Following its reveal at this week’s PlayStation State of Play, an extended gameplay trailer for Arthurian action game Tides of Annihilation has been released.
To recap, this is from Chinese developer Eclipse Glow Games and fuses a modern day London setting with Arthurian Legend. Players take the role of Gwendolyn as she battles knights as the sole survivor of some sort of otherworldly apocalypse.
This fresh trailer shows more of combat, and how Gwendolyn’s spectral Knights of the Round Table summons will work both in battle and in exploration.
Gwendolyn has both sword and magic abilities, with plenty of methods to smack enemies into the air and juggle them. In the midst of combat she can summon spectral knights, which costs points on the mana gauge. Judging by the colours and abilities, the knights seem to represent elements: there’s a blue icy knight for slices and shattering; a green knight for wind-like arrows; and a red knight for fiery slams.
Except that’s not a sword: it’s companion Niniane, who morphs between child and bird form before becoming Gwendolyn’s sword.
Knights are also used in exploration, for instance to hit crystals from a distance to reveal new paths.
Elsewhere, we see Gwendolyn running along the sides of buildings, resting at crystal checkpoints, and leaping through a slightly bizarre mix of gothic cathedrals and London bus stops.
This culminates in a boss battle against Mordred – a tense duel of sword swings and magical summons in a beautiful library inside the British Museum. There’s a pretty satisfying looking parry move, too.
Between Gwendolyn’s graceful, dance-like movement, the focus on magic and set-pieces, and prevalence of medieval knights, it’s all looking quite Bayonetta meets Elden Ring. I’m here for it.
Though there’s no release date yet, Tides of Annihilation is in development for PC and consoles. And while not officially confirmed, Gwendolyn sure sounds like Jennifer English (Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Shadowheart) right? Well it turns out both English and her partner Aliona Baranova are in the game together!
