Developer Myrkur Games has released a new video for its upcoming action RPG Echoes of the End, this time focusing on the title’s core gameplay, minute-to-minute action, and its cinematic combat. The video features performance director Dadi Einars talking about how the studio wants to encourage players to make split-second decisions in the midst of the game’s hectic combat. Check it out below.
Starting things off, Einars spoke about the feedback the studio got after it released the gameplay trailer last week. Noting that some of the feedback revolved around the game’s combat looking slow, Einars has said that changes have already been made to the game, and more improvements are constantly being worked on. He noted that the gameplay footage in the new video is from an earlier build of Echoes of the End. This means that the gameplay improvements that have been made to the game since then aren’t reflected in the new footage.
“When we started making Echoes of the End, we already had some pillars in mind for the combat system,” said Einars. “First, Ryn is both a trained warrior and a vestige; someone born with an affinity for ancient destructive magic. She is powerful, and playing as her, you should feel powerful too. Second, we wanted the interplay of melee combat and magic to be central to the experience. It’s about mobility and precision, weaving in and out of range, and using your abilities to control the battlefield.”
“Third, we didn’t want it to be a cakewalk. Ryn is powerful, but it’s that power that makes it even remotely possible for her to emerge victorious against the enemies she’s going to face on her journey.”
We then also get a look at how some of Ryn’s combat abilities will work, featuring gameplay programmer Oksar Emanuelsson. Ryn will have quite a few abilities right from the start of the game, including standard attacks and dodges. “More uniquely, my favourite ability in the game by far is the shift, which allows you to take an enemy and shift it over in another location,” explained Emanuelsson, who went on to note that the ability allows for unique ways to take out enemies, like shifting them off cliffs and letting gravity handle the rest.
Quite a bit of the rest of the video features various analyses by Emanuelsson of some of the combat that we got to see in last week’s trailer. He also provided some insight into some of the encounter design that was shown off in the trailer, such as Ryn having to manage multiple enemies while her partner in combat, Abran, is making use of his own abilities to help out.
Echoes of the End is slated for release on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 12. The release date was announced through a trailer that gave us a good look at the game’s combat as well as the various magical abilities that Ryn and Abran will be able to use in their adventure together.
