Just a couple of weeks after getting its new July 31st release date, The Relic: First Guardian now has a brand-new trailer that gives us a deeper look at its story, world, and exploration. The trailer, which you can check out below, clocks in at almost 13 minutes in length. Since it focuses almost entirely on actual gameplay, the story bits showcased in the new trailer focus on how the world helps in telling you about what has been going on, thanks to environmental storytelling.
The narrator for the trailer notes that players exploring the world will “encounter the traces of those who once lived here. Some stories are not tales of great heroes. They begin with desire, regret, and the choices of ordinary people.” The trailer also reiterates that some of the stories that players will get to encounter in The Relic: First Guardian are inspired by traditional Korean folktales and legends.
“They may feel familiar, yet they remain very different in this world,” says the narrator as the protagonist starts a new quest about a man seemingly dropping their axe and getting a golden one in return. This story ended up spreading around the nearby village, and eventually, the nearby lake started getting filled with several axes. This story is experienced through a series of glowing orbs that tell the story of one such person who believed in the legend and decided to throw his own axe into the lake.
Along the way, the protagonist has to take on the ghouls that have seemingly made their home in the area surrounding the lake. Through this, we get to see more of the heavy, slow-paced combat of The Relic: First Guardian. Interestingly, this quest didn’t culminate in an epic boss fight. Rather, the emphasis was on the tragedy of the people who fell for the simple folktale, and as a result, ended up losing their means of making any money so that they could escape their debts.
The trailer also features a few dungeon-crawling segments, as the protagonist explores the world and experiences more of the stories from The Relic: First Guardian. We get to see many of the smaller stories from the game throughout the video’s runtime, while also experiencing some of the epic fights that players will get to experience.
The Relic: First Guardian got a trailer earlier this month, giving us another look at its combat system. The trailer emphasized the fact that the players will have to weave in and out of range as they try to land melee blows on enemies while also avoiding damage.
A trailer from February, which focused on the Korean folktale The Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter, showcased how this combat system would work against a singular boss fight. Much like the newer video, that trailer gave us a glimpse at how Korean folktales would be a heavy influence on The Relic: First Guardian, before the player inevitably has to fight against a spectre of the titular “Heavenly Maiden”, who has been corrupted to a horrendous degree.
The Relic: First Guardian is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
