This new metroidvania's world reminds me of Hollow Knight

Every day I wake up craving a new game that will fill the Hollow Knight-shaped hole in my heart, and I think Aeterna Noctis might just about do it. It's an upcoming 2D metroidvania that will have you slicing your way through evil baddies in settings that look like they're straight out of Hollow Knight. You're not a bug in this one though, you're a human man with a cool shadowy sword who's trying to regain his kingly powers.

The gorgeous backgrounds have really caught my eye here. While the character designs look pretty different from Hollow Knight, some of the environments you travel through in Aeterna Noctis look startlingly similar to the bug-filled adventure.

Developed by Aeternum Game Studios, Aeterna Noctis follows the story of a King Of Darkness and Queen Of Light who are cursed to battle forever. Your goal is to help him regain his power, and presumably do away with the nasty Chaos god that stripped it from him in the first place.

The more I look at the screenshots and trailer for this game, the more I start to think that maybe it looks a little too much like Hollow Knight. There are a ton of design similarities, right down to the soundtrack, though I do still think Aeterna Noctis seems good in its own regard. Metroidvanias as a genre are inherently derivative, after all, and sometimes that's ok.

Aeterna Noctis launches sometime this year. On Steam it says December 15th, though that could just be a placeholder as the trailer and official site don't mention an exact release date. It's also coming to PS5.