How much charm can a game survive on? Children of Morta tested that question more than its punishing dungeon crawling tested my own skills. I think it just about makes it, but ultimately this roguelike doesn't flourish as well as it ought to.

An extremely (and knowingly) basic setup shows an ancient evil fall over the land. A family, the Bergsons, whose house is built over a magical shrine, are tasked by their grandmother to tackle the corruption—thanks nan. Their quest involves selecting members of the family to go on runs through the local dungeons to collect pieces of a goddess that can thwart the advancing evil. Children of Morta's unique selling point is its family, and putting a greater narrative focus into a genre populated by titles light on plot. It certainly has a lot of story to offer but I'm not sure it integrates it smoothly with the more traditional dungeon crawler staples.

The structure works like this: you pick a family member, go through the dungeon, fail or succeed to complete it, and return home with new resources to upgrade weapons and skills to make the next run that bit easier. Yet upon each return to the family house, new story emerges. Sometimes it advances the plot—introducing new family members to the fight—but as often it's a small slice of life moment. Linda playing her violin to calm herself between excursions or their mother feeding the nearby animals. The fact that progression occurs regardless of failure or success is welcome, softening the blow of a close defeat with a nice little titbit of story.

That said, wholesome as it often is (despite occasional tragic turns), the story did little to get me involved. I felt oddly detached from the events depicted; charmed by the gentle moments but uncaring of the overall plot's inevitable course. Some of that is in the delivery. None of the characters speak, instead everything is relayed via an old narrator. It's pleasant enough to listen to, but the narration is far too straightforward. It's just exposition of what you're already seeing on screen and thus ultimately redundant. And the story is so predictable—its big dramatic scenes telegraphed so far away—that it undermines our heroes rather than makes them seem tragic.

The family's struggle is also undermined by the game's mechanics, which make the consequences for death and failure extremely slight. Children of Morta follows a path that fantasy stories, especially in games, have walked many times. There's none of the wrinkles of, say, The Banner Saga or any of the evocative world building of Hyper Light Drifter. 

The fact that you have little say over events hardly helps either. You're simply asked to watch everything unfold with only side quests giving you the option to flesh out more of the story. It's not a particularly captivating world either, even with its modest twist that—despite the simplistic and near fairy tale like setup—the fantastical elements are all presented as "technology indistinguishable from magic". The game doesn't go deeply enough into what that means, and so not being strictly fantasy is hardly a meaningful difference.

It sure is pretty though, with some of the most sumptuous and finely animated pixel art I've ever seen. The art direction leaves a lot to be desired—it's all evil inky monsters and glowing fantasy weapons, very much typical of games—but the realisation is second to none. The Bergson's home is the highlight, full of precious little touches that make it a joy to come back to time and time again.

Thank goodness it's nice to look at because the combat is otherwise extremely basic stuff that often involves a mere click of the mouse or push of the thumbstick on controllers. The game grows to be slightly more involved with special abilities acquired during dungeon runs, like the ability to summon a dragon to smash enemies or a little robot who follows you, stunning foes. Yet these are all simply another button press away. There are no combos nor is there anything much to learn.

The accessible and easy going nature of combat conceals just how unforgiving it can be. The tutorial especially sets up a much more approachable experience before the first lot of dungeons really turn the screws. They're randomly generated too, so there's no chance to revise. You just have to improve via the artificial means of levelling up. And there is so much grinding thanks to each new area sharply raising the difficulty further still.

Local co-op is an option that can help greatly but, on your own, it's slow going. This continues for most of the game, turning the dungeon crawling into a bit of a chore between you and the next little slice of story. Even with different family members offering different abilities, I soon grew tired of having to go back into the caves beneath the Bergson's home. 

But I kept going, to get a little taste of those charming family moments. They weren't quite enough to sustain me to the end, but they were more than I've got out of most of Children of Morta's peers. While I never felt at home with the Bergson's, it sure was nice to visit.

Children of Morta is a roguelike hack 'n slash done up in gorgeous pixel art, and it has a unique focus on family dynamics. It's out today, and to mark the occasion, 11 bit Studios has released a lovely hand-animated trailer.

The trailer, like the game itself, reminds me of the animated films I watched growing up in the 1980s, which were ostensibly for kids but were possibly a bit too intense for their intended audience. Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings and The Last Unicorn come to mind. Children of Morta similarly pulls you in with its stunning pixel art presentation, but it doesn't take very long before you run into some pretty grim stuff: horrible monsters performing sacrificial rituals in the woods, for instance.

Anyway, the game is out today, following a brief time-limited Steam demo earlier this summer. You can find it there, or DRM-free on GOG.

After being delayed for a year, roguelike RPG Children of Morta will appear on PC in September. I've slept on this family-based monster-slaying romp when I absolutely should have been paying attention—it's stylish as heck. Do your eyes a favour and check out the release date trailer. 

The Bergsons are a family of heroes defending their mountain from the Corruption—yep, that again—that's filled it with monsters. You'll be able to pick one of six Bergsons with different fighting styles, personalities, and flaws, but the game's about the whole family working together. Even the granny has a job, though lamentably it's not fighting monsters.

