Like a roguelite, Othercide expects you to fail, and you most certainly will, many times. Each Day you must complete at least one Synapse in order to rest your Daughters so that they can fight again. You’ll advance through Eras, which are split into Days, each containing a selection of Synapses that lead to a boss on Day 7. From the latter it takes its punishing design, forcing you to inch forward a little at a time, each failure leaving you with none of your upgrades but some of your unlocks. From the former it takes its world: a gothic, Victorian-era city in the grip of a nightmarish disease. It’s an isometric turn-based tactics game, but it cross-polinates its DNA with other titles and genres, most notably Bloodborne and Dead Cells. Shades of grey clash with sharp shocks of brilliant red, and each of your Daughters is beautiful, elfin, yet as deadly as the Plague itself.Īt surface level, Othercide shares similarities with XCOM. It’s a stunning universe, dripping with macabre menace like a viscous toxin on the tip of a blade. If I am right, then I’m a little more impressed with Othercide’s world, even more than I already was with the atmosphere and artwork. I could be wrong, of course, but even picking apart the flavour text reveals clues to this end.
I’m no scholar, but I’m pretty certain all this fits nicely as a metaphor for a frantic mother desperately trying to heal her dying child. To fight it, the Mother sends her Daughters, white-haired chosen ones who must put an end to hordes of nightmare creatures and depraved bosses such as the Surgeon, Deacon and Maid. He is in the grip of the Suffering, a mysterious malaise that distorts all it touches. Part of me thinks it must be, as your overlord-like Mother is defeated in the opening scene by The Child, a corrupted vessel she once loved. I can’t tell if Othercide is an allegory or not.
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