DON'T NOD officially announced its new title Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden at The Game Awards 2022. The reveal trailer for the game is mostly cinematic, showcasing the game's two protagonists and detailing their roles as ghost-hunters, but the ending did provide a brief glimpse of what seemed to be in-game footage. The combat itself is not showcased, but the game's over the shoulder camera design and tag-team combat looked reminiscent of the recent God of War games. The concept of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden though, screams for Soulslike combat.
The game takes place in a place in a fictional region of North America called New Eden. In the year 1695, lovers Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith work as ghost-hunters called Banishers who protect the living from violent ghosts and lingering specters. On one of their recent missions, Antea was fatally wounded and is now no more than a spirit herself. The player controls Red, accompanied by the spirit of Antea, on a quest to restore her corporeal form.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden's Storytelling Seems Similar To A Soulslike
There is no way to be certain what DON'T NOD intends for Banishers to be, but the game's story evokes the themes about death that FromSoftware has been tackling since their early days. While the story may not permit its protagonist to die repeatedly in the same fashion as a Souls game, the moral challenge of trying to restore life to a lost lover without falling into corruption could be pulled directly from Elden Ring.
The core conceit of most Souls games centers around worlds where death has been prevented but has brought corruption and decay in its absence. The protagonist fights to restore balance but is usually forced to realize that regardless of their actions, the cycle of life and death will consume everything. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is clearly a game about trying to fight fate and the inevitable death of a loved one.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden does not appear to have an open-world; it could be a more linear experience that focuses on venturing across New Eden, helping those who are haunted while searching for a cure to death. The quest design of the game could very easily fit into a similar style to Soulslike games, where a variety of unique characters share their stories with the player and progress with them on their journey.
Soulslike side characters often do not need to be interacted with at all, and the solution to their problems is often shared in ambiguous terms. It is easy to miss these stories or lose track of them or even be barred from exploring them due to progressing too far in the main campaign. All these issues could be resolved if Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden brought some Western AAA design to the Soulslike storytelling formula. Traveling the world of New Eden banishing ghosts while uncovering the mysteries behind those they haunt fits this formula perfectly.
The ambiguity and parable-like nature of the quests in Dark Souls and similar games should ideally remain intact, but the game's ghost-hunting could have the player seeking out specters that NPCs knew in life and resolving their unfinished business or having to purge them through combat. Beyond thematic similarities in its narrative though, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden seems like it could combine the approach to combat in games like Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War with Soulslike difficulty and scale.
Banishers Could Bring A Cinematic Combat Approach To The Soulslike Genre
One of the few clear gameplay elements that DON'T NOD has revealed is that the player will be fighting using both its living and spirit protagonist. Tag-team action combat has become very popular these days in games like The Last of Us and God of War, but these games would not be identified as Soulslike. To bring the Soulslike formula to into a more cinematic experience would require a greater emphasis on RPG mechanics and environmental storytelling. This is slight shift in emphasis presents a potential way forward for Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden.
While God of War Ragnarok has rightly won near universal praise, the game's highly cinematic design can at times compromise on creating a meaningful challenge for players. Bringing the challenge and demand for mastery of a Soulslike with the more streamlined action combat and storytelling of a Western AAA game could be a fascinating synthesis of current design trends. The "bone walker" enemy showcased in the trailer seemed to be a combination of specter and skeleton, wielding axes and screeching before its attack. The appearance of only two enemies suggest that combat may be centered around taking down a small number of challenging enemies rather than a horde of weak ones, in line with Soulslike combat design.
Boss designs, while not showcased in the trailer, present an incredible opportunity to bring a Soulslike sensibility to Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. With a focus on ghosts, the potential for the size, scale, and lore behind bosses is virtually limitless. Especially as the player will be traversing vast stretches of wilderness, there will be no shortage of space for boss arenas. Players could encounter huge accumulations of spirits that take the form of natural forces like animals or plants, or potentially expanded versions of the bone walkers.
The game appears to be grounded in the winterly forests of a colonial-era North America, though it is unclear thus far what aspects of real history will be kept or discarded. Venturing and surviving the harsh North American wilderness could easily make for the kinds of dense environment design and challenges that Soulslike games are known for. Building treacherous stretches of wilderness that require careful navigation, attention to detail, and skilled combat ability would all make the experience of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden one to remember.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is scheduled to release in 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
