Severed might be one of the last great PS Vita games

The kid with the golden arm

It’s rare we get to talk about an upcoming PlayStation Vita game, much less one that is exclusive to the handheld and looks genuinely interesting. The next title from Guacamelee! developer DrinkBox is Severed, a first-person dungeon-crawler centered on strategic dismemberment.

You’ll engage strange creatures primarily with the touchscreen, rather than use buttons. This input method “allowed [DrinkBox] to make the game a much more deep and complex experience than button-based sword fighting ever could have been,” according to CEO Graham Smith. You can’t just blindly swipe at limbs. Different foes have different weaknesses to exploit.

And that art! These aren’t your typical dusty dungeons.

There’s also character progression, environmental puzzle solving, and world design that will have you looping back around to reach previously inaccessible areas. This hits all the right notes for me.