Dive into Outbuddies' ominous depths later this year
I don't think the Little Mermaid song applies here
The ocean depths are a pretty good Metroidvania setting, seeing as we know so little about them. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me that much if the bizarre glowing creatures of Outbuddies really were down there, just waiting for a lost explorer to stumble on them. Submerge yourself in the trailer’s neons and the skulls that are apparently littered all over the place on the ocean shelf. Again, not surprising.
Once, as a teen, I absolutely shredded my leg against a barnacle-encrusted pier, which is perhaps why the colourful walls of this game evoke such a strong sense memory. But still, their weirdly bulbous, eye-like roundness is objectively creepy. On the other hand, this bioluminescent/supernatural robot glow mashup that’s happening in the colour palette doesn’t only look good, it also makes sense considering the weirdness that appears to be happening under the sea:
Enter Bahlam, a sunken city of the Old Gods, located deep in the South Atlantic Ocean. Following a shipwreck, adventurer and maritime archaeologist Nikolay Bernstein regains consciousness 36,000 feet under the sea. He's severely wounded and unwillingly connected to a supernatural Buddy-unit. Searching for answers about his displacement our main protagonist digs deep into the lost undercity, gradually realizing an ominous presence hollowing in its shadowed caverns.
This explains the ominous skull piles.
Bernstein might not be thrilled to be connected to that sea/cosmic nightmare/other??? robot*, but he might feel better if you get a pal to control it via the game’s local co-op options. “This will also provide an opportunity for team-speedrunning as a very unique take on the scene,” write the developers, which, yeah, I could see myself watching.
*it might not even be a robot? Who knows when there are undersea Old Gods involved.
Outbuddies is scheduled to release before the end of this year, and you can find it on Steam.