For longtime fans of the genre, the pull of a good Metroidvania is hard to ignore. The best games that can trace their lineage back to classics (and the portmanteau’s origins) like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night embrace the worthwhile exploration, satisfying blend of platforming and combat, and compelling progression that count themselves among the genre’s core elements. Another title that deserves to be in the conversation for one of the most influential games in the Metroidvania subgenre, Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight, helped pave the way for a modern Metroidvania “gold rush”, which has ultimately resulted in a slew of fantastic indie Metroidvania titles that straddle influences old and new to deliver players memorable experiences. Enter Fake Lobster’s Shellbound.
The debut project from a new team comprised of industry veterans with experience in both game development and film and media production, Fake Lobster describes Shellbound as a “post-Metroidvania”, and after going hands-on with its current early preview build I’m beginning to understand how and why that term really applies to what Shellbound has going on. The biggest draw of Shellbound, that of a continually shifting and dynamic world, forced Fake Lobster to challenge the typical genre conventions of a Metroidvania, all while fully embracing those core elements that players have come to expect in a way that feels both fresh and exciting. In an increasingly crowded genre, Shellbound is already standing out as one to watch, and it’s still quite a way out from its full release.
Shellbound’s Dynamic World Immediately Pulls You In
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Despite featuring compelling worlds and characters, a lot of Metroidvanias get flak for their emphasis on gameplay over narrative. Conversely, Shellbound‘s early preview build kicks off with an excellent story setup that establishes both the game’s core mechanics and its central mystery. In Shellbound, the entire game’s world is located on the back of a gigantic, world-traversing snail. When a mysterious wave of energy pulsates over the world, the snail suddenly wakes up and begins to move, causing untold destruction in its wake. As the camera pans out and we see the trail of glowing mucus that the snail has left behind, we meet our protagonist — a lone parasite hoping to make its way to that giant mobile mountain off in the distance.
Connecting Shellbound’s Story to Its Gameplay
The mystery of the snail’s awakening is a great initiating event for the game’s main conflict, but it also establishes one of the main elements that separates Shellbound from its many contemporaries in the Metroidvania subgenre. The world in Shellbound is the gigantic snail itself — a continually shifting and alive place, with the player even having agency over how that world evolves and changes. As a parasite, we have the ability to infect (or “Parasitize”) enemies, briefly taking over their physical forms as a means of solving various platforming or combat challenges as we make our way deeper into the snail’s shell.
Similarly, the protagonist can interact with elements in each of Shellbound‘s biomes that cause the world around it to change in surprising ways, and it’s through this mechanic that the game truly earns its “post-Metroidvania” labeling. Fake Lobster has opted to remove one of the Metroidvania’s core elements, backtracking, in favor of giving the player more agency over changing the world itself. It’s also an appropriately diegetic mechanic that ties directly into our place as a parasitic invader in the snail’s biological ecosystem.
What to Expect From Shellbound’s Combat and Platforming
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Of course, to make our way across the snail’s shell and solve Shellbound‘s central mystery, we’ll need to conquer several challenges, which is where Shellbound‘s core gameplay loop comes into play. Combat and platforming are the twin pillars on which the Metroidvania subgenre is built, and they’re also the two areas where Shellbound already excels, even in its early state. According to the team at Fake Lobster, much of the work that has gone into Shellbound so far has been to make sure that the game’s core systems and mechanics are present as a foundation on which to build the rest of the experience, and the attention paid to the game’s design philosophy has ultimately paid off in it already feeling incredibly satisfying to control the game’s protagonist.
Basic combat relies on a three-hit combo in conjunction with a well-timed block for parrying enemy attacks, and hit detection and sound design culminates in Shellbound‘s combat already feeling responsive and sounding appropriately weighty. Parrying is satisfying to pull off and has a window that feels appropriate given the speed of enemy attacks and the timing necessary to deflect and stun them.
Hitting most enemies with a single three-hit combo or parrying them will cause them to flash, at which point you can finish them off with an additional attack or use the “Parasitize” ability to take over their bodies. Parasitizing enemies has, at least so far, always proven to be interesting, with the abilities these possessions unlock further opening up the game’s world or making it possible to completely ignore groups of enemies or tricky platforming challenges (such as the flying enemies allowing you to easily reach higher areas of the map or the crab-like enemies that can cling to walls and ceilings to bypass spike traps).
Evolving Enemies Keep Shellbound’s Combat Continually Fresh
But in another surprisingly diegetic move, our place as a parasite has a direct impact on how combat plays out thanks to Shellbound‘s Enemy Evolutions. Defeating the same kind of enemy over and over again will eventually see that enemy type undergo an evolution, and these evolutions are surprising. In fact, in at least one instance in the current early preview build, it was necessary to trigger one of these enemy evolutions in order to proceed to the next major area of the map, showcasing how important it is to be continually cognizant of Shellbound‘s world and game it to your advantage. There are just a small handful of enemy types and enemy evolutions in the current early preview build, but the potential for this mechanic to open up opportunities for sequence-breaking or nonlinear exploration through Shellbound‘s world is massive.
Shellbound’s Mix of Gameplay and Story Propels You Forward
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Similar to Hollow Knight, the world and characters in Shellbound are brought to life using some aesthetically pleasing hand-drawn visuals, and the characters themselves all talk using dialogue boxes instead of being fully voice-acted. Music is also another of the game’s high points, which together with Shellbound‘s visuals, culminates in the game’s presentation already punching well above its weight for how early on the title is in its development.
That presentation works overtime to help deliver one of Shellbound‘s more surprising draws, which is its story. Again, Metroidvania games are more known for their atmosphere than their narratives, but Shellbound already shows a lot of promise through its compelling central mystery, interesting characters, and thought-provoking world (which seems to have a very interesting backstory — after all, who built all these structures within the giant snail’s shell?). The combination of an interesting story and a solid gameplay loop is just about all you could ask for from a good Metroidvania, and Shellbound has those pieces already in place.
Even in its Early State, Shellbound Shows Plenty of Promise
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After taking my time with the Shellbound demo to try and dig into all that it had to offer, I ultimately left wanting more, which is what all great demos should do. I spent about 2.5 hours traversing across a small handful of biomes and combatting enemies (and even a boss), and the game’s premise already has me hooked. There are some intentional similarities to Hollow Knight, according to our conversation with Shellbound‘s developers, but those comparisons are flattering instead of derivative, helping to showcase that Shellbound is a game Metroidvania fans should pay close attention to, even with it being roughly 2 years out from its official release.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©CheatCC/Fake Lobster.