New psychedelic Ultros gameplay reveals boss and progression loop

blog.playstation.com:

Greetings readers. I’m Mårten, the Game Design Director at Hadoque, a collective of creatives in Sweden. I co-created the core concept of the game and oversee the game design. We’ve been working on Ultros – our first game together – for the past few years, and today, we’re thrilled to show you the core gameplay and a new boss.

To recap from our reveal at the PlayStation Showcase earlier in the year, Ultros is a mystical and poetic adventure where you fight dangerous space insects and plant seeds to create an alien garden. Our protagonist, Ouji, wakes up stranded on an overgrown sarcophagus in space. She has no memory of who she is and how she got here. But the world feels familiar, and it seems to react to her – like she has some sort of connection to it. Naturally, this is when you start to explore the depths of the sarcophagus.

As part of this exploration, platforming becomes vital. Ouji is nimble, swift, and can build momentum to create a natural feeling flow of movement. You’ll have to do your fair share of jumping, climbing, crawling, and breaking surfaces to reveal secret areas.

Not so long into your venture, you’ll discover insect-like aliens that are generally very territorial and can get agitated if you get too close. They’re all part of the game’s cryptic ecosystem that you’ll take part in as you progress. The first ones seen in our gameplay first-look trailer are some of the weaker enemies called Puppaluppas. When you defeat them with your sword, they drop body parts or different organs. Ultros has a reward system for finishing off enemies with finesse – the more variety in my attacks, the better the creature parts. As you collect these, you’ll enter a more detailed inspection view of the parts, accompanied by