Samsara

Escape Samsara

SAMSARA® is an action-adventure RPG that fuses elements of Buddhism with souls-like gameplay — reincarnate as six unique avatars based on the karma of your combat, discourse and exploration.

Description

Saṃsāra is a souls-like that challenges players to meditate on overcoming loss, failure and death through a core mechanic of reincarnation as 6 different avatars. The game is a 3D, third-person, action role-playing game (RPG) in the vein of the ‘Soulsborne’ (FromSoftware, 2009-2019) genre/series, taking cues from the older, shorter but still epic action-adventure game, Shadow of the Colossus (Team Ico, 2006-2018).

In Buddhism, Saṃsāra is the cycle of death and rebirth to which all life is bound. The players goal is to find a way to escape this cyclic existence, to escape Samsara. They will achieve this through discourse, conflict and exploration within the beautiful, deadly and dynamic Desire Realm (Kāmadhātu).

Gameplay Pillars

Core gameplay pillars include:
Conflict - physical, ranged and magical combat encounters with NPC’s who become enemies depending on which avatar form the player assumes.

Discourse - impactful, choice-based narratives delivered by cryptic, resolute and wandering NPC’s who are partially based on historical characters and represent Buddhist, Stoic and Daoist worldviews.

Exploration - uncovering ancient secrets and witnessing spectacular vistas, the player will traverse the Desire Realm: from the isolated circular edge of the Cakravāḍa mountains that encompass the world; across the Four Great Continents of scorching sand, glistening ice, dense tropics and serene lakes, to their penultimate destination; ascending the sacred five-peaked heights of Mt. Meru to reach the Gods domain, or descending beneath to the fiery, dark, gold-laden root of the world where demons reign.

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