I know that “soulslike” is the preferred term for games like this, but it’s usually more helpful to lead in with “it’s like Dark Souls, but [single cosmetic difference],” mainly because so many of the genre’s games are nearly identical otherwise. “It’s like Dark Souls, but with robots!” “It’s like Dark Souls, but with evil space gods (and I’ve seen at least two other games I could describe like this over the years)!” “It’s like Dark Souls, but with anime! With samurai! With Star Wars! With pixel art!” That brings us to Arboria, which is releasing into early access on May 7th on Steam: it’s like Dark Souls, but with what appear to be tree people. I have an ember of hope still burning based on its early access announcement trailer, though, because this trailer’s tone is very much not in keeping with the traditional soulslike grimdarkery. Could we finally be seeing a soulslike with personality?

I honestly can’t tell. Trailers can be incredibly misleading, and the quirkiness that’s compelled me to watch this trailer three times already may be little more than marketing. Once you strip the upbeat, vocoder-synth music away, it starts to look a lot like a straightforward Dark Souls clone. The little waving guy who pushes someone/something into a pit suggests at least some quirkiness, but it doesn’t look as humorous in an earlier trailer I found. It’s hard to tell how straight it’s being played.

My hope is that this is exactly what it looks like in the trailer, though. Too many of these games are insufferably vague, hopelessly unoriginal copies, and I’ve been arguing for humor/personality in the genre since The Surge‘s first DLC came out back in 2017. If Arboria has a sense of humor, then count me in. If it’s “Dark Souls, but with plant people and lots of brownish-green underground areas,” then count me out.

Apparently, Arboria is also a roguelite with procedurally-generated dungeons, which is interesting. I can’t recall another game that’s tried to blend those two things together. The obvious question is how intuitive boss fights are, because if they require learning patterns like in many soulslikes, having to restart from the beginning each time is going to be a major annoyance. There’s also this line from the Steam page that suggests some kind of progression: “The better you fight, the stronger and quicker future warriors will become.” So… Arboria. I don’t know what this is.

But that uncertainty is kind of exciting, right? Maybe a little? It should be out in early access on May 7th.

Arboria is coming to Steam early access on May 7th first appeared on Killa Penguin