It's a story-driven misadventure about familial ties, sacrifice, and hitting monsters with a sword. Colour me intrigued, but it's really the stellar art that I want to see more of. There aren't many trailers I'll pause to admire, and even fewer where I'll stop to look at a rug. 

I'm looking to replace the one the dog pooped on. 

Children of Morta is due out on September 3 on Steam and GOG. 

Children of Morta was announced in 2014 as a roguelike action game about the Bergsons, an extended family that's served as the guardians of the mystical Mount Morta for generations. It was expected to release in 2018 but at the last minute, developer Dead Mage Studio delayed it into 2019. With launch now just a few months away, the studio has released a (very) time-limited demo that covers the first chapter of the story and two playable members of the family: John, the father, and his eldest daughter Linda.   

I had some issues getting the demo to run, including one crash-to-desktop, but after a reboot it fired up and ran without trouble. More importantly, it was very impressive. I only spent about 20 minutes with it, enough time to run through the tutorial and get a taste of the Bergson's weird world, but I really liked what I saw. Gameplay is very similar to Diablo, with primary and secondary attacks, dodging, and defensive maneuvers, and while each family member appears to be the equivalent of a character class—John is a sword-swinging fighter, Linda is a rogue with a bow—each of them can be customized through skill trees and whole-family upgrades. 

The mechanical part of the game (what I've seen of it, anyway) is fairly conventional: It's everything else that promise to make Children of Morta stand out. The pixel-art graphics are spectacular, the music and narration are spot-on, and even though the Bergson's home feels downright cozy, there's an ominous edge to it all that reminds me of those old-time fairy tales where terrible things happen to small children. I didn't find any of the random dungeon events Wes and Austin talked about last year, but I'm eager to dive back in and go digging for them.

For reasons I don't fully (or even slightly) understand, the demo will only be available until June 22, which is a shame because it's really good. If you've had any interest at all in Children of Morta, I'd strongly urge you to grab it from Steam and give it a run while you can. And if you miss out, the good news is that, barring further delays, the full release isn't too terribly far away: The Children of Morta Steam page has it slated for launch in September. 

Children of Morta is a pixel-art narrative roguelike about a family that serves as guardian of the mystical Mount Morta and the lands around it. I was quite taken by the concept and teaser when it was announced in August 2017, and Wes and Austin seemed suitably impressed after spending some time with it earlier this year. It had been slated for release sometime this year, but with just a couple of weeks left before that deadline passes, developer Dead Mage Studio has said that it's not going to happen. 

"Having a solid amount of feedback after shows like PAX Prime, and knowing exactly the goal we need to reach, we have decided to move the release date of Children of Morta, on all platforms, to 2019," producer Marek Ziemak said. "There is huge potential for this gem and we know how to fulfill it, so some things are already put in motion. I strongly believe in Mr. Miyamoto’s words about delaying a game to make sure it’s brilliant when it releases and nothing less." 

The size of each of the game's three biomes is being increased, and "mini-bosses" are being added to the end of each. The story will also be "written with a bolder pen," which the developers said will tie the game world "more strongly" to the plot—and which is also the biggest obstacle to overcome. 

"The main challenge has been integrating the main story arc inside a repeatable roguelike setting and also making sure the family feel is there to let the gamer experience an adventure alongside a family of guardians," Dead Mage CEO Amir Fassihi said. "Many elements need to be procedurally generated while the whole story follows one main line."  

A new release date hasn't been set, but Dead Mage said Children of Morta is now expected to be out sometime next year. It also dropped a trio of new screens showing off the game's "evolving art style," which I have to say look pretty damn good. 

Children of Morta has the kind of art that's striking from across a room. Pixel art blended with a painter's expressive brush stroke, lush lighting and gradients, and so much detail captured in a single frame you can stare for minutes and still spot something new. It's obvious almost immediately that this is a take on pixel art we haven't quite seen before, and Children of Morta also hopes to be a take on the roguelike we haven't seen before, either. For starting off with the two most familiar cliches in indie gaming, Children of Morta feels surprisingly and welcomely distinct.

Wes: Morta plays like an action-RPG, with seven characters to choose from with their own ability sets and playstyles. They're all members of the Bergson family, some sort of guardians fighting against some mucky force called the Corruption. It's a bit hard to follow story playing at a crowded event, but you had a longer demo at our office and got a better feel for what's going on, right Austin?

Austin: I did, and good thing too, because unlike most roguelikes where the action drives everything, Children of Morta has a fairly compelling narrative. The Bergsons are a family of peacekeepers who defend Mount Morta from an ancient, evil corruption. The story begins when grandma Bergson scries that, for reasons unknown, the corruption is back and Morta is in danger. The family has to abandon their long-held peace and get the band back together to not only investigate the cause of the corruption, but stop it before all the gods of Morta are corrupted. 

It's a classic good versus evil story, but Children of Morta's characters really sell it. It's not like Rogue Legacy where your characters are just loosely connected by genealogy. The Bergsons are a real family. The pyromancer, Lucy, is the family's youngest daughter. The other playable character we saw, John, is the father. All the Bergsons live in this massive, richly detailed cabin you visit between dungeons not only to upgrade your stats, but to check in and see the family. 

