Cult classic El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron is coming to PC
Okay sure, I'm sold
Released all the way back in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron was an anime-style action adventure game that seemed lost to time. It's come as a pleasant surprise, then, that Japanese studio Crim have announced they're working on bringing it to PC.
El Shaddai's game director Sawaki Takeyasu confirmed the news over on Twitter, although he didn't say when they might release it. He also mentions a new launcher will serve as a way to switch between Japanese and English audio and subtitles.
For those unfamiliar with El Shaddai, it's very loosely based on the Book of Enoch, an ancient Hebrew religious text. You play as Enoch, a man selected by heaven to seek out a bunch of fallen angels who've corrupted mankind. It's then up to you to traverse the world's psychedelic environments and purify them all (beat ‘em up, basically). El Shaddai was originally made by Ignition Entertainment, then in 2013 Takeyasu bought the rights for his new studio, Crim. They released The Lost Child in 2017 which was a follow up to El Shaddai.
I've not played El Shaddai before, but having watched plenty of footage, I'm definitely getting a whiff of my beloved NieR: Automata. It seems super stylised, has similar twirly hack 'n' slash combat, and appears to switch things up quite frequently. One minute you'll be doing some 2D platforming, then it'll pivot to a bike chase, and you'll round things off with a funky puzzle.
This variety also extends to El Shaddai's combat, which lets you disarm enemies and use their own weapons against them. I've not encountered many games with an emphasis on the ol' switcheroo, and this was one of the things that really got me hooked on NieR. El Shaddai looks to capture a little bit of its magic, so count me in.