Chinese development outfit Dilemma Studios announced that their game Wenjia is scheduled to release later this year for the Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and on Steam for PC. The game is a side-scrolling 2.5D mystical platformer, designed in a similar vein to games like Ori and the Blind Forest.
The story centers around a glowing cat creature traversing through a fantasy forest while overcoming obstacles and avoiding certain death from a number of environmental traps.
The basic premise of the story was outlined in a 36 second video that attempts to explain the events that take place before the actual story within the game itself. It’s the typical tale of two realms in jeopardy after people began usurping the energy from one realm to build their own worlds.
The actual gameplay takes place across a number of highly detailed, hand-painted backdrops, moving both laterally and vertically through levels.
Visually it’s hard to separate Wenjia from Moon Studios’ Ori and the Blind Forest. The similarities really are quite apparent and difficult to dismiss.
Even still, you can see that there are some measures of separation between the two games, mostly with how some of the platforming challenges work and the way verticality is implemented into Wenjia, as depicted in the gameplay trailer below.
Additionally, you can see that there’s a mechanic that allows players to switch between the two realms discussed in the first story trailer. The world switching changes the layout and theme of the level, not unlike Black Forest Games’ Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams or Bonus Level Entertainment’s Fox ‘n Forests.
You can look for Wenjia to launch at some point before 2018 is out for Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC. The developers didn’t attach a price tag to the game, but I tend to doubt it’ll be a $60 outing.