After the disappointment that was Replaced, the world could use another stylish cyberpunk pixel art PC game to drool over. Sky Dust, an upcoming Metroidvania Soulslike, is more than ready to heed that call.
In this futuristic version of Brazil, the country is being poisoned by the moon and by something ominously called digital decay. You play a violent mercenary who wields an energy sword, hunting down targets in a dilapidated neon city. The gameplay appears to be one part exploration and two parts action. In the trailer, you see the protagonist dodging and parrying machines, augmented city slickers, and gangs of goons. In less than a minute, the footage teases stealth executions, finishing moves, and fatigue-based mechanics.
Here’s the game’s official description on Steam:
Despite its collapse, São Paulo still pulses with life: street vendors, shops, and arcades illuminate the chaos. Your contracts will lead you into the city’s forgotten underbelly, through high-speed motorcycle battles, and even into the corrupted layers of the Cyberverse…
Roam the city’s neighborhoods and take on side quests from deal-cutters and outcasts — or simply help everyday survivors struggling to endure.
Sky Dust, announced last year, is a game that wears its influences on its sleeve. The main character and his upgradable augmented arm seem like a nod to Cyberpunk 2077. São Paulo and its fuchsia-and-blue hues would feel right at home in the Blade Runner universe. The visuals have a tinge of Hyper Light Drifter to them. The newest Reddit-exclusive trailer outright calls your weapon a lightsaber and connects the game’s cyberbikes to the seminal sci-fi anime Akira. In a Reddit AMA discussing an older game made by developer Orbit Studios, the creators note that they have “always been very sci-fi fans,” and that the team looks to “writers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke and films like Back to the Future, Blade Runner and Interstellar” for inspiration.
Normally, narration that blatantly insists something is cool like this would immediately give me the ick. But after watching the main character cut down enemies riding a cyberbike at top speed, I had to give it to Sky Dust. This does, in fact, look incredible.
Now comes the hard part: Can Sky Dust actually deliver? We won’t know for a while, as the cybernetic hack-and-slash doesn’t have a release date.