There are at least two ways to write about parrying mechanics. On the one hand, you have people like me who compose farking ridiculous intros such as “a good parry mechanic is a kind of redemption”, then spend hundreds of words overegging the pudding. On the other, you have Nic, who sums parrying up far more elegantly as “a pleasingly low-effort method to make your opponent look very silly”. I hope that both Nic and I will be at home in Memoria Wake, a new isometric action-RPG in which you can parry giant black cats with an umbrella. There’s now a demo on Steam.
If you’re partial to Soulslikes, Memoria Wake’s setting might bewilder you. There are no ghastly cloven dragons or cathedrals full of maggots, or not so far, anyway. Instead, the game’s smashed dreamworld is full of talking rubber ducks, wind-up toy monkeys, jack-in-the-boxes, and jigsaw pieces. It’s sinister, yet soothing.
“Traverse hand-crafted dreamscapes where beauty and horror intertwine,” the official site comments. “Uncover long buried truths, face twisted memories, and piece together the fragments of a broken past.” Whose past? Presumably that of your character, Nilo – a titchy feline adventurer with huge eyes and a cute raincoat.
There’s a touch of Tunic to those musty, sun-pierced dollhouse environments, but the handling reminds me much more of Death’s Door. There is certainly a bunch of parrying. Catch the demo on Steam. Release date? Let me dextrously deflect your wildest hopes with a scornful “coming soon”.
