Severed announced

So! I was poking around the internets, as I often do, when I discovered that DrinkBox Studios, creators of the critically acclaimed Guacamelee, have been working on a first-person dungeon delver. It’s called Severed, and it has you playing as a young woman with a fantastical (and fantastically literal) sword arm.

The premise:

In Severed you play as a distraught warrior, who is lost in a fantastical world. She is tasked with the challenge of knitting together pieces of her story from both the past and the future. Our heroine will embark on a journey through a surreal non-linear world using a gesture based combat mechanic to defeat enemies in this first person adventure. Unlock new abilities, discover secrets of the land, and grow in power as you master both offensive and defensive techniques. Let Severed be your mystery to unravel.

The trailer shows off tile-based exploration of an incredibly colorful, borderline-psychadelic world, as well as combat that appears to use player gestures to direct sword slashes against specific portions of your enemies’ anatomy:

The planned features include

• Use touch-based combat mechanics with offensive & defensive techniques against a variety of enemies
• Have autonomy over upgrade paths
• Gain abilities from Totems—magic armor created from the remains of defeated bosses
• Force enemies into vulnerable states, then sever their body parts to upgrade equipment and abilities
• Choose how to progress through branching routes as you avoid hazards and solve puzzles

Severed is planned for release in Summer 2015 for the Playstation Vita. (The developers have declined to comment on whether it’ll be getting ported to other platforms, though given the touch-based combat system, porting to smart phones strikes me as an obvious choice if the game does well enough.)