Deathbound, the upcoming party Soulslike game from Publisher Tate Multimedia and developer Trialforge Studio, now has a release date of August 8th, 2024, for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam, EGS, GOG).
A new trailer has been released alongside the news of the the release date, which you can see below.
You may remember us covering this title with a hands-on preview and an interview we conducted during PAX East 2024.
What’s intriguing about Deathbound is the distinctive party system, specifically on how health and healing is managed. Each character in your party has its health pool, but if one character perishes, your entire party faces defeat. Furthermore, when you heal the character you’re controlling, it comes at the expense of the other party members’ health. However, engaging enemies replenishes the health taken from other characters over time.
This dynamic compels players to experiment with different team compositions and discern when to swap out characters, even for healing purposes. It’s a departure from the mechanics found in other action role-playing games or Soulslikes.
The Morph System grants access to swift character swapping and special attacks triggered during morphing, attacking, or dodging maneuvers. These actions rely on a specific resource called Sync, a meter that accumulates when you deal damage to enemies or execute perfect dodges. Once the meter reaches a certain threshold, it can be expended to unleash potent attacks or execute near-instant character swaps. I found the benefits of this system immensely valuable in various scenarios.
Furthermore, there’s a party-specific mechanic known as Synergy, or Sync. Depending on how you align your characters, you’ll observe either an orange bar, granting buffs, or a blue bar, imposing debuffs. Throughout my time with the demo, I noticed that certain character combinations don’t synergize well, compelling players to weigh the benefits of buffs against the drawbacks of debuffs when selecting their preferred team composition.
I’ve been looking to get my hands on the finished product and it looks like I won’t have to wait much longer.
Deathbound releases on August 8th, 2024, for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
