Staring down a gorgeous abomination with at least two heads and as many massive spiky arms looking to crush me like an egg, I'm extremely hesitant to go in for the kill, especially with the knowledge that one successful hit from the beast would spell my death. We've been going at it for a few minutes now, it with its massive spiky claws and me with the pointy thing I ripped from a dying carnivorous plant, and I'd hate to have to start the fight all over again.
Thankfully, I'm able to dash up to the monster's gaping maw and score a critical hit by timing a flick of my controller's right joystick with the on-screen meter, and my intense battle with the Arboreal Terror ends in my victory. My shoulders release, I audibly sigh in relief, and rest back into my chair. Perennial Order, a new 2D boss rush horror game featured in Steam Next Fest, is an absolute thrill for every second of its 30-minute demo.
Aesthetically, it's a bleak and beautiful marriage of the Studio Ghibli animated movie Princess Mononoke and FromSoftware's Dark Souls series, with a painterly quality and dark but saturated color palette. Monster designs are stellar, so much so that I find myself examining the fine details in absence of thought, with only the threat of my imminent demise to pull me from my stupor.
The haunting sounds of sparse piano and violin arrangements are just as key to the game's intensity and atmosphere of eldritch horror. The music swells to a fever pitch with pounding drums when you enter a boss's arena... or is that the sound of my heart pounding out of my chest?
Similar to Elden Ring, there's very little backstory beyond what you pick up from short dialogue exchanges and environmental clues. From what I understand, you're a warrior called a Perennial Knight, who was created and granted unique powers to rid the world of corrupted plant flora turned into terrible monsters, which explains why developer Gardenfiend Games calls it a "plant horror" game. I mean, accurate.
Gameplay-wise, it's described as "Hollow Knight meets Titan Souls - a beautiful dark atmosphere to explore, with boss-rush focused gameplay." Twin stick melee controls require precision of movement and timing, while consistent environmental threats need to be avoided and dodged in between boss battles, keeping you forever on your toes.
Again, I only played for about half an hour, but in that time I fought my aforementioned clawed friend, a giant belching beehive, and undoubtedly the scariest one, a massive, lumbering, undead knight that got the best of me a few times. All three boss fights required dramatically different strategies to beat, so I never felt the slightest bit assured by a previous win when approaching a new enemy.
You can (and should) check out the demo for yourself while it's available for Steam Next Fest, and there's two-player local and online co-op so you can tackle its many mangled monstrosities with a friend. It's early yet, but I can't imagine Perennial Order letting me down after such a rock solid demo. It launches sometime in 2024.
In the meantime, check out the best horror games available today.
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