TechRaptor can exclusively reveal a brand new trailer of the upcoming turn-based tactics game Howl from developer Mi'pu'mi Games and publisher Astragon Entertainment, showing off its lovely "Living Ink" art style.
Mi'pu'mi's artists developed the Living Ink tech to reproduce the feel of watercolor art, while also making it look dynamic and fluid as it animatest to illustrate the story and gameplay as the player controls the protagonist and progresses through the narration.
Besides looking beautiful, this enhances Howl's nature as a dark fantasy folktale, alongside its uniqueness among the turn-based tactics genre.
Unlike the Valkyria Chronicles series, which also includes turn-based tactics RPGs embellished by watercolor-style graphics, Howl is fully rendered in 2D, with the paint pretty literally flowing around the characters and environments.
It tells the story of a deaf prophetess making her way across a dark fantasy world affected by a sinister "Howling Plague." The plague turns all who hear the howling into feral werewolves, and our heroine has to try to find a cure alongside her lost brother.
As a prophetess, her ability to foretell enemy moves is key to the game, so the player can plan ahead up to six steps in advance to outsmart and outmaneuver the wolves.
You can see how this is enhanced by the Living Ink art in the trailer below, alongside the techniques used to animate the ink and make it look like it's gradually staining the page or flowing back to reveal what's underneath.
Howl will be released in 2023 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
It features over 60 levels divided into four chapters to flex your tactical mastery and lets you unlock a variety of skills to keep the gameplay fresh.
If you're unfamiliar with the developer Mi'pu'mi Games, they have developed The Flower Collectors and The Lion's Song, and you can read our positive review of the latter, in which we awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10.
