Ravenlok

 Down the rabbit hole

I've have become a fiend for fantasy games of late, which is a byproduct of my RPG kick considering that most RPGs are Fantasy. (The good ones, anyway.) Which places me in the exact right position to take full appreciation of the new 'Alice in Wonderland' styled action Isekai by Cococucumber, the makers of Echo Generation. (As far as I can tell they are not a subsidiary of Cocomelon, as unbelievable as that sounds.) As any indie company who wants to kick it with the big leagues must these days, Cococumber have developed their own distinct style with these voxel amalgam models strewn with such variety and colour that they look like something of a retro-rendered storybook. Echo Generation lost none of it's distinguishable flair with it's overtly cubic visual palette, and Ravenlok is such an increadibly intricate evolution upon that art style you'd genuinely be forgiven for not even notching the blocky foundationals of each image, especially as it weaves itself in and out of the image drawing contrast between the storybook characters and the main girl who navigates them. I bawk at the amount of effort would take to render such gorgeous plains.

But alas, I fall for the old indie game trap of jumping immediately into an assessment of the visual direction as though that alone is all a non-big-publisher backed studio can offer to compete in an industry like this. Whilst anyone who has sit down and played the single greatest Metroidvania of our age, Hollow Knights, knows that not to be the case. So how about we back up and treat this game on it's own merits, court it a little, get to know the belle of the ball? Because for as much as the visuals did strike me during it's debut reveal at the Bethesda/Microsoft conference, it's the whole package combined which convinced me that this was a game worth following up on even amongst its impressive peers.

Described as a reimagined fairy tale, Ravenlok features a young girl living on what looks to be the Kent Family Ranch, finding not an old Kryptonian crash pod in her barn but instead a magic mirror whisking her away to a dark land of castles and giant talking animals, alongside ghoulish mushroom monitories, roboticised rotary chickens and not a single Isekai box truck. (It's like you people don't even care about the rules of visiting another world...) Right away there are clear allusion in premise and presentation to, as I said, 'Alice In Wonderland', as well as 'The Lion and the Witch in the Wardrobe' and maybe even a hint of 'The Wizard of Oz'. (That farm looks mighty familiar.) And I doubt these similarities are accidental, two of the three comparisons I made have 'fable' like aspects in their telling, (Lewis' work is more traditional fantasy with overly discussed biblical allusions.)  providing the framework expectation for the stroytellers to, presumably given the nature of these sorts of game as well as the promise of a 'reimaging', subvert those inherently instilled expectations.

Now pretty looking fantasy games by indie studios is hardly the rarest stag in the woods, however Ravenlok set itself neatly apart once I realised that this was not a typical party-based RPG as every fibre of it's being would suggest; instead it's an action based slasher with what looks to be a only a hairline of developed roleplaying systems. And that intrigues me. It intrigues because it is oh-so very confident for an indie studio, even one with successful priors, to dedicate itself to such a precise and challenging genre in the hopes of creating a working game. Not that classic or modern RPGs are a walk the park, by any stretch of the imagination, but there's a ton more wiggleroom in what makes solid role playing gameplay as opposed to what makes solid action gameplay. Huge AAA studios have had their expensive games live and die on the minutiae of damage frames and dodge responsiveness.

Matters are even heightened by the way the trailer for Ravenlok clearly takes inspiration from your typical Souls-like trailers, with the presentation of tiny man versus huge creative monster set peices, wide swipes neatly dodged and sneaky chipping in potshots. Although I should point out that there is no indication this will have the hallmark features of a Souls-like, just that the developers have correctly identified that subgenre as the current apex of this style of game and want to try and conjure that feeling, or something approximate. And to that end I will say the team have done a good job making very bestial, yet grandiose, looking subversions of your typical fantasy enemies. You expect your giant plant boss, sure, but the horrifyingly regal butterfly wing-face Caterpillar queen who's maw splits in four is much more guttural and unsettling than anything you'd ever see in Fable.

Being such a fun of the American Mcgee Alice in Wonderland games, which takes that original body of work and stretches it into a much darker fantasy action game which spans a wildly creative dive into the broken psyche of an institutionalised Alice Liddell, this obviously similarly inspired adventure dug it's way into my heart. Whereas as American Mcgee's version of this world was utterly twisted both inside and out of the fantasy world, Ravenlok by the very merit of it's presentation is considerably less foreboding; but who am I to say, maybe the team have something really dark in their hearts they want to bleed out through art in order to save on therapy bills. (I know that's why I write.) It might be slightly expectant to compare the two, but design a title like this which fits into these specific gameplay brackets and the comparison invites itself.

  

At the very least there's a ton of visual creativity dripping off of the character designs of this game making them stand out in the ol' memory banks. The many toothed Venus fly trap, whilst a little obvious, is a scene stealer, alongside the fire-breathing clockwork bird who makes some impressive ground with those lunging swipes of his. I do worry whether or not this level of visual interest can carry through the game. Right away it's pretty obvious the most unique design they have is on the queen, which makes sense given that she appears to be the main antagonist, but that doesn't mean we can't have equally disturbing creatures tucked away in this world. Additionally, whilst the voxel composition of the various environments are deftly and expertly done, I'm yet to feel a strong thematic background art which matches the dark, twisted vibe I get from characters like the queen. In fact that brief glimpse of the inside of a castle flanked with jesters looked nigh-on generic from a fantasy castle design perspective. But hopefully that niggling feeling is merely a consequence of a jumpy trailer.

Ravenlok grabbed my attention, and nowadays that's the special factor you really need to stand up in a sea of games and developers. Right now, however, the substance of what I've seen impresses me more for what it is trying to achieve than for what it has proven that it can. The development team do have a solid reputation from what I can tell at an offhand glace, but this, understandably, might just be their biggest project they're embarked on. consider my interest piqued and my attention wrestled over for the immediate, and with an actually memorable name I'll remember to look this one up from time to time. Cococumber has won over an interested party over here, now we just have to wait until this flower starts to bloom to see if it's bud can keep us around.