Faeland is a good-looking Metroidvania coming to Kickstarter soon

Faeland looks gorgeous, in my opinion (although I am a sucker for this sort of thing). It's a pixel art Metroidvania with role-playing elements that's coming to Kickstarter "soon"—and yes, I know, there are more pixel art Metroidvanias on the horizon than you can shake a short sword at, but give the teaser trailer a chance before you dismiss it.

I like how grounded its art style is. It's colourful, but not flashy. Its fantasy setting is filled with castles and throne rooms and villages with rows of wooden houses, which is not exactly original but feels coherent and believable. It's already being compared to Zelda II because of its sword-and-shield combat and its tall character models, but I'm hoping it'll be able to forge its own identity.

You'll explore its open world, fight baddies, delve into dungeons and solve riddles. The role-playing bits sound more equipment than story-based: you can switch out armour and weapons to suit your play style. The combat, like the art, looks solid, combining simple strikes with blocks and dodges.

You can visit the game's website (or follow developer Talegames on Twitter) to keep abreast of goings on. It's definitely one I'll be keeping tabs on.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.