Swords & Souls: Neverseen

Overview

Swords & Souls: Neverseen is an upcoming singleplayer RPG, in development by SoulGame Studio and published by Armor Games. The game is a combat-heavy, story-lite adventure that sees the player battling from encounter to encounter to become stronger as they unlock more areas across the island they've been shipwrecked on, returning to a town hub to train or otherwise improve their character. The original web game has been played by tens of millions of players worldwide, and holds the top spot in popularity across many of the most largest portals. Swords & Souls: Neverseen is an entirely new standalone game that aims to keep the mechanics, humor, and concepts fans loved while providing an all new, much bigger experience with polished, fleshed out gameplay and ideas. The game is currently planned to release in 2019.

Plot

As the game opens, the player is aboard a ship bound for a mysterious, untamed island known as the Neverseen, but just as land comes into sight, the ship is suddenly destroyed by an unknown force. The player comes to on the beach, where they find themselves being shouted at by a strange, magical being that appears to be an animated training dummy of sorts, calling itself Pupset. Pupset guides the player through the basics of gameplay, before telling them that they should explore the island. The fidgety, unpredictable tavernkeeper often gives them quests, with the ultimate goal of the player discovering why their ship was destroyed and how they could get home. The tone is on the whole very light and comedic, with an emphasis on characters often behaving in silly or exaggerated ways. The story takes a backseat to the gameplay compared to other, more narrative focused experiences.

Gameplay

Swords & Souls: Neverseen is focused almost entirely around combat and character progression. The player can explore the island via a series of nodes on a map that expands as they go, each node representing a different encounter. If a player is unable to defeat that encounter, they can choose to fight others to gain experience and level up, or return to town where they can improve their character through a series of unique training minigames that take the form of different arcade-style challenges. The player must quickly dodge a series of high, low, or mid-range attacks to increase their agility, for instance, or guide a magical spell through a series of obstacles before it puffs out of existence to improve their spellcasting, for instance.

They gain a set amount of points in each type of training periodically, and as they also level up their character through it, they also earn points they can choose to distribute into any of these skills at their own discretion. They will also periodically unlock special combat skills, such as the ability to cast a fireball, or an (almost) guaranteed dodge or block of an incoming attack. Some levels also grant points that can be spent in passive skills, ranging from a chance to shoot a poisoned arrow, or additional charges for their activated abilities.

Combat is a blend of active-time elements and turn-based. The player characters attacks automatically, while the player themselves may activate their special skills (which have cooldowns) or use items. Throughout the game they may choose to hire AI controlled mercenaries, or learn to play special songs that can charm certain monsters into becoming pets that fight alongside them. Many battles consist of multiple waves, and if a player's hit points are depleted, they will lose and need to try again from the beginning.

The game's main hub is the town the player is shipwrecked in. From here, they may visit the training grounds, unlock new tiers of equipment at the blacksmith, buy items at the market, invest in the museum (which also gains exhibits based on their progress), or even slowly build and upgrade a home. There are several other small secrets and gameplay elements the player can unlock throughout the game, including a fishing minigame.

History

Swords & Souls was a web game released in 2015. It was an RPG where the player was trying to train up their character and advance through an arena, via training minigames and fighting in the arena itself. The game went on to become one of the highest rated and most played titles on several of the largest web portals, including Kongregate and Armor Games. The developer has spent the last several years working on the follow-up, soliciting feedback from fans and working with his publisher, to make a premium, high quality game that would serve as a sequel of sorts while also acting as a standalone title for any newcomers. Emphasis has been placed on keeping the spirit in place and the gameplay elements that fans rallied around, while elevating it into a premium title with all new graphics, mechanics, and a much longer and overall more fleshed out experience. This is the developer's first premium release.