SolSeraph, a hybrid side-scrolling/city-building game, is coming to PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and Steam, Sega announced Wednesday. Along with the announcement, Sega released the following gameplay trailer as well as additional information on the game’s story, mechanics, and characters. SolSeraph appears to be a spiritual successor to the 1990 Square Enix-published Super Nintendo game ActRaiser, as both games feature this unique combination of city-building and side-scrolling gameplay.
In fact, SolSeraph‘s and ActRaiser‘s setups are almost identical: Players take on the role of a divine being (“Helios” in SolSeraph, “The Master” in ActRaiser) tasked with aiding the expansion of human civilizations through use of the city-building mechanic. The progress of these civilizations is impeded by monster lairs, which must be conquered in the game’s side-scrolling sections. At the end of each lair, the player gains new abilities in order to increase the divine being’s power, with the ultimate goal to defeat a great evil (the “Younger Gods” in SolSeraph and “Tanzra” in ActRaiser).
The game will feature five regions, each with their own tribe of villagers and enemies. In SolSeraph‘s city-building strategy mode, players will build basic structures like homes, farms and roads for these villagers, as well as protective structures like spike traps and archer towers to defend the village from attacking monsters. Players will build temples in order to expand the villages into fog-covered areas, revealing lairs for Helios to defeat on the ground.
After defeating these lairs, we can gather from the screenshots and trailer that Helios will at some point gain the ability to flood the screen with water, shoot out ice spikes, summon a magical bow and call down lightning from the sky. Icons seen in the bottom right corner of the trailer’s side-scrolling gameplay seem to indicate that Helios will also gain plant- and fire-based powers, as well. It’s unclear if any of the abilities gained in the combat portions of the game will apply to the city-building sections.
SolSeraph launches July 10.
