ULTROS Is A Psychedelic Metroidvania Announced For 2024

Sep. 2, 2023

ULTROS is a psychedelic Metroidvania that follows a colorful and fluid art style like the show, The Midnight Gospel. The game is being independently developed and published by Hadoque, their first title.

In ULTROS, the playable character, who goes by the name of Ouji, wakes up in a mysterious and seemingly hostile environment called The Sarcophagus. She soon discovers that this holds a massive and demonic space being in captivity known as ULTROS, which is like a black hole because of the never-ending cycle she finds herself in.

Think Groundhog Day, but much more colorful. There is an odd sort of familiarity and connection with the creatures you interact with. You will encounter multiple alien species, and even go so far as to challenge the ones who are antagonistic toward a foreign being such as yourself.

This game features a world that is brimming with color and unimaginable lifeforms. Players will find themselves stuck in a challenging gameplay loop. Not only do you have to be cautious when it comes to engaging in combat up close but you also need to master your actions to precisely hit your foes.

ULTROS touches on themes such as the cycle of birth, life, and death as well as karma. These will become much more evident the further you get to the bottom of The Sarcophagus. This is supplemented by the unique and transcendental musical score from El Huervo who is known for his contributions on Hotline Miami.

One thing that ULTROS does differently is it allows players to collect resource-like lifeforms, which they can then combine to create new skills to execute in combat. One example in the trailer is the spicy and psionic Cacomin. Collecting and refining these beings allows you to unlock various abilities and effects, such as being able to strike enemies three times, and end in a finishing blow to spill their guts. This is an interesting way to encourage you to see the world for what it is and acquire as many materials as possible to try out several combos.

As with any action-adventure game, ULTROS will force you to adapt to the unique environments you will find yourself in. Mastering platforming in order to traverse from one area to the next is one of your main goals. This includes jumping, climbing, and even discovering and breaking walls that lead to secret paths. After all, it’s about discovering the part you are playing in this mystical universe.

What makes ULTROS unique is its gameplay loop. As mentioned previously, defeating monsters will let you harvest their resources or “organs”, and one such example can be seen in the trailer against the Puppaluppas. The interesting aspect here is that the more combos you pull off in order to put down a target, the better the materials you get will be.

Strangely enough, you are not an ordinary creature yourself since you will then proceed to eat their parts to improve your nutrition levels or abilities. In some instances, you need to target specific enemies to keep harvesting their parts based on what you need to remain healthy and strong.

Next is planting seeds as taught by the character called Gardner. Doing so will grant fruits that will help restore life and boost your performance in the game. Another way to improve Ouji is by getting your hands on The Extractor because one of the things it grants is the ability to perform double jumps.

In ULTROS, you will come across a mysterious character named Qualia. They are, in some way, linked to The Sarcophagus. You then follow her around as she leads you to one bosses in the game. It is a disgustingly imposing creature with several eyes and two long tentacles. This encounter is tense because of how quick you have to be to avoid any of the monster’s attacks, all while determining where their main weak point is.

After this scene, Ouji ends up slaying a Shaman, revealing that there are many more of them to kill to help her escape her fate. Because of this huge shift in The Sarcophagus, ULTROS awakens, prompting you to wake up in the same place you started the game in, which is quite similar to the roguelike gameplay of Dead Cells.

Auberon

Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.

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