Motion Twin’s upcoming indie game Windblown, a superfast action roguelite set in the floating village of the Ark, has a lot of excitement in the air. Made by the creators ofDead Cells, there’s a lot of intrigue surroundingWindblown’s gameplay elements, especially following its stunning cinematic announcement trailer revealed at2023’s Game Awards. Stepping into the shoes of its Leapers, players battle the Vortex’s Sentinels in a gameplay loop where players dash, fight, die, upgrade, and repeat, a formula that might be somewhat expected from the genre. Yet,Windblownis also said to set a new level of speed within action roguelites.
Recently, Game Rant attended a hands-off preview where we saw around 10 minutes of single-playerWindblowngameplay, guided by design and creative director Yannick Berthier. While that didn’t necessarily feel very long, it was enough to see that those fond of action roguelikes will likely find a lot to like about the game, especially fans ofDead Cells.This preview focused entirely on the single-player experience, but it’s worth notingWindblownis co-op as well.
Dashing and Combat in Windblown Are Lightning Fast
During combat or when traversing platforms, players can leap acrossWindblown’s gorgeous biomes at lightning speed by dashing. Berthier showed this off immediately, beginning in the Autumn Biome and sending their Leaper zipping across ledges from enemy to enemy and making jumps look like child’s play with itsfast-paced platforming. Yet, there’s clearly still a skill to executing a successful dash, as the one time we saw a Leaper die was when overshooting a dash and falling off the edge.
Dashing is a core component ofWindblown’s combat. It’s also a means of closing the gap between enemies or dodging their attacks using fast movements to follow up with deadlycombat combinations, depending on the weapons in hand. Along the way, Berthier chose different kinds of Gifts, which act as passive powers activated according to different situations, like Furious Dash or Homing Arrows. Berthier also picked up weapons or trinket rewards from fallen enemies like the Kunais and even had the opportunity to choose a secondary weapon to mix up their attack combinations. Because their leaper hadn’t lost any health, Berthier skipped the opportunity to heal at a Healing Shop Stop.
By the time Berthier switched over to the Factory Biome, a landscape made by Golems, enemy mobs were much more challenging, including one with spinning saw attacks. While Berthier favored a long-distance playstyle, shooting off projectiles at a distance and dashing to avoid enemy attacks, enemies were still wiped clean pretty fast when he had to get up close to them. Overall, it was fast, effective, and ultimately pretty fun-looking.
Windblown’s Lush Biomes and Ark Player Base
After beating the mini-boss, Berthier took us to the luscious green landscape of the Ark, which acts as the player’s home base that would turn anysky pirategreen with envy.Windblown’s Ark is a beautiful floating village surrounded by blue skies that provides respite away from the Vortex. Foremost, it also allows players to make permanent upgrades to their gear; some of the upgrades players can choose from include various types of weapon upgrades, like Heavy Blade, as well as health-focused ones like Healing Flasks. Here, players also get to choose a starting weapon for the beginning of their next expedition into the Vortex.
Altogether, The Ark seemed quite a compact location to explore, albeit with more than one adjoining circular platform to navigate across. That said, it looks like a visually stunning location where, presumably, more than one player can gather, suit up, and appreciate its beauty together when playing throughonline co-op. Once players have finished upgrading, they use a massive cannon to shoot back into the Vortex and continue their battles.
After upgrading the Heavy Blade at the Ark, Berthier also showcased a fight against the crab-like boss called The Headbanger, which dished out laser and wave attacks to avoid or leap over. Combat here was still fast-paced, despite being a boss fight, and Berthier showed the deadly and quick combat combinations players can utilize to take down even such large foes and secure victory. Specifically, Berthier wielded projectiles like Ninja Stars combined with the Heavy Blade to take down this foe in a relatively short time using ranged attacks.
Of course,Dead Cellswas known to be achallenging roguelite game, andWindblownlooks no different. Its speed and visual appeal are readily apparent, but fans shouldn’t be fooled by appearances. It looks like a game that falls into the “easy-to-pick-up, hard-to-master” category under the hood. Its fast speed looks to add an intriguing dynamic to its combat, where players' skills can truly come into play as they try and perfect different combat combinations, mix and match different weapons, and learn to react effectively to enemy attack patterns.
That said, we only saw snippets of its various weapons and passive skills in action. It’s difficult to say how punishing it is when players die, how that could potentially impact the world setting, or to what extent it is designed to be frustrating compared to theSoulsvania games likeDead Cells.Windblownis said to be a game that’s challenging but fair, but the jury is ultimately still out on that. Ultimately, its winds look to be blowing in the right direction for fans of the genre and potentially newcomers alike.
Windblownis set to release in Early Access on PC in 2024.
