It’s been two years since bullet hell roguelike Ira launched in Early Access. Now it’s almost ready to blast off outta there with Nicalis setting a PC launch date for October 3, 2023. Ira will be available for $19.99 on Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.
Ira puts players in the role of a girl named Yeon, who channels an ancient god’s powers to battle the forces of Chaos. Korean studio ABShot is behind this one, which mixes anime-style art with bullet hell shooting and roguelike game design. You can see a sample in the PC release date trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThN39v3hVEU
Bringing a bow to a laser fight
If you’re a fan of the bullet hell brand of shooters popularized by developers like Toaplan and Cave, you’ll be right at home in this colorful maze of lasers. In addition to godly powers, Yeon wields a bow in her quest to locate the scattered remnants of the Ira crystal. Over 150 different bows can be found throughout the game along with various active and passive power-ups. Some might say 150+ bows is overkill, but can you ever really have enough? There are 150 unique relics and 43 bow+relic combo synergies on top of that, and Yeon can summon five Apostles to perform ultimate skills and trigger passive perks.
As for the roguelike elements, Ira‘s six stages consist of procedurally generated maps and weapon drops come at random. Early Access feedback seems mostly positive on Steam, where folks have been providing feedback since August 31, 2021. We’ll find out how the final version shapes up soon.
