Epic Action and Parkour Exploration Await in ‘Ember Souls,’ Out Now on Meta Quest

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If exploring a luxurious Persian palace by utilizing your innate parkour and climbing skills sounds like a good time, then I have great news for you! Ember Souls, an all-new VR hack-and-slash action-adventure title from developer VirtualAge, is out now on the Meta Quest platform.

Making a game this ambitious and complex isn’t easy, so we spent some time learning about its development from Carles Ballabriga, CEO of VirtualAge.

For most gamers, the inspirations behind Ember Souls are probably very clear but why don’t we start by you telling me about the game’s inception at the studio? What was the elevator pitch for this project?

When we began working on Ember Souls, we noticed a gap in the Meta Quest store: there were no melee-focused games with a story-based campaign that also integrated great parkour and climbing in a meaningful way and we wanted to fill that space.

The elevator pitch for Ember Souls was essentially this: what if you combined visceral combat of games like Blade and Sorcery with the seamless climbing and parkour of Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed? We envisioned a game where players could not only fight epic battles but also explore environments in a way that felt fluid and dynamic and all this in a setting rarely explored in VR before like ancient Persia.

There’s a lot going on in Ember Souls. You have a very fast parkour system, climbing, hookshot-like abilities, and extremely visceral combat between melee and ranged abilities. How do you juggle so many systems and mechanics as a developer?

It’s definitely a challenge. A lot of work goes into developing, refining, and balancing these mechanics to ensure everything feels fluid and polished. For instance, we implemented a “fall guard” system that predicts the player’s trajectory during jumps or falls. If the system determines that a fall is unrecoverable (such as when there isn’t a nearby ledge to grab), it automatically respawns the player at a safe location.

This not only minimizes motion sickness but also enhances the overall flow of gameplay. Perfecting this system involved countless hours of addressing edge cases and fine-tuning to achieve a smooth, reliable experience. Balancing all these mechanics requires extensive playtesting and iteration to keep the gameplay intuitive and engaging.

With how complex all of the mechanics are in Ember Souls, do you feel like this is a foundation you can build from with future games, using this as an underlying framework?

Absolutely, and this is a core principle at our studio. We always try to design games by building upon the foundations and mechanics of our previous titles, allowing us to start from a strong base and continuously refine and improve those systems over time. This approach not only enhances each new game but also enables us to backport improvements to our earlier titles, ensuring they benefit from the advancements as well.

With Ember Souls, we put significant effort into perfecting the climbing and parkour mechanics, as well as the magic and combat systems. These elements now serve as a robust framework that we plan to build upon in future projects, allowing new games to leverage and expand on them.

What can you tell us about the story here? Did you create an original setting for this game or did you draw specific inspiration from elsewhere?

The story of Ember Souls is set in a world we created and is heavily inspired by Persian mythology and culture. You play as Kasim, a mysterious warrior and accidental guardian of the Ember Stones. These stones are powerful artifacts that draw energy from souls and embody the elements of earth, fire, water, wind, light, and shadow. The story follows Kasim and his companions, Alsheim and Arya, as they battle the Shadow Sultan, a dark force intent on using the stones to spread chaos.

We have also incorporated unique elements from Persian lore, such as the shadow ifrits (formidable mythological creatures) and the Immortals, an elite military unit from ancient Persian empires, to enrich the game's world.

What’s the scope of the game like? How many hours do you think it will take most players to finish out the story?

The game has plenty of content at launch with more to come in future updates. Players can explore the following game modes at launch:

  • Campaign: A story-driven campaign with 15 levels that should take about 6-8h to complete.
  • The Raids: A roguelite mode where you compete for the best scores on procedurally generated maps and unlock special weapons and equipment.
  • Sandbox: An area to have fun and play around by spawning any number of enemies and traps and test your powers.
What is the game progression like? Will players be unlocking new abilities and finding new weapons along the way?

The game features a dual-track progression system:

  • Players earn talent points by defeating enemies, which can be spent to unlock new Ember Stone powers or enhance existing ones. These points can also be used to upgrade Kasim’s abilities, such as increasing his health or acquiring new skills like time-slowing. Additionally, during the campaign, players must collect all four Ember Stones to progress and unlock their full potential.
  • Gold collected from campaign missions and raids can be used to purchase new weapons and equipment in the store. Certain items are exclusive and can only be unlocked by finding magical scrolls during The Raids.
Do you have any tips for players as they make their way into this dangerous new world for the first time?

First, don't forget to pet Alsheim, your trusty falcon companion! He’ll offer helpful tips and share bits of history to guide you through the world. The game also gives you plenty of ways to customize your experience, from adjusting weapon weight to fine-tuning the duration of slow motion while jumping between poles, or setting the positions of your holster and inventory. Take some time to tweak these settings so they match your playstyle.

In the campaign, you can use your first talent points to unlock the time slow-down ability, which will make parkour and combat easier. And whenever you feel overwhelmed, make sure to use the wind stone’s force push, it’ll send enemies flying and make you feel like a badass Jedi!

Thank you for your time! Where can players find out more about you, your studio, and the game?

You can play Ember Souls in the Meta Horizon Store. You can also follow Ember Souls on Discord, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube for the latest updates. Visit our studio website to learn more about us!

Ember Souls is out now for Meta Quest, delivering epic action, thrilling adventure, and challenging parkour-themed exploration puzzles. Try it for yourself from the Meta Horizon store.

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