This Arcadey PhysicsBased Dungeon Brawler Has You Scuffling And Tussling With Your Enemies

The Awaysis is a mysterious floating relic from which water flows down like rain to the animals living below--until it suddenly stops, causing widespread drought and panic. Cue the arrival of brave little fox Auro to the titular island in the sky, with the mission of figuring out what's going on. But more importantly, being up this high is an open invitation to swing your sword to smack enemies off the edge of the floating ruin, sending them plummeting to the planet below.

That's the key differentiator for Awaysis and why developer 17-Bit is referring to it as a dungeon brawler, rather than a dungeon crawler. While creative director Jake Kazdal cites a variety of inspirations, from the 16-bit Secret of Mana to Minecraft Dungeons, those games are about getting better gear to make your damage numbers go up. Kazdal said he's grown tired of the constant focus on damage numbers, as well as the canned animations and responses that deliver them to enemies. Instead of that approach, the combat in Awaysis is driven by what he claims to be cutting-edge physics simulation that isn't being done by anyone else.

"We want to do something that feels very weighty, it's not scripted animations, it's not frame-perfect timing," he said to me when I visited the Kyoto-based studio for an exclusive first look of Awaysis, prior to the game's official announcement at IGN Live during Summer Game Fest. "It's very much greedy, dirty, physical combat, but based on a classic aesthetic."