Tyrant’s Realm is a grimy, spartan soulslike infused with Deathtrap Dungeon nostalgia

The baggiest thing about PS1-harkening soulslike Tyrant’s Realm is the ratty pair of prisoner pants you start out with. Everything else is pleasingly austere. It is, like Dark Souls, a game about equipment and stamina management, but it finds most success as a soulslike in the sensation that you are alone somewhere bad, not able to do very much except hit horrible things in the space between them trying to hit you. It also offers notable moments of lonely, loud footsteps rebounding off cold stone tiles in the seconds after felling some giant man-bastard – one of the subgenre’s greatest un-joys.

There are a few fancy moves. There’s a parry you’ll never use because it’s too risky, and an execution you can build up a meter for, then trigger the moment an enemy is stunned following the parry you’ll never use. There’s some weapon-arty bits: very slowly applying poison to your sword and getting your face smashed in in the process. A large overhead axe swing, using an axe that appears from nowhere while you’re holding a club. The poison is especially good and PS1-faithful because the target flashes green and goes ‘ugh’ in periodic blips afterward. This stands out as nicely juddery and violent because the action is very smooth otherwise.

But I was mainly drawn to Tyrant’s Realm’s prelude demo’s Steam page’s download button because it looked a bit like Deathtrap Dungeon – the 1998 action adventure based on the Fighting Fantasy CYOA of the same name. I am fairly certain top Soulsboi Miyazaki has mentioned it as an influence, which is a nice bit of continuity, but it’s a connection I make here simply for the low fantasy spikeyness and grime of it all. One of the less common uses for PS1 visual aesthetics, that, at least behind retrowave racers and horror games. More spikes, I say. It’s out on the 16th of January.