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'There Is No Light' | A New Action Adventure That Draws Inspiration From Shin Megami Tensei (Update: Kickstarter Launched)

Dancrane212

Dancrane212

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,962
Update:
Kickstarter campaign launched and the goal reached:


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The game was announced a while back but was given a full trailer and gameplay demo for PAX East this year that I wanted to make note of for folk. The demo was a good couple of minutes where you took control of a sword-wielding protagonist as they explored a post-apocalyptic subway system, fighting off monsters and doing some light platforming to dodge between platforms with poisonous fluids. Only real issue I had was noticing a wall or two the character was able to leap over, but it only took a couple moments to grasp. It was a pretty promising showing.




Part of that was the great *mood* to everything in the demo (it certainly wears its SMT influences on its sleeve) and it all controlled very well. It was a bit strange how demo simply ended (I was at least told there was no more content after reaching it) in a random room with a little worm hiding in a wall. It left me curious enough to reach out to the developer to find out more about the game.

The world will be similar in structure to Hyper Light Drifter, you'll have the opportunity to choose different paths from a hub (with some areas connecting to each other) so the game is aiming to be non-linear. The little worm I found in the final room? That will drive your character growth with each one found allowing you to increase your character's abilities and defeating bosses will grant new weapons. As for the SMT influence that the promotional material at the show mentioned? It's apparently focused on the tone and philosophy of the game rather than mechanics but you will still have the ability to have a minor influence on the character's role via dialogue choices.

There's no release date that I saw and there are apparently plans for a console release but specifics are TBA, it's officially just PC for the moment.

 
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Dancrane212

Dancrane212

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,962
Ashby said:
I'm not seeing much that stands out as SMT
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I think at least visually, especially with SMT IV, there's a pretty strong connection there. Early on in the demo you're walking through this subway with disheveled humans mulling about trying to get by in a dire situation.

We'll have to see how the rest of it shakes out in the full game.
 
Jakenbakin

Jakenbakin

Member
Jun 17, 2018
11,835
I like how it looks. I'm sorry if it's sacrilege, but it visually looks less like SMT and more like a certain other Japanese franchise that maybe gets name checked every 0.8 games.
 
Sameer Sedlar

Sameer Sedlar

Member
Feb 8, 2018
395
Egypt
Can you shed some light on the combat ?, Was it difficult ?, Did the protagonist have a health bar or something, or was it a one hit kill kinda of game ?, Tell me more about the difficulty if you don't mind.

Also did you get to face any bosses ?, and last thing you think there is going to be some sort of a narrative ?
 
Araujo

Araujo

Banned
Dec 5, 2017
2,196
... there ain't no SMT in that at all.

Like... i was expecting maybe a focus on preying on enemy weaknesess with elemental attacks or using buffs and debuffs to overcome challenges... but that is just Hyperlight drifter . But a bit slower and with less Cyber.
 
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Dancrane212

Dancrane212

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,962
Sameer Sedlar said:
Can you shed some light on the combat ?, Was it difficult ?, Did the protagonist have a health bar or something, or was it a one hit kill kinda of game ?, Tell me more about the difficulty if you don't mind.

Also did you get to face any bosses ?, and last thing you think there is going to be some sort of a narrative ?
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Sure! Combat, like Araujo noted, is pretty close to Hyper Light Drifter but has more weight behind it with the bigger characters and monsters. One of the enemies in the demo also laid down poison so positioning got to be very important in the cramped rooms of the subway station; you couldn't just go dashing about in those cases. I died twice in the demo during the moments when I tried to play a bit too fast but the checkpointing (visible in the world) was pretty fair.

No bosses in the demo from what I saw. I just got to a room and had one of the folk from the publisher tell me that was the end of the demo. As for narrative there were some cryptic npcs around (both human and otherwise) and the Steam page points to the player being able to influence the world in some way but there wasn't much in the demo.

Ever-shifting locations, that react and change according to your deeds - along with your character.
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Araujo said:
... there ain't no SMT in that at all.

Like... i was expecting maybe a focus on preying on enemy weaknesess with elemental attacks or using buffs and debuffs to overcome challenges... but that is just Hyperlight drifter . But a bit slower and with less Cyber.
Click to expand...
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It's definitely coming at it from a tonal perspective rather than a gameplay one.
 
Sameer Sedlar

Sameer Sedlar

Member
Feb 8, 2018
395
Egypt
Dancrane212 said:
Sure! Combat, like Araujo noted, is pretty close to Hyper Light Drifter but has more weight behind it with the bigger characters and monsters. One of the enemies in the demo also laid down poison so positioning got to be very important in the cramped rooms of the subway station; you couldn't just go dashing about in those cases. I died twice in the demo during the moments when I tried to play a bit too fast but the checkpointing (visible in the world) was pretty fair.

No bosses in the demo from what I saw. I just got to a room and had one of the folk from the publisher tell me that was the end of the demo. As for narrative there were some cryptic npcs around (both human and otherwise) and the Steam page points to the player being able to influence the world in some way but there wasn't much in the demo.
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That's pretty interesting really, I'll be keeping a closer eye, thank you.
 
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Dancrane212

Dancrane212

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,962
Sameer Sedlar said:
That's pretty interesting really, I'll be keeping a closer eye, thank you.
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Forgot to mention you also had two different weapons in the demo; the sword in the gif and a heavier spear weapon. The sword was great when dashing around but the slow sweep of the spear was a godsend for those tight corridors to hold off the spiders in doorways.
 
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Dancrane212

Dancrane212

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,962
Just played through the demo, it is significantly larger than the one shown at PAX. It's very, very good!

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Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
18,032
Nice, I missed out the last time. By the time I wanted to play it, it was gone from my library.
 
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
18,032
Dancrane212 said:
The demo has also been made available again:
store.steampowered.com

There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition on Steam

Battle your way through the grim Underground world in this brutal action-adventure RPG. Exterminate hordes of enemies, fight dangerous bosses and explore the world the way you want!
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
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ooh, I so wanna check this out.

Couldn't get an updated demo last time it was available (in the Spring Festival), cuz there was some glitch with that.

gonna be grabbing this one, for sure.
 
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Dancrane212

Dancrane212

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,962
Mentalist

Mentalist

Member
Mar 14, 2019
18,032
That demo is immense!
Finally finished, but wow! I did not expect this much content!

Really fascinating world, too; there were several instances I did not expect to see in a game like this;

The combat... I don't know what to say about it. I didn't really see much benefit to the extra weapons, except in some very specific situations. The enemy variety's pretty limited, so it's really all about crowd control- I do like that the game makes it clear how many hits each enemy takes.

Those kamikaze demons can go burn in a fire, though; a few encounters were basically bullet-hell fights because of that.

Overall, though; wow! Really stoked about this one now, I was kinda on the fence after my initial crack at the demo (I gave up on the spitting spiders originally).
 
Vic_Viper

Vic_Viper

Thanked By SGM
Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,055
Really love the look of the game. So happy its not another side scrolling metroidvania lol. Just hope it doesnt have super long to go still.
 
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