Focus Home Interactive and Lightbulb Crew’s Othercide is a visually unique turn-based strategy game set to release at the end of the month on July 28th. I still have some deep reservations about the title due to the initial announcement trailer featuring an androgynous character, but new footage has surfaced that focuses on the game’s turn-based combat mechanics.

You take control of an army of “daughters” from the greatest warrior who ever lived. Now if the androgynous warrior we saw in the clip is actually a man, and all of his offspring/spawns are his daughters, then I’m completely okay with that.

Anyway, the four minute gameplay trailer reveals that the combat takes place over the course of turns. You can check out the video below.

I know what I’m about to say will probably incite groans and sighs, but I’m going to say it anyway:

I feel like this game would have been better suited as a Soulsbourne clone.

There, I said it.

It just seems like the kind of world featuring the kind of monsters that really would have benefited from Bloodborne’s melee and projectile-based combat system. And I think given how nightmarish the creatures are in Othercide, seeing them enact their atrocities on others would have really helped with the worldbuilding and casting a horror vibe over the whole ordeal.

But that’s just my thoughts on the matter.

As for the actual gameplay, it’s an isometric-themed, turn-based strategy game. It appears to use a hybrid combat system that mixes action limitations and board movement from Firaxis’ XCOM but with combat spacing and skill usage from classic Japanese strategy titles like Disgaea or La Pucelle: Tactics.

I can’t really comment much on how the combat system works until I see more of it in action, preferably some unedited, real-time gameplay.

However, I still think this would have made for a fantastic slow-burn Soulsborne clone, or barring that, a Bullet Witch-inspired third-person melee/shooter.

Anyway, Othercide is due out on July 28th, 2020 at the end of the month for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The Nintendo Switch version of the game is due to drop before the end of summer.

You can learn more by visiting the Steam store page or the official website.

(Thanks for the news tip Yanr)