Developer Aloft Studio has shared the first teaser trailer for Hazelnut Bastille.
Featured above, the game is described as a “lush, top-down Zelda-like Metroidvania in 16-bit Japanese RPG style.”
A release for Hazelnut Bastille is planned across Windows PC, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch, with a release window currently targeting mid 2019.
Here’s a rundown on the game:
Hazelnut Bastille is a top-down adventure game with Metroidvania elements which seeks to continue the great lineage of superior design from the mid 90s- the moment in time when mainstream 2D titles reached arguably their greatest level of refinement, in titles such as Super Metroid and A Link to the Past. We seek to emulate this period in most ways, from graphic presentation, to audio production, to general level design philosophy.
Hazelnut Bastille tells the story of a young woman who travels to a foreign shore on the outskirts of her world, in order to seek out the promised gifts of mythological ancients, in hopes of retrieving something which was lost to her. On the way, her story becomes irrevocably intertwined with the lives of those living in this far off land.
Hazelnut Bastille started as a prototyping project in April of 2016, and has been in full time development ever since. The project is being developed in the Unity Engine, in a custom framework built in C#, and features its own custom development tools and level editors which allow us to manage environmental art and level design scripting in one package.
Key Features
- Heavily conscientious level design
- Metroidvania progression
- Classic open-world overworld and dungeon format
- 16-bit graphic and audio style
- 8-voice chiptune and lo-fi sample soundtrack
- Classic eight-way and four-way navigation modes for gameplay
- Enemy design invoking original standards of 16-bit era
- Intense, brutal bosses which require learning and observation
- Highly challenging combat sequences with a high skill ceiling
- Puzzles built around observation, item use, and sequential logic
- Complex trading system to obtain optional items
- Customizable playstyle based on which items player obtains and equips
