Dead Cells follow-up Windblown takes some surprising cues from Nier: Automata

digitaltrends.com:

How do you follow up something like Dead Cells?

Developer Motion Twin’s hit roguelike became an instant genre staple when it launched into early access in 2017 and it’s only gotten better since then. After seven years of long-tailed support and high-profile collaborations, Dead Cells has become a foundational indie game that’s hard to top. It would be safe for Motion Twin to follow that up with a sequel, just as Supergiant Games is doing with Hades 2. Instead, we’re getting Windblown — and you should be thrilled about that.

Windblown tosses away the dark pixels and 2D dread of Dead Cells for a much brighter 3D world. It’s still an action-based roguelike that has players snagging upgrades and slashing enemies during a 30 to 40-minute run through biomes, but its sunnier art style is sure to catch Dead Cells fans off guard. There’s no need to worry, though; based on the deep look I got at this year’s Game Developers Conference, Windblown looks more than worthy enough to follow one of the roguelike genre’s greats.

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Switching it up

In my hands-off demo, developers from Motion Twin would walk me through a few (unsuccessful) runs. What immediately stands out is Windblown’s art. It’s a remarkably vibrant game that looks even better in motion. During the demo, I’d watch the developers hop around bright sky islands as an adorable axolotl. It’s all quite whimsical, though Motion Twin teases that the underlying story – told in a manner similar toDark Souls — gets surprisingly dark.

The second thing that catches my eye is just how lightning fast the actual gameplay is. That’s apparent right away when I seeWindblown’s signature traversal mechanic, which has the aquatic hero quickly zipping over small islands in the blink of an eye. Once it hops into a larger land