Every Bergson has a different outlook on Morta and the corruption, and their mood evolves based on the decisions you make in dungeons. Lucy is optimistic and tries to see everything positively, whereas John is pulling his hair out over both the fate of Morta and his family's well-being. I also really like mama Bergson, who isn't playable because she's pregnant with the next Bergson. You see her pregnancy progress throughout the story, which is a nice touch. The best part--somewhat ironically for a roguelike--is that nobody actually dies. Not really. When you 'die' in a dungeon, you just get kicked out. You still have to start over, but you're free to get attached to the Bergsons without worrying who's going to get the Game of Thrones treatment.

Wes: I did get a quick look at one of the upgrade systems in Children of Morta, which is a pretty cool idea for a roguelike. It's there to make co-op play work more smoothly—you can spend money on universal upgrades, like more health, a higher dodge or critical hit rate, and so on, which apply to all of the Morta family members. You can level up each of those characters individually, but the universal buffs mean you won't be starting from absolute scratch when you switch to a new character, or have a friend jump into co-op at level one and you're sitting pretty at level 12.

Austin: There's also the Tree of Rea, a collection of shrines you can selectively pray to in exchange for powerful buffs. The more specific upgrades are exciting too. Each character has a skill tree that upgrades their special abilities in cool ways. John's shield, for instance, doesn't block 100 percent of incoming damage at first, but it will after a few upgrades. Beyond that, you can find runes mid-dungeon which last until you die or leave that dungeon. Most runes add utility to special abilities, like one that makes John's critical hits summon a holy sword for extra damage, but some, like one that turns the archer's basic shot into a multi-shot, can totally change the way you play. 

Wes: I jumped into combat in a procedurally generated cave as Lucy, a mage who can toss fireballs and dash to dodge enemy attacks. Her special abilities are built around keeping enemies at bay: one is a decoy that distracts them, letting you pelt them with fireballs from afar, and the other is a gigantic whirling tornado that can rip through a mob like, well, a tornado.

Austin: Don't forget her ultimate, where she shoots lasers while riding a fire tornado. 

Wes: In about ten minutes of exploring the floor of the cave, I ran into mobs of enemies, found an altar that gave me a critical damage buff, and a healing potion that had a pretty long cooldown, though it did save me in one tight spot. Each expedition you go on will be to an area with three levels, each with a miniboss and a big bad at the end. I died to a mob of pretty brutal enemies, which developer Jakobsen Locke told me was bad luck. I blame the controller I was playing on, using the right analog stick to hurl fireballs. I would've been pinpoint accurate with a mouse.

Austin: I had a good time just fighting dudes as John, but my favorite bits were the random dungeon events. I found a white wolf pup defending his mortally wounded mother from corrupted monsters, so naturally I pulled out all the stops to save this precious, precious puppy. And I did! But not the mother, sadly. I took the cub back home and discovered it had been poisoned, which activated a side quest to find medicine in the dungeon. Locke told me that if I successfully save the pup, Lucy grows attached to it and I'll see it run around the house for the rest of the game. I can even build a dog house for it. He also said there are several events like that hidden in different areas, which left me hungry for more. 

Wes: Combat isn't earth-shatteringly new, but it has enough going on in terms of items to find and enemy variety to be interesting, and stylistically it just feels a bit different from most other roguelikes I've played. It's somewhere in the middle of Diablo and Hyper Light Drifter and Zelda, and each character having a totally different combat style and skillset makes Children of Morta feel deeply replayable. The richness of the setting and the story is now what I'm really curious about. I can't remember playing an action roguelike with a strong narrative, and I hope Morta breaks that trend.

Children of Morta is due out sometime in 2018.

Children of Morta, a "narrative-driven hack-and-slash roguelike" about the Bergson family, was announced in 2014 and then successfully Kickstarted in 2015. And today, developer Dead Mage announced that it should be ready for release sometime in the first half of 2018, and more importantly put out a new gameplay trailer revealing the progress that's been made over the past couple of years. 

The pixel art graphics looks fantastic, but it's the promise of "a powerful narrative of familial ties" about a family that's guarded Mount Morta for generations that really grabs my attention. Six different family members will be available for the fight, each with their own unique playstyles, personalities, and quests, while the world of Morta itself will be filled with its own mysteries and lore to uncover. 

"Experience what it means to be in a family of heroes. Take part in their journey, their struggles, and their victories," the description on Steam states. "Witness a love for each other unmatched by even the gods themselves. Fight through hordes of monsters unimaginable as you explore a mountain constantly in flux. Gorgeous and breathtaking procedurally generated dungeons guarantee a unique experience every time you leave the safety of the Bergson’s house in pursuit of the truth behind the Corruption." 

That doesn't sound like your usual hack-and-slash romp, and I really hope it lives up to all that it promises. Children of Morta doesn't have a solid launch date yet, but you can find out more on Steam or at childrenofmorta.com.