V.E.D.A Preview [PlayX4] — A rogue-lite souls-like training ground

Recently, I got to attend PlayX4 in Gyeonggi, South Korea. While I was there, I sat down with some of the developers at Tripearl Games to try out their upcoming Hades-inspired, rogue-like souls-like practice game, V.E.D.A.

Players take the role of an unknown fighter in a combat simulator overseen by V.E.D.A., a super AI that is creating and manipulating the world around the player. We don’t know why the simulator exists or why the player is training, but it’s clear there’s something going on behind the scenes. Adding to the mystery, a hacker has infiltrated the V.E.D.A. system, and you can find traces of them in the form of hidden rooms. Keep an eye out for walls that seem out of place, as hitting them may lead you to one of the hacker’s dens.

The souls-like nature of the game is immediately apparent when you look at the moveset: light attack, heavy attack, block, roll, and parry. Slashes feel meaty and rewarding when they connect and the controls feel intuitive. There are also a few special moves that can be performed. On top of health and stamina, players have an overclock bar that, when filled, allows the player to unleash a devastating blow with a special animation to emphasize its power. Filling the bar only requires you to attack the enemy.

Parrying an enemy puts them into a groggy state when successfully executed, giving the player the option to perform a fatal attack. To perform a fatal attack, you have to move slightly to the left or right of an enemy before striking, locking you into a short attack animation, dealing good damage, and restoring some health. However, you can’t hit enemies for a brief period after the fatal attack as they enter a recovery animation, so you’re losing out on a chance to fill the overclock bar—it’s a tradeoff. Alternatively, you could take the time to reposition or charge up a heavy attack. The option is yours.

The developers stated why the game has so many options for following up on a parry: “Letting the player have a choice of combat, you can do lots of different types of styles in Dark Souls itself, and we want to do that within V.E.D.A.. They might want to do a strong attack or a front-fatal attack.”

Of course, you could be sneaky and backstab enemies who aren’t aware of your presence yet, which is perfect for farming items like healing potions and life-steal potions off of weaker adversaries. Just be careful when you do, as your sword has collision with other objects in the world, so if the enemy is too close to a wall, your attack will be deflected and clink off. At the same time, enemies have a different kind of blind spot where it’s harder for them to hit you because of their attack patterns. Taking advantage of this, the player can press the attack, pushing up close to put them in an uncomfortable position.

Fighting takes place in various rooms, which, given the rogue-like nature of the game, are randomized each run. Unlike other rogue-like games, you won’t be locked into combat encounters, and you can sprint past the enemies and make your way to the boss room. While I only made it to the first boss in my playtime, it was a blast. The boss looks like the popular depiction of a Wendigo, with a powerful body and a deer skull for its head. Its attacks had it moving all over the arena, charging, chucking weapons, and ferociously swinging its dual blades. Slaying a boss will grant you access to its weapons. Weapons and gear are the main form of progression. There are modules for each type of weapon, and five levels of module. The higher the level, the stronger the weapon.

When you think about the components that make both Roguelites and souls-likes great, it’s clear that they fit right into each other. Roguelites feature meta-progression and randomized routes, and souls-likes are all about getting folded by enemies, and then heading back for more until you’ve figured out their attack patterns and weaknesses. Ideally, the randomization could further challenge players, pushing them to adapt to all new scenarios.

All in all, V.E.D.A. is setting out to create a souls-like with rogue-like elements, and so far it’s succeeding in just about every aspect of what it tackles. If you’re interested in V.E.D.A. then check out its Steam page. The estimated early access release date is the end of this year, and within the first half of next year, we will see the official release.

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