Acquire Corp and IzanagiGames have announced Amedama, a pixel art sidescroller with a unique aesthetic and an intriguing soul-hopping mechanic. It's coming to PC via Steam and boasts the involvement of ex-luminaries from games like Monster Hunter and Fate/Grand Order.
Per the game's newly-revealed Steam page, Amedama is a "soul-shifting sandbox action adventure" with a "striking new 2D style". Visually, the game has something of a shade of Square Enix's HD-2D style about it, and the setup is reminiscent of Ghost Trick with a dash of Trek to Yomi, although it's a little more complex than that.
You are Yushin, a young man who runs an umbrella shop in late Edo-period Japan with your sister Yui. One day, a group of men burst into your shop and kill you. Newly formless, you must possess different bodies and fight with them in order to discover what's happened to Yui and why you were murdered.
According to the developers, possessing people will give you "access to a variety of weapons and fighting styles", and depending on who you're currently possessing, you'll face different enemies and meet different characters. It's not clear whether you'll be able to do this on the fly or whether you'll be inhabiting a linear series of characters.
Complicating matters is the fact that Yushin has just seven days before his soul departs this world for the next. This means you'll have to solve the "intricate, deep-rooted plot" surrounding your murder and Yui's disappearance in a snappy fashion.
All of this plays out against "the rain-soaked backdrop of mid-19th-century Japan", as described by IzanagiGames. The art style certainly makes the time period look evocative; Amedama is very much a game that performs well in screenshots, so to speak.
There's a real pedigree behind Amedama, too. According to the Steam page, character designs are being handled by lack, the character artist behind Fate/Grand Order and Touken Ranbu. The soundtrack is being composed by Yuko Komiyama, whose work you may recognize from the Monster Hunter series.
Amedama currently doesn't have a release date, and at present, it's only been announced for PC. If you like narrative-rich sidescrollers, though, you'll want to put this one on your wishlist. Stay tuned for more news on Amedama.
