Bashing skulls, stabbing syringes, and breaking necks.
I feel like “Victorian anime detective RPG” is already a phrase manufactured in a lab to have me curiously downloading Silver Palace, a desire that was solidified 40 seconds into its announcement trailer: An unassuming woman is scanned, flashes of red warning text flooding the screen before the protagonist… straight up shoots her and watches as she turns into a grotesque wolf-like monster.
Out of everything, I wasn’t expecting the combat to be the thing that piqued my interest the most. I’m not super into parry-based fighting—which Silver Palace seems to be going all-in on—but the trailer shows these little pockets of flair and violent razzle-dazzle that have me willing to give the whole thing a shot.
One character rams a sword straight through a monster’s throat, another grabs an enemy from behind before plunging a syringe into their neck, and—this is the one that really sold me on it—an angelesque foe having her head smacked into the ground before a third waifu grabs her and snaps her neck.
There’s no blood, or gore, or anything else like that, but I think I’ve become so used to seeing slightly frillier animations in these types of games that I was wholly taken by surprise to see Silver Palace going a little gnarlier.
It’s not just the battles that have caught my attention, though. Here are some other neat things I peeped from Silver Palace’s trailer and 10-minute gameplay video:
- There’s a mechanical horse that you can ride, fly, and drift around with.
- Upgrades you can make to your horse, like hooves that change different stats. Yes, it’s a horse car. A car shaped like a horse.
- Some kind of powers that let you do things like grab cats and make them levitate.
- Stealth mechanics, along with sneak attacks on unsuspecting enemies.
- QTEs during boss fights and executions.
- A bar where you can speak with other characters.
- Ziplines you can grab onto and move around with using a grappling hook.
It seems like Silver Palace is throwing a lot of things at the wall, and I’m curious to see what (if anything) will end up sticking. It does look kinda neat though, even if we don’t know a whole lot about the story beyond: A detective investigating crimes while dealing with different corporate fatcats, criminal syndicates, and even cults who seem to be vying for territory across the world of Silverium.
It looks gorgeous though, and I’m totally here for Silverium’s Art Nouveau vibes blended with more outlandish fantasy elements. The character designs are probably the weakest part for me right now, though I’m definitely fond of the strange lanky white monsters that make a regular appearance in both the trailer and gameplay video.
Unfortunately there’s no release date for Silver Palace at the moment, but pre-registration is open over on the official website. It’s set to release on both PC and mobile, with a console launch planned down the line.
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