While it’s great to see tabletop RPGs get turned into videogame RPGs—that’s how we got Planescape: Torment and Shadowrun: Dragonfall after all—it’s also interesting to see them be adapted into other forms, shapeshifting like some kind of, I don’t know, werewolf?
What I’m saying is the newly announced Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Rageborn takes the World of Darkness TTRPG where you play a metalhead ecoterrorist furry who rages against the machine, and transforms it into a top-down metroidvania. It’s the kind of bold choice I can only be intrigued by, especially when it’s revealed with the kind of gameplay-first trailer that suggests a degree of confidence in the actual game.
“The game is very inspired by classic action-adventure,” says Louis Lamarche, president and creative director at Crea-ture Studios, “and what really inspired us to use the Werewolf: The Apocalypse brand was the fact that the character itself comes with his own metroidvania elements due to his shapeshifting design. In a classic action-adventure your character has tools. In our case, our character has tools plus forms, and you can dynamically constantly shapeshift between those forms in order to complete exploration and combat challenges.”
In lupus, the wolf form, you can jump further and sneak better. Crinos, the war form, uses rage to power combos, and can tear down certain obstacles. Homid, the human form, has access to ranged weapons like guns and a crossbow, as well as a kyoketsu shoge—one of those ninja weapons that’s like a knife on the end of a rope, which can be useful in attacking and mobility.
Being able to shapeshift to solve problems gives me a Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap vibe, which is nice. Maybe my expectations for a videogame based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse have been permanently lowered by Earthblood, with its ultra-generic sad dad protagonist and instafail stealth sections, but I’m curious how this one turns out.
And hey, if you’re not into birdseye backtrackattacks like this, that upcoming Hunter: The Reckoning game will be an FPS-RPG. Rageborn, meanwhile, is scheduled for a 2027 release and will be available on Steam.
