Quick and Flashy
A graveyard of rusted automatons, decorated in bright red grass. Hanging from the floating islands were gears, indistinguishable from stone. The area was called the Golem Gardens, a verdant ruin reclaimed by nature. Bushes and saplings grew from sentinels actively guarding the rubble. These machines, covered in detritus with the emblem of a vortex molded on their chassis, could easily kill careless Leapers. My best chance of surviving is to move, swiftly, find the openings to strike, and get away. Something I learned immediately after a sphere-shaped sentinel tried to hinder my paws with goo, was to never stop moving!
Motion Twin’s next game is beautiful, bright, and fast! The world’s sundered and the floating islands orbit a raging vortex. Our role as Leapers, is to brave the hazardous vortex pulling all sky islands to it. Currently, these expeditions take us through 4 biomes, where we can unlock 17 different weapons, 14 unique trinkets, and recover 100 memories to augment all our abilities. The only way to traverse the broken landscape is to dash. In most games dashing carelessly makes you fall to your death, but not here. Every dash turns me into a beam of light that blinks from place to place. It’s responsive, and there’s nuance to be efficient. I could dash to avoid an enemy on your island, but there’s a short cooldown, if I blink to another elevation or small island neighboring mine, I can instantly dash again. I flash between platforms, evading attacks from aggressive enemies, and exploring secrets of a crumbling world.
The weapons are immensely satisfying in my little Leaper’s arms! The Heavy Blade’s attacks are weighty and exceptional for smashing golems, Kunai are good opening weapons, applying a stacking curse condition that does tons of damage when detonated. My first weapon, a community favorite, the Fish Knife is a swift weapon with a simple three-hit combo that ends with a crit, making it the quickest weapon to trigger special attacks with my swapped weapon. Clearing islands and defeating enemies in every biome unlocks new weapons, like the Shrunken or Anchor Boom. As I progress the weapons I find become augmented with abilities, like burning enemies struck, covering them in goo, and doubling in size to outrageous proportions. To provide some auxiliary support, I’m given trinkets that could freeze enemies, blast enemies surrounding me, trap them in ooze, and more. The memories of past Leapers grant real power, I can cause shockwave blasts with every strike, absorb health for each enemy I kill, inflict extra damage to solo enemies, and gain bonus conditions that trigger my weapon’s ultimate Aether attack! Aether attacks are bombastic, signature strikes, that decimate foes and make me invulnerable during their animations.
Busting up machines and braving the vortex doesn’t have to be lonely. I’ve joined 2 other Leapers for expeditions, thinking fighting most Sentinels would be a breeze. You can trade aggro, share pools of potions, and trade items. However complacency invites mistakes, and eventually enemies get enhancements that could ruin us; elite mobs with shadow clones, made me withdraw and watch their moves. Some had orbiting lasers that burned my fur and punished me for mistakes, dashing. The loss of a Leaper used to put everyone in Sudden Death, where a single hit would’ve killed us; now it enrages the survivors, sending them into Revenge mode. We cause serious damage, but forgo self-defense, taking more damage and bloodlust makes us forget to use healing potions. Only when I’ve savaged enough enemies, covering my paws with blood and oil, do I leave Revenge mode.
Though there’s a little story shared throughout the game, most of it’s passive, through enemy design, environments, and bosses. Early levels give the impression of an advanced civilization, fallen to ruin, with barely functional automation sentries. After the factory, my enemies aren’t hobbled machines, but healthy rat pirates, and later a map that reminded me there was a story this game wanted to tell, and it did so through enemy and map design. After you finish your first encounter with the final boss, and what it unlocks, it causes speculation, not about the vortex.
Windblown is still in early access, with new modes, maps, and more unlockables coming. They just finished a patch which added more story, and the Sanctuary biome, designed to make you question what you know about your home hub, the Ark. Twin Motion made a compelling world with map design, and character details, creating mysteries with barely a word, and the childishly innocent designs of this world are shattered as you mature in capability. Windblown is worth playing and following. Twin Motion is building something shocking at the eye of this storm, and I’m not changing course.
