This dungeon Brawler based on Arcadey physics lets you defeat the enemy

Awaysis is a mysterious floating relic, water flows from below like rain to the living animals until it suddenly stops, causing widespread drought and panic. The brave little fox Auro is prompted to reach the nominal island in the sky, with the mission of figuring out what happened. But more importantly, the high invitation is to swing the sword to slide the enemies off the edge of the floating ruins, causing them to fall onto the planet below.

That's the key difference Awaysis And why developers 17 call it a dungeon quarrel, Not the dungeon Crawler. While creative director Jake Kazdal cites all kinds of inspiration, from 16-bit secrets to Minecraft Dungeons, these games are all about getting better gear to increase your damage. Kazdal said he was tired of the constant focus on damage numbers, as well as the canned animations and reactions that passed them to enemies. The battle in Aways is not this method, but is driven by cutting-edge physics simulations he claims are not performed by anyone else.

When I visited the Kyoto-based studio, he said to me, “We want to do something that feels very heavy, not animations of scripts, it's not perfect timing.” “It's very greedy, dirty, physical fights, but based on classic aesthetics.”

Of course, the physics system is crucial to the way many modern games are fundamentally central (from Half-Life 2 to Zelda’s Legend: Legend of Breathing in the Wild). However, these examples are outbound, and the player's actions affect the world around them, but vice versa.

“From the moment left and right, when you swing the sword, there will be the same canned reaction every time, so there is no subtle measure of the battle, it's just rote memorization.”

That's why Aways is inspired by pure physics simulation games such as Flat of Human Fall and Gang Beasts, where players take dynamic attention to the game's response. But Kazdal was also frustrated by the foolish and dull feelings of these games – so 17 built their own physics tools to bring in close investing in classic arcade games with emerging dynamic results.

“What we want is (when) I swing my sword and hit the wall, we have a target animation that plays recoil, but we combine the actual physical information with the animation data, which will simulate how much the sword will bounce back.”

Indeed, most of the way physics affects animation depends on the melee weapon you wield. This is part of why you are a tiny little animal with ridiculous hands, although it may also depend on Kazdal's preference for using Claymore when playing the Dark Souls.

“Even on smaller screens, we want your body interaction to be super readable, and weapons are the stars of the show,” he said.

The basic sword attack is powered by thrust or slashes, which is performed by hitting the bumper or trigger, and is determined by pressing the button on the left or right side of the controller. The attack becomes more effective when you charge by pressing a button, while the blade itself is filled with bright colors, such as a stubborn power meter. The faucet emits a weak but fast stinging attack while being filled with fully charged devices that can make enemies fly like a baseball. Squeeze both triggers fire Auro in the air, with its rising slashes like the Ryu-style Shoryuken fired from Street Fighter, while the same action performed in the air would slam down with greater force – destroying crates or other structures.

Your weapon is also a defensive means to prevent and deflect strikes. Push the right stick and you fix the weapon in that direction in front of you. Time is right, you can bounce the enemy's weapons back with bragging, as the stars spin above the head, just like they're in a clumsy tune.

However, it's not only about weapons, as you can slide on the ground, too. This is a faster way to move when leveraging the sloping surface, but at enough speed you can also smash the crates and even slide into enemies to rewind them back.

All of these elements together prove that despite the equidistant appearance, this is not a dungeon track. With the help of other platforms and objects to utilize, almost every room in Awaysis reminds me of the arena on the combat power stone and adds the option to be able to knock on the opponent.

This doesn't mean that enemies will just stand around, waiting for you to knock them down from the floating island. From the first strategy into Shogun's skull to the VR Survival Adventure song in the smoke, 17 people are proud of their game that it's the actual thinking of the enemy. As I greeted a bunch of long-eared tiny devils, I noticed how they kept themselves away from the edge of the platform and when I expected to parry the attack, one of them stepped forward and caught me off guard by pushing.

“They have a tendency to protect themselves, they are strategic, and are communicating with each other. We are trying to make the enemy feel as useful as possible,” Kazdal said.

He quotes the enemy's AI in Halo for incredible influence, especially if you choose to slide to the highest difficulty in Awaysis missions. The weak enemies in Awaysis will also run away, and they will even try to spread any food so that they can heal themselves. Since eating an item takes time, you do have the chance to interrupt them as they eat as they eat. These systems are really intentional chaos, making each battle encounter feel unique and keeping you on your toes.

There is still a digital game because as the game goes on, you will upgrade and upgrade your equipment. Random loot with procedurally generated enthusiasts and upgrade paths provide incentives for replay tasks, which also changes as more powerful enemy types appear on repeated visits. But, essentially, Awaysis is not about long-term RPG systems, but about the experience of moments, and Kazdal has its own technical terminology.

“I call them fps-f**ks per second,” he said. “I love racing games, you have to pay attention to your motivation, weight, timing, every frame. Compared to Diablo, your every second (in Awaysis) is very high, you can click and click without having to 100% stay.

Awaysis is about to launch Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC.