A new trailer released on PlayStation Blog and YouTube today features all new gameplay and a release date of January 19th – just two weeks away – for the PlayStation exclusive platformer Klaus.
Announced sometime last November with a prospective release date of second quarter 2016, Klaus was given a minimal description. A narrative-driven 2D puzzle-platformer that forces players to use the surrounding environment to their advantage – to progress in both the level and the story.
Sounds like something everyone has seen before… until PlayStation Blog’s most recent posting.
The new trailer for Klaus features both live-action and standard in-game stuff making it extremely unique, which apparently plays a role in expressing the feel of the game.
In his own blog post, game designer Victor Velasco commented that, “a combination of live action and gameplay would be perfect at showing off the feeling of the game.”
The trailer isn’t all that has changed. The game has essentially undergone a full re-skin since its original conception. After receiving feedback at the recent PlayStation Experience, the studio has been able to revitalize their game. Victor and his team decided to focus on three core elements to improve since last year: look and feel, boss battles, and collectibles.
Look and Feel
As far as aesthetics go, Klaus competes with the best of them with super stylized levels that tell a story of their own – no narrative required. Throughout the platforms words and phrases are strewn about building to the overall mystery of the game. Backgrounds are said to feature additional detail now with extra added clues and hidden messages.
The levels have been overhauled to grant maximum environmental manipulation and character physics are more important than ever. There’s currently no telling if this gameplay overhaul will extend to PSVita.
In its original announcement, Klaus was meant to be a PlayStation 4 and Vita title but the most recent release date trailer – and matching blog – say nothing of the sort. It’s unclear if the game is still coming out for the Vita, though it would make sense to include the handheld device for a platforming game.
Boss Battles
Klaus will include three boss battles throughout the game and it has been confirmed that the first boss, K1, will be a playable character in the second world. Each boss is said to be extremely important to the narrative, not just some other enemy to defeat.
The first boss, for example, becomes a part of Klaus’ team in the story so his style is really conveyed in that battle. K1 can smash the floor and send blocks around the level falling down, an essential gameplay element that players will learn to control after the fight.
Collectibles
The final element Victor and his team worked on to improve Klaus for its upcoming release is collectibles. The collectibles in this game come in the form of collectible levels.
The collectible levels really force players to think about their actions as special mechanics are always in play. In PlayStation Blog’s post, we are given a couple examples.
“One such level, for example, restricts Klaus to only moving left, while the player uses the world itself to push him right. In another, four characters must be controlled at once. Some are just too weird to describe and you’ll have to discover them for yourselves! In all cases, we use them to go creatively crazy and bring something truly new to platforming.”
-Victor Velasco
Klaus has a very early and unforeseen launch for PlayStation 4 on January 19th, 2016. Again, it is unclear if the game will also release on PlayStation Vita in the future or not. Only time will tell.
