this feature at the moment.” Considering the fast-paced combat mechanics of the game, the adaptive triggers and the haptic feedback sensors of the DualSense controller will potentially add a new layer to the overall player-experience.
When asked about comparisons being made with Souls or Souls-like games, Kausch stated that Stray Blade is mostly an action role-playing game with a strong emphasis on exploration. However, there is one inspiration which the developer took from the Souls genre and which requires players to “actually watch the attack animations of your enemies and learn their patterns.”
Stray Blade will feature around 20 hours of gameplay for its main campaign. While players can complete the entire storyline with standard gear they will come across during the mainline progression, “getting everything you want will require a lot of adventurous exploration and combat to achieve.”
The notion being that completionists will have to spend a lot more time to explore every nook and cranny before calling it a day. There also stands to be some sort of replay-value which includes the likes of varying difficulty levels, but which will be revealed closer to release.
Point Blank Games has come up with a “changing world” for its new game which ties directly with progression and the aforementioned metroidvania elements.
“The player unlocks more and more of the world while progressing through the game, which increases the area they can freely travel through with every step,” explained Kausch. “This ties in with the metroidvania abilities the player unlocks in the game that grant access to new areas. Stray Blade has a strong emphasis on optional exploration, which gives the player a lot of choice what to do next.”
Kausch furthermore added that certain areas will evolve after being cleared of all enemies. For example, “a cleared human camp might become a nest for scavengers. On the other hand, opening a sealed temple entrance might lead to a human faction building camps inside the temple.”
Stray Blade remains in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and PC. The game is eying a release somewhere in 2022 and an exact release date has been promised to be given soon.
