Darkblade Ascent brings the roguelike to the Soulslike

Darkblade Ascent aims to be the centerpoint between Soulslike and roguelike, with a good dose of old-school dungeon crawler aesthetic thrown in. For the two brothers behind it all, Alex and Ovi Pistol, it’s their dream game.

“It all started when we were walking our dogs, talking about games, as we usually do,” says Ovi Pistol, “and Alex said something along the lines of, ‘You know what I would play right now? A first-person roguelike with swords and magic!’” The two searched for something that would meet this desire and couldn’t find a satisfying match. “We jokingly said, ‘Why not build it ourselves?’” continues Ovi. “One-and-a-half years later, here we are!”

Darkblade Ascent immediately looks like something from the Souls universe, opening in large and looming (and gorgeously-rendered) castles, forebodingly grim, and stalked by skeletons and mages.

However, it plays more like another all-time classic RPG, 2006’s Dark Messiah of Might & Magic. Developed by Arkane—the studio that went on to give us Dishonored and Deathloop—Dark Messiah featured some of the meatiest, heaviest combat gaming’s ever seen (including the unparalleled joy of kicking enemies into spiky traps). Darkblade Ascent’s hefty weapons and crunching attacks are immediately reminiscent.

It turns out, that’s not a coincidence. “Elden Ring and Soulslike games in general, with a touch of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic—those were our initial inspirations,” the brothers tell me. “In fact, we are now in the process of implementing traps and other deadly environment mechanics akin to Dark Messiah.”

Rather than a narrative-led RPG, Darkblade Ascent is a procedurally generated game of persistence and permadeath. After picking whether you want to be a Pyromancer, Stormcaller, or Frostweaver (and acquiring the spells to match), levels are completed by killing all the enemies, which unlocks a choice of three upgrades and a door. Rinse, repeat, and see how far you can get on any given run.

“We wanted to create a game where skill and the RPG attributes of the player are equally important and they complement each other,” says Ovi. “For the combat itself, we wanted to capture the essence of Soulslike games but from a first-person perspective and mix it with roguelike progression inspired by games like Hades and Gunfire Reborn. Knowing when to engage enemies, when to parry or dodge, when to use abilities, and how to weave in-and-out of range, plays a very important role in staying alive. On the other side, there are a multitude of attributes and abilities that can be enhanced and upgraded to create a unique build each run.”

There is some persistence, with an external skill tree unlocking new classes and weapon types, and permanent improvements earned during play. You can boost your skills with fire, for instance, or add a few percentage points of ability to your use of physical weapon types.

While incremental, these upgrades can really be felt when you return for another attempt, boosting the natural improvement that comes with practice. Runs last anything from an embarrassing death at the first enemy to over an hour, each unique thanks to randomized loot, upgrades, and “game-changing legendary artefacts.”

To add even more variety, stages (each thematically different and made up of a collection of sub-levels) end with a choice of upgrades for the elemental class you chose at the start. These are random too, meaning the class can evolve uniquely every run, preventing things from feeling too repetitive as you try to outdo your previous best.

Having played an in-development build, it’s hard to believe Darkblade Ascent is really the work of just two people. Just the animations alone seem like something from a far larger team, let alone the art and lighting. Is it really just the two brothers? “Yes!” says Alex Pistol. “It’s mainly just the two of us, with the support from our wives who help us with going over ideas, mechanics, testing, and enduring our constant talks about the game. On the UI part, Ovi’s wife created the design and user experience.”

So how? “We managed to achieve what seems ‘impossible’ by spending all our free waking hours working on the game,” replies Ovi. “Also, the engine itself helps a lot. Having a programming background and Alex coming from an artistic background, we combined our expertise. The Unreal Engine learning curve was a bit steep initially, but once we understood it, everything clicked and it helped us to quickly and confidently develop the game."

The brothers were smart about where they put their efforts, too. “Creating some assets from scratch was a full-time job in itself, so we leveraged assets from Unreal Engine Marketplace where it made sense, adapting and modifying them, while many unique and specific assets and animations had to be made by us to fit our world-building and gameplay.”

Beating Darkblade Ascent is only the beginning, it seems. Doing so unlocks The Gauntlet, an endgame system “where each run is heavily altered by modifiers for the player, the enemies, and the bosses.”

“The runs, and builds that are unique each run, make the game highly replayable,” explain the brothers, “and with The Gauntlet, a complex end-game system that modifies the entire game, players can expect to squeeze out many hours of fun gameplay. We also intend to update the game with new stages, bosses, classes, and weapons periodically during Early Access and beyond.”

Darkblade Ascent will release in Early Access in July, allowing player feedback to direct its final stages of development. As long as we can kick enemies into spikes at launch, this should be one to follow closely.