Metroidvania 'Skautfold: Usurper' seeing digital/physical Switch release this year

Red Art Games is excited to announce the upcoming console release of Skautfold: Usurper. Skautfold: Usurper, the second part in the 5-game Skautfold saga is a challenging 2D Metroidvania Action-RPG developed by Pugware, ported to consoles by Red Art Studios and published by Red Art Games.

Digitally, Skautfold: Usurper will launch on Switch on June 23rd for €14,99/$14.99. But that’s not all! The Skautold: Bloody Pack, which includes both Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity and Skautfold: Usurper on a single cart will also release on Switch September 1st for $39.99/€39.99.

Pre-orders for the PEGI-rated physical editions of all three titles will open at 5PM CEST on Friday, May 5th on the official Red Art Games online store. ESRB-rated physical copies of the game will be distributed by Video Games Plus (VGP), Red Art Games’ North American partner. North American consumers will be able to pre-order the ESRB-rated version on VGP’s site from 5 PM CEST on Friday, May 5th.

Skautfold: Usurper takes place in an alternative timeline of 1898 in London. The outer worldly Citadel has landed in the city causing massive panic and releasing the maddening Fog. Recently re-crowned Empress Eleanor has assembled the royal forces and her four most loyal Knights to enter the Citadel - in the hopes of learning more, and hopefully finding a way to rid London of this terror. Meanwhile, Waltham, the leader of the Veimar, uses his own forces to ascend the Citadel and challenge the Navigator for his own…purposes… Players who haven’t played Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity shouldn’t be scared to dive into Skautfold: Usurper as it isn’t necessary to know the first game’s story to understand its sequel.

Skautfold: Usurper is a Metroidvania Action-RPG with a battle system built around its “Guard” system. It allows the player to charge through attacks and take risks, rewarding accurate timing and risk assessment. Instead of immediately losing health when the player is hit, they will loose “Guard points” (which function like a regeneration shield). When these run out, the player will take damage normally. However, if the player accurately dodges incoming attacks, they will turn a large portion of that attack damage into “Guard points”, which allows you to turn the tide of the fight, and gain the upper hand. This is a system that will allow anyone to get into the game, yet still provide a high skill ceiling for those players looking for a challenge.

With eight different stats to spec into (along with stat reallocation), countless varieties of character builds are possible. Skautfold: Usurper also features over 90 different weapons and spells: from swords, spears, axes, great swords, scythes, whips, katanas, rapiers, daggers, bows, guns, rifles, canons, spells and summons.

For those looking for even more content, there also are innumerable secrets, additional areas and optional bosses to discover. Players looking for an even more challenging experience can set their own difficulty by activating special conditions such as a no-guard mode, 1 HP mode, perma-death, or a built-in speedrunning mode.

However players choose to play, The Citadel is a massive and versatile interconnected world. There are countless shortcuts to uncover, and a variety of diverse areas: from human towns to alien landscapes, grand libraries to ethereal gardens, and from an Eldritch engine to a crashed spaceship.