One of the most influential action-platformers of the 8-bit era, Konami’s Castlevania established a gameplay style and visual aesthetic that’s still being borrowed from today. From the ever-popular Shovel Knight to the more recent Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and its sequel, games wearing Castlevania influences on their sleeves have been a major part of the indie game boom of the 2010s. Set to debut on February 14, Infernax looks to be the next in a long list of spiritual successors to Konami’s NES trilogy.
In Infernax, players will assume the role of a knight on a crusade to purge his homeland of an invasive unholy magic. An obvious throwback to late-eighties console gaming, Infernax replicates menu systems and HUD designs popular at the time, and its bright, blocky spritework calls to mind some of Nintendo’s now wildly-valuable early black box NES games. The side-scrolling layout allows looks nearly identical to Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, a title from which it no doubt took plenty of clues.
Said to boast a robust open world replete with castles, dungeons, and plenty of boss fights, Infernax will likely remind some Castlevania fans of the more robust Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a seminal title in the Metroidvania genre which received a port on mobile devices in 2020. The brief trailer uploaded to indie publisher The Arcade Crew's official YouTube channel also briefly highlights the game’s dozens of sidequests, makes mention of details like a day-night sequel, and places particular emphasis on a morality system that will almost certainly have a role in determining one of several possible end-game outcomes.
This seems to be a major departure from the norm for developer Berzerk Studio, which previously produced a bullet hell rhythm game titled Just Shapes and Beats. However, it’s the exact fare for which indie publisher The Arcade Crew is known, having published a handful of titles that look like they would have been right at home on an SNES or Sega Genesis. This also may be part of Sony's initiative to repair its relationships with indie developers.
Roughly a month from release, Infernax seems to have garnered some buzz from retro throwback enthusiasts, and for good reason. Emphasizing RPG elements and playing up innovations not typically seen in similar indie titles, Infernax may be breaking the mold in a well-tread genre. Fans of From Software’s Dark Souls games will also be pleased to see that Berzerk Studios has opted to forgo played-out comparisons to those titles. Yet, said to be unrelentingly challenging, the “Souls-like” genre tag is bound to find its way into the user-defined tags section on Steam at some point.
Infernax will release on February 14 for PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.