VGTimes Interview with Producer of the Awaken: Astral Blade at TGS 2024: A Metroidvania Backed by Sony

TGS 2024 featured not only major blockbusters, but also stands of small companies presenting several projects at once, each with its own unique style and gameplay. Awaken: Astral Blade was one of them. Our editor-in-chief Rodion Ilyin spoke with Alexander Kudeshov, executive producer of ESD Digital Games, and found out the main details about the project.

VGTimes: Hello! Tell us about your project!

Alexander: I would like to introduce you to the metroidvania Awaken: Astral Blade, which will be released on October 22, 2024. The game is inspired by such projects as Metroid and the Ori series. The developer is the Chinese studio Dark Pigeon Games. The game is being launched as part of the China Hero Project initiative. This is a program to support Chinese developers with the release of their projects on the international market, supervised by Sony, which selects one or two projects annually. Sony believes in the game, and so do we. The release is just around the corner.

VGTimes: What are the key features of the game? Why is it worth playing?

Alexander: The game has an excellent combat system! It is carefully designed: timing, combos, movements — everything is on point. The game has three types of weapons that can be modified: a disk, a scythe and a dagger. There are many locations: a dark forest, an alien ship, dungeons, and you can freely move between them, find secrets and uncover the story.

The gameplay depends on your attentiveness and the abilities you find. For example, if you encounter a blocked area, you need to find a new ability. For example, if you find a double jump, you go back and go inside this area. There are many bosses in the game — they are really difficult, and it is almost impossible to defeat them without using combos. It is important that there is a small delay in the combo, giving the player time to realize what hits to perform next. For example, a combo consists of five steps. The player takes three steps and for the next two steps he can think about what hits he wants to do.

As you destroy enemies and bosses, your character gains experience to level up. There are three branches of development: combos, skills (improving the style and speed of combat), and weapons. The more you learn about the world, the easier it is to understand what to do next.

We also have a lot of skins for the main character that you can change. You can look at our cosplayers depicting her and costume elements.

VGTimes: Do you have any wishes for our audience?

Alexander: Play, buy the game! Awaken: Astral Blade is all about the gameplay, about what the player wants to get from the process. It will suit a wide audience and will give you a really cool gaming experience. It's definitely worth a try!

Interview conducted by Rodion Ilin.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has visited dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have collected many exclusive materials. For example, in 2019 we got to a closed screening of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia CAGS, and also visited IgroMir several times, where we saw Hideo Kojima and other famous developers.