Heart Forth, Alicia coming to PS4, PS Vita

Hey everyone! I’m Alonso Martin, the lead developer of Heart Forth, Alicia — an upcoming Metroidvania RPG about a young wizard on her journey to stop a Spirit from consuming her homeland.

Heart Forth, Alicia is a ’90s-inspired adventure that combines the electrifying gameplay of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the expansive world & dungeons of the Zelda series, and the unfolding story style of Xenogears… except it’s a little darker and has its own fantasy twist. You can watch the trailer here.

Up until May last year, I’d been the sole developer of this game for a few years. Thanks to the incredible support of the Kickstarter crowd and the outlets that covered the campaign, the game grew into a much bigger project, and it’s thanks to them that we’re able to bring the game to PS4 and PS Vita in early 2016.

Even the legendary Manami Matsumae (composer of Mega Man, Mighty No. 9, Shovel Knight) came aboard to produce a few tracks for the game! These past months have been one of the best things that’ve ever happened to me.

Features of the game

Heart Forth, Alicia is inspired by games that hold a special place in my heart and by the things I loved about them. There’s always been something magical about the open-world nature of games like Zelda and Super Metroid where everything’s filled with content, and the compelling story style of games like Xenogears or Final Fantasy VII.

These two things are seldom packaged together in Metroidvanias, so I took it upon myself to make a game where the player can enjoy both the fun, open-ended exploration experience with upgrades and unlockables, and the excitement of taking part in an epic storyline like those in some of my favourite Square games of the late ’90s.

Making this happen is a tall order for sure, but if Heart Forth, Alicia can even bring back part of the wonder and magic those great games had, I’ll consider it a job well done.

 
Adventure through an intricately detailed world filled with wonders, creative puzzles, secrets and lethal dungeons.

• Engage in fast, agile melee combat with over 20 special attacks & upgrades, and devastating magic spells to annihilate your enemies.
• Play with powerful RPG elements that include the gear, loot, side quests, and gameplay depth that make for a classic RPG experience.
• Discover 5 secret fairy familiars to crush, shock, freeze, and burn your enemies, or save you at your most dire moment of need.
• Experience a deep and unfolding story that takes place centuries after the War of the Fatherlands, starring a cast of fascinating and complex characters.

Going to GDC!

The nice guys at PlayStation gave us the opportunity to showcase a PS4 demo of the game at GDC this Wednesday, 4th March at their South Hall Expo booths. We will be showing a part of the recently overhauled introduction, which is also sporting the recent change into widescreen mode, adding 80 sexy pixels horizontally.

This is both really exciting and thrilling for me, as it will be the first time the game will be shown in public after several years in the making. The team and I have worked our best to make this PS4 demo as fun and engaging as possible, so it’ll be really rewarding to watch people play through it.

Stay tuned for more updates on Heart Forth, Alicia, and thanks for reading!