Strike my rudder, there's an actual Redwall game out this winter - and here's a trailer
Update: It's a special bundle edition, not a brand new release
Brian Jacques' Redwall books were my greatest obsession between the ages of approximately eight and 12-years-old. They're sort of The Lord of the Rings, but with talking woodlands animals, and their appeal for me consisted of three things 1) comedy British accents, 2) big fights, and 3) big feasts. I couldn't get enough, to the point that I tried to have one of my unborn siblings named after a badger warcry from the novel Salamandastron.
Fast-forward to 2023, and Oregon-based Soma Games are about to release a Redwall videogame, titled The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology. Will it measure up to my childhood fantasies about acorn pancakes slathered with gorseflower honey, or forest logboat armadas of squabbling guerilla shrews? Probably not, but what can? Here's a new trailer from publisher Forthright Entertainment.
Now dated for release on 1st December 2023, Soma's adaptation is something of a Lost Legend itself. The project has been off-and-on since the dark days of Alec Meer, who - in a commentary that would have had me spitting out my dandelion tea, had I been employed here at the time - called upon the developers to make "a stealth-centric game of thievery and rat-avoidance". For shame, Alec! This is supposed to be children's entertainment, not one of your nasty imsims.
Instead, Soma are making a linear action-adventure spanning three acts, which casts you as one of two young mice, Sophia or Liam, who are trying to reach the titular abbey of Redwall and stop some evil sea-rats overrunning the forest of Mossflower. You can expect "a unique scent mechanic for dynamic, multifaceted fun", "cryptic riddles" and "rich dialogue mechanics" based on understanding the hopes and fears of the other characters.
From the trailer, it looks like you'll be matching glyphs, knocking down barrels with a catapult, and fending off ornery owls. Where are the banquets, Soma? A Redwall story without at least two chapters of frothy ranting about blackberry pudding is like a car without wheels.
As a kid, I was oblivious to the heavily on-the-nose cultural programming of the Redwall universe, in which nice communities of cute mice and moles are constantly about to get overrun by filthy vermin from distant parts. If you want to play a game that is pretty Redwally, but actually digs into those allegorical constructs, I greatly recommend Ghost of a Tale. Brendy had mixed feelings about it, but don't you listen to that oaf. He's almost as bad as Alec.
Update: On closer inspection (thanks treelo), it turns out that Soma have already released The Scout Anthology's three parts as individual episodes, delisting them last month. In my desperation to write about leek 'n' onion pasties I clean overlooked this. They've pulled a Seasonal Bundle on us! Where are you, Alec? Save me!