On November 1, 2020, Aeterna Noctis was initially announced alongside several games through PlayStation Talents: The Moments, which showcased a slew of new games that would make their way onto PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Aeterna Noctis showed off its Metroidvania-style with exciting gameplay featuring intense combat and exciting locales, alongside a mysterious score that fit with the tone of the environments.
Now, a new PlayStation Blog post has revealed further information about the game, as well as a set release date of December 15, 2021. Aeterna Noctis will be releasing on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and onto Steam for PC players to enjoy as well.
Aeternum Game Studios is comprised of a small team of developers who have worked within the games industry for ten years. Aeterna Noctis is a 2D Metroidvania with a heavy emphasis on combat, enemy variety, an impressively large skill tree that branches onto three different paths: magic, melee, and ranged. The game will feature challenging platform puzzles and an exciting atmosphere that showcase the game's gorgeous environments, as is the nature of similar Metroidvania games, like Blasphemous.
Players will be taking the "King of Darkness" role and help restore his power across 16 different interconnected areas filled with over 100 different enemies featuring a host of fantasy creatures, monsters, and warriors. In addition to the hundred enemy types, players will come across 20 legendary bosses, which will more than likely test players in their skill. While these elements sound familiar to other Metroidvania games, it should be interesting to see how Aeterna Noctis handles them.
Similar to Dead Cells, players can use abilities such as teleportation and dashing to navigate and utilize in fighting situations. In addition to the abilities that players will unlock, the game will offer six unique weapons that players can choose from.
Despite the game's nature of sending creatures and monsters for players to fight off, not everything in this world is out to kill. Players will cross paths with NPCs who will unlock secondary missions that add to the lore within the game, which is a standard method in the genre, with games like Hollow Knight featuring various NPCs that unlocked side quests.
These secondary quests will also pose a challenge for players and should enrich the journey to regain the power of Aeterna. Regardless, players can choose to ignore these quests and still have around 20 hours of playtime, with a haunting, 46-track score.
Aeterna Noctis will be fully localized with voiceovers and texts made available in eight different languages. The game has the support of PlayStation Talents backing it, and the developer has mentioned it will have more news in the future.
Aeterna Noctis is set to release on December 15, 2021, on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: PlayStation Blog
