How time flies. It feels like just a short while ago that Los Angeles-based Akupara Games were emerging as one of the most notable publishers in the indie game scene, but this past week marked their eighth anniversary. They’ve been celebrating witha still-ongoing Steam sale(lasting until October 13) anda massive Twitch stream,the latter of which contained a discussion on the state of indie games in 2024, the reveal of Videocult’s collaboration with Sanshee andRain Worldplushies, plus the first public showing ofAirframe Ultra,Videocult’s latest upcoming game about underground hoverbike racing. But the big reveal was that of the next game to join Akupara’s library, that being none other than Studio Hybrid’s upcoming metroidvania game GigaSword, whose latest trailer you can check out below.
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Sword
GigaSword is the story of Ezra, a hero sent to infiltrate an ancient tower, Nestrium, in order to nab Gnosis, the God Crystal, and hopefully use its power in order to revitalize the plagued city of Thoenhart. Unfortunately, it turns out that invading the castle sort of unleashes an evil force that can end up destroying reality, so that’s sort of a problem, to say the least. So now Ezra has to make it to the top of Nestrium ASAP, having to deal with several enemies and obstacles in his way. Luckily, he has the titular weapon by his side, which as the title would suggest, is a massive Cloud Strife-style sword as big as his own body. As seen in the clip, though, combat definitely isn’t the sword’s only use, as its weight and abilities allow it to help with various puzzles, such as weighing down pressure plates or unlocking doors.
Other recent announcements from Akupara Games also include release dates for narrative vampire RPGCabernetand stylish survival horror gameSorry We’re Closed(October 24 and November 14, respectively), revealed during theSix One Indie Showcase.
The GigaSword can also be upgraded along the way, allowing Ezra to gain new enemies per metroidvania tradition, but it also comes with a pretty massive drawback. As in, literally, the GigaSword is rather massive, and thus weighs a lot. Not only will Ezra have to find ways to relieve themselves at certain times, but as also seen in the trailer, they’ll have to find ways to hoist the GigaSword up to certain platforms, since they can’t exactly easily pull off skills like wall jumps with such a weapon hindering their agility. So it seems like an interesting take on such weapons, and could allow for some more clever puzzles to go alongside all the exploration and hunting for secrets that comes with metroidvania games as well.
While the reveal of Akupara Games as publisher is new, Studio Hybrid’s solo dev, Jack Breen, has been working on GigaSword for a while now.A successful Kickstarter campaign for the gamewas held in 2022, and since then, Jack has worked even harder, as explainedin his own videorevealing Akupara as the publisher, where he explained some of the difficulties in making the game and getting a publisher, including months where they had to step away from the game due to various reasons. The video also shows off a deeper look at the game’s updates, and also reveals the game’s new release window: The second half of 2025. That’s when we’ll see GigaSword arrive for the PC and Switch (if the Kickstarter’s stretch goal was any indication), where we’ll see just how challenging it can be to work with such a weapon.
Sorry We’re Closed Won’t Apologize For Being Too Good
There are a lot of indie survival horror games that are fifth-generation throwbacks, but à la mode games has a particularly special one in the works.
