<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a very specific genre of indie game I\u2019m very fond of, but I\u2019m not quite sure what the name of said genre is. <\/span>Journey<\/span>, <\/span>Sable<\/span>, <\/span>Sword of the Sea<\/span>, <\/span>Jusant<\/span>, <\/span>Europa<\/span>\u2013all exploration-focused third-person adventure games, I guess? But that\u2019s not it. There are light puzzle elements too, and yeah, they all have banger soundtracks\u2026 but whatever <\/span>it <\/span>is, I just don\u2019t know the word for it.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cit\u201d in this context is an antonym for cramped and congested. Expansive, beautiful, wide-open areas that, ultimately, serve no purpose, yet were made with purpose. It\u2019s a comfy feeling of looking out onto a shitload of nothing. Look, whatever \u201cit\u201d is, I know what \u201cit\u201d looks like when I see \u201cit,\u201d and \u201cit\u201d looks like <\/span>CALX<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n I was trying to remember how I even found <\/span>CALX<\/span>. This is going to sound like the lead-in to a creepypasta, but I just remember getting a Steam notification that the demo for it dropped earlier this year and thinking to myself, \u201cWhat the hell is <\/span>CALX<\/span>?\u201d I\u2019d obviously wishlisted it, yet somehow, I\u2019d never heard of it. Still, I played the demo anyway, and while it was a bit rough around the edges, <\/span>CALX <\/span>had some sauce\u2013the undefined \u201cit\u201d\u2013so I let the mysterious game sit in my wishlist.<\/span><\/p>\n Turns out, <\/span>CALX <\/span>used<\/span> to be called <\/span>XTAL<\/span>. It\u2019s an action-adventure RPG from a small Italian team called True Colors, who have been working on the game since 2021, set to release in just a couple of weeks on June 4. I\u2019ve seen people refer to it as \u201cHyper Light Sable,\u201d but the character designs feel a bit more <\/span>Journey <\/span>to me, and the soundtrack reminds me more of <\/span>Risk of Rain 2<\/span> than anything. In fact, that was my main takeaway from playing the original demo for <\/span>CALX <\/span>back in February: it\u2019s like a lot of games, but as a result, it didn\u2019t feel wholly unique.<\/span><\/p>\n Thankfully, <\/span>CALX\u2019s <\/span>demo<\/span> on Steam received a relatively hefty update last week, so I hopped back in to give it another shot, and in the process, I think I finally figured out what separates it from its contemporaries: <\/span>CALX <\/span>is kind of a Soulslike.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m not really sure how I didn\u2019t clock this the first time around, because it was painfully obvious the second time around. There\u2019s bonfires, a dodge roll, limited healing, boss fights\u2013hell, there\u2019s even a sad NPC named \u201cWarrior\u201d who waffles a load of cryptic nonsense. Really, the fact that <\/span>CALX <\/span>even has combat is what sets it apart from the likes of <\/span>Sable<\/span> and <\/span>Journey<\/span>, but the fact that said combat also feels slightly challenging makes it stand out even more.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a strange blend. <\/span>CALX <\/span>wants to evoke that same feeling of an endless, sprawling world and simultaneously chill you out with its IDM-inspired soundtrack, but it doesn\u2019t want you to relax to the point that you can\u2019t lock in for a boss fight. I can\u2019t think of another game like that off the top of my head. <\/span>Elden Ring\u2019s<\/span> Limgrave certainly felt borderline calming at times, but <\/span>CALX <\/span>almost feels hypnotic. It\u2019s like the game is trying to lull me into a false sense of security, and I\u2019m having to actively fight against the serene vibes just so I don\u2019t get dogpiled by half a dozen enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n I think that\u2019s the main thing I\u2019m hoping for in the full release of <\/span>CALX<\/span>. I want it to really lean into that difficulty, so it\u2019s not just another entry in the undefinable genre of <\/span>Sable<\/span>-likes with that \u201cit\u201d that I so love. That genre feels far from oversubscribed, but <\/span>Journey <\/span>meets <\/span>Dark Souls<\/span> isn\u2019t a game I knew I wanted until <\/span>CALX <\/span>came along, so I\u2019m hoping that its potential success could lead to something special down the line. Maybe, in ten years time, I\u2019ll be back here writing about how the next <\/span>CALX<\/span>-like is trying to set itself apart from the competition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a very specific genre of indie game I\u2019m very fond of, but I\u2019m not quite sure what the name of said genre is. Journey, Sable, Sword of the Sea, Jusant, Europa\u2013all exploration-focused third-person adventure games, I guess? But that\u2019s not it. There are light puzzle elements too, and yeah, they all have banger soundtracks\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7996,7994,7995,5220,5359,4618,3864],"class_list":{"0":"post-8295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"tag-actionrpg","9":"tag-calx","10":"tag-journeylooking","11":"tag-knew","12":"tag-needed","13":"tag-played","14":"tag-soulslike"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}