During last year’s GamesCom, I did a plethora of interviews with various developers from all over the world but then stuff happened and uh… this one’s late. Sorry.
That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m any less excited about Witch of Oblivion which is an upcoming Souls-like that fuses fiery spells with a dark and whimsical environment. It just proves how tedious transcription is. Truly, I wish there was a spell for that.
The demo I got to play at last year’s Gamescom seemed very promising with magic-focused combat and punishing encounters, all encompassed by awe-inspiring visuals!
My experience playing just the snippet I got to play was more than enchanting, really, and I’m glad I got to talk to one of the devs from the Japan-based indie dev studio Tasto Alpha about the game, its inspirations and what makes this game stand out this much!
Make sure to check the game out on Steam. There is no release date yet but I’m really excited about it!
Note: I had to omit some parts of the interview due to the audio quality from recording this in person at a busy convention with subpar equipment, so pardon me if I didn’t understand something correctly (marked via “(?)“) or if I left things out (marked via “[…]“). It’s just the way it goes with in-person interviews at busy conventions like this one.
Can you introduce yourself and explain what the game is about?
“Okay, so I am Lachlan Crompton. I am the Associate Producer of Witch of Oblivion. We are representing the dev studio, Tasto Alpha, which is a small indie studio from Japan.
(Someone shouted excitedly in the background.)
As you can tell from that shout, lots of people are having a lot of fun playing the game. It is a Souls-like action RPG with a lot of inspiration taken from Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy, as well as ARPG elements from Path of Exile in terms of how we’re going to update the Federation system and the weapons.
So you’ll be able to go through a really dark, scary forest and use your fire magic to destroy it and create new paths, create light sources, unlock secrets and even, if you let the fire get out of control, destroy your own loot.”
So, the main storyline is about the titular Witch of Oblivion who lost her memory and has to figure out her magic., right?
“Yes, yes, yes. ”
What is the end goal? Are we trying to uncover the mystery of our existence?
“Lyva has, as you mentioned, lost her memories, and is on a quest to find out why she exists. That ties into the gameplay, as well, especially with you being able to make choices whether you want to be a great destroyer or a protector of the forest.”
You mentioned that you’ve got some inspirations from Elden Ring, and other Souls-likes, but also Hogwarts Legacy. How can people see those inspirations in the game?
“In terms of gameplay we are pretty much mostly leaning on Elden Ring in terms of the very difficult frame-perfect precise combat where you have to dodge at the right time and find openings in the enemies’ attack patterns to get in some damage.
In terms of Hogwarts Legacy, it was more of a kick-off point for us because while we did all play it and we did think it was a pretty good game in its own right, in terms of being an action game, it had a lot of shortcomings.
Like, the combat was not great. If you like Harry Potter, though, it’s amazing. Going through the world, it’s really cool. But in terms of exploration, just press one button and it tells you where everything is, Reveglio. Then the combat, as I mentioned, one-button spam, sort of boring.
So we wanted to get that magic witch experience and then add the really cool combat from a Souls-like, and mix and match them together.”
So the game is primarily magic-based, or can you also wield other weapons, go in melee, etc.?
“So there are three types of weapons in the game. And the main, I guess, strength will be the around 40 or so spells we’re trying to craft, which you’ll be able to power up with passive gems, which will change their effects, for example, make them explode on impact, make you go invisible after casting them, so you can do self-focused gameplay and stuff.
But you will also be able to sort of lean into the melee combat, for example, equipping a dual-sided staff, sort of like Darth Maul style, and put an ability to parry in there, so you can go for a really aggressive melee-focused build as well.
It’s all about player choice.”
And what was the hardest part of trying to implement those sorts of inspirations and that sort of direction into the game?
“That is a very good question.
I think that the hardest part has been really trying to make sure that we do what we think is best for the game while also making sure that our own individual creative sparks don’t overwhelm it too much.
We want to make sure that it is really approachable for players while the game has a lot of unique twists and turns that keep people on their toes.”
What was something you found especially important in terms of the design of Witch of Oblivion?
“A big focus for us really was the enemy AI and how the enemies interact with your spells.
So, for example, we really want to make sure that the enemies’ attacks feel well-telegraphed and fair, but also that you can’t just sit around and wait. They’re going to actually try to kill you. They’re not just going to let you hit them [with your spells].
You have to make sure that you’re aware of their attacks, learn their patterns, and be able to react accordingly, rather than, for example, just hit willy-nilly and try to get a free win sort of thing.
This has been quite a fun challenge for us, especially with such a strong focus on ranged combat compared to melee and other Souls-likes.”
The world has this very abstract style going for it, and the enemies and stuff like that. Where did that inspiration come from? Or is there something that you tried to convey with it?
So, in terms of the sort of vibe of the world, we are really inspired by the art of a Japanese artist called Seiji Fujishiro as well as, I think, […] another artist called Michelle Oslo (?) who both do very striking shadow paintings, so, like very dark colours with slight bits of light to provide highlights that’s like really provided the basis for like why our forests are dark and why you have to use the fire to create highlights and make it easy to progress through. […]
Is this your first game?
We have made one game before. It was a roguelike deckbuilder for Steam and Switch called Arcana of Paradise. But this is our first attempt as a team at a 3D action game.
Are there some aspects that you had to cut down on because it was too much for the scope? Also, will there be a demo or playtest available in the future?
Regarding scope, we are still relatively early in development, so that’s not really something we’ve come upon yet. But we expect it to happen.
And we would like to have some kind of publicly playable build coming up in the future, but we have no solid plans yet. We do hope to have some kind of announcement about that a bit later in the year, though!
Is there something that you’d still like to tell my readers?
Please check out Witch of Oblivion on Steam. If you’re interested in the game, please add it to your wishlist. It’d be a huge help for us!
And that was the interview I did with Lachlan Crompton from Tasto Alpha! Please go check out the game on Steam if you’re interested in a whimsical world and a rather enchanting souls-like with a very cool magic system!
I had a blast playing the demo for it in person, chatting with the developers, and just seeing the sheer excitement of the booth visitors that struggled with the same boss I struggled with. It was also just so awesome to see others dodge and weave successfully before reigning victorious.
I’m pretty hyped for this one and can’t wait to hear more from the devs about this upcoming Souls-like! It seems incredibly promising!
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
If you see this article anywhere other than Indiecator.org then this article has been scraped. Please let me know about this via E-Mail.
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