SummaryAction-adventure recreation set in historic South India.Fight constructed on one of many world’s oldest martial arts.The traditional Chola empire dropped at life by Ayelet Studio.
I grew up listening to tales concerning the Chola dynasty, an empire that dominated South India for over 4 centuries and constructed commerce networks that reached China and Rome. However I by no means noticed that world in a recreation. Not as soon as. That’s why we’re constructing Son of Thanjai.
At the moment, I’m excited to share our gameplay trailer with XBOX gamers for the primary time. It’s our clearest look but at what we’ve been constructing at Ayelet Studio in Chennai – a 30-person crew bringing this historical past to life by means of an action-adventure recreation formed by the tradition it comes from.
The very first thing you’ll discover is the weapon. The Surul Vaal is a versatile, ribbon-like blade that coils when sheathed and lashes out in sweeping, unpredictable arcs, forcing you to handle distance and timing in methods conventional weapons don’t. It’s an actual weapon from South Indian martial traditions, and our fight system is constructed round it. The muse comes from Kalaripayattu, one of many oldest martial arts on the planet, bringing fluid motion into each encounter.
You play as Vinnendiran, a Chola prince who loses every little thing – his household, his throne, his identification – and is pressured to dwell among the many very individuals he as soon as neglected. As he strikes by means of a land fractured by invasion and famine, the journey turns into much less about reclaiming energy, and extra about who he turns into within the course of.
The world is split into distinct areas: fertile rice plains, dense forests, coastal ports full of international merchants, and harsh arid lands, every with its personal tradition and lifestyle. This construction is impressed by the traditional Tamil “Tinai” system, the place landscapes form not simply geography, however emotion, financial system, identification, and extra. Every area looks like its personal society inside a bigger empire.
What issues most to us is how this world feels to dwell in. You’ll encounter Therukoothu performances in village squares, collect in toddy outlets the place conversations and rumors unfold, and see on a regular basis crafts like jaggery-making as a part of each day life. These aren’t facet particulars or background taste, they’re a part of how the world capabilities, and the way you expertise it.
Son of Thanjai is coming to XBOX Sequence X|S and PC. Watch the gameplay trailer above, and add it to your wishlist on the Xbox Retailer. That is our try and allow you to step right into a world we’ve by no means seen in video games earlier than and expertise the Chola empire from inside.
Son of Thanjai
Ayelet Studio
☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★
Vinnendhira Chola was born a prince.
At nineteen, he is aware of every little thing about privilege and nothing concerning the kingdom he’ll someday rule.
His father is dying. Enemies collect past the borders. Traitors whisper contained in the court docket. The Chola Empire wants a king. As a substitute, it has Vinnendhiran.
Raised behind palace partitions, he has spent his life avoiding duty and taking consolation as a right. However with time working out and assassins closing in, the king can now not shield the son who is supposed to inherit every little thing.
For the primary time in his life, Vinnendhiran is pressured into the world past the palace – a world of farmers, merchants, rebels, spies, and strange individuals dwelling with the results of choices made by males like him.
Can a person change into a king just because he was born one? Or should he earn it?
Son of Thanjai is an open-world, action-adventure set in an alternate-history Chola Empire, the place a prince should uncover what it really means to be king.
TO RULE A KINGDOM, YOU MUST FIRST MEET IT
Solid out, Vinnendhiran travels a kingdom on the peak of its energy and on the sting of collapse: temple cities crowded with retailers and pilgrims, fertile river plains, harmful frontier roads, occupied settlements, and courts thick with ambition.
Some nonetheless consider within the Cholas. Others have suffered due to them. Most are merely attempting to outlive.
The farther he travels from the throne he misplaced, the extra he learns how little he ever understood the individuals he was born to rule… and the way a lot he’ll want them.
FEAR IS YOUR PRIMARY WEAPON
The boys you face watch one another, they usually react to what they see. Reduce down a commander and the others’ confidence collapses. Combine excessive and low assaults to interrupt a veteran’s footing earlier than you break their nerve, and the entire line begins to waver. Executions, brutal finishes, and relentless strain flip self-discipline into panic.
Some struggle more durable. Some run. Some throw down their weapons and beg. Victory is not at all times earned by killing everybody… typically it is earned the second the survivors determine they’ve already misplaced.
MEET THE SURUL VAAL
The Surul Vaal isn’t a sword.
It is a versatile coil of metal able to hanging from past an enemy’s attain. Sweep by means of a cluster of attackers in a single arc. Circulation from broad, crowd-clearing strikes into close-range focused strikes with out breaking momentum.
When the whip is not sufficient, change to the heavy Aruvaal for shut, brutal work, or the Valari to finish a menace earlier than it reaches you.
EVERYONE IS WATCHING
There are not any magical instincts. No enemy outlines glowing by means of partitions. Data should be earned.
Shadow unsuspecting targets to maneuver silently by means of crowded streets and guarded compounds. Bluff your well beyond suspicion utilizing stolen names, passwords, and secrets and techniques. Create distractions, isolate enemies, and manipulate conditions earlier than they change into fights.
Guards hear motion, discover uncommon behaviour, and react to one another’s suspicions. A single mistake can unfold by means of a whole outpost.
Earn the intel. Earn the kill.
THE KINGDOM BEYOND THE PALACE WALLS
From daybreak prayers in temple courtyards to crowded night markets, life in Thanjai strikes with or with out you.
Stroll by means of bustling temple cities, crowded markets, paddy fields, vassal courts, and forgotten roads the place each individual is combating a battle of their very own. Farmers fear about their harvest. Retailers chase alternative. Rebels whisper in corners. Clergymen, spies, troopers, and labourers all have their place in a world that doesn’t revolve across the participant.
It’s the kingdom Vinnendhiran should be taught to grasp earlier than he can ever hope to guide it.
