There are few occasions where a game tells me it’s combining two genres that typically don’t go together and it convinces me it’s worth paying attention to, but Blanksword, a roguelike RPG, is quite different. In it, you are Blank, an angel stabbed in the head, brain destroyed, who somehow managed to survive such an ordeal – albeit without any memory of who you were. And now, you are on a quest through a series of islands governed by “Literally God” in order to figure out your mysterious past.
Blanksword has been in the works for a little while now, but a Kickstarter for the game just went live today. Taking one look at the game tells you quite quickly that it’s “one of those” kinds of indie RPGs. You like, like Hylics, Felvidek, or the blueprint for many of them, and one that just recently got a rerelease, OFF.
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In fact OFF is quite an important frame of reference for Blanksword, as one of the game’s directors, Quinn K., was the original translator for OFF. Not only that, but OFF creator Mortis Ghost is responsible for the game’s lovely key art, and may even design an area of the game if the Kickstarter raises enough funds.
The mechanics sound quite interesting too. Combat, like many RPGs, is turn-based, and you pick up new moves as you go along, all of which vary from run to run. There’s apparently “hundreds” of moves to pickup, alongside different bits of equipment and items.
And then there’s that beautiful thing we call narrative design. With Blank not having a brain and all, you can pick up different Angelic Brain Parts, restoring certain abilities of his. One item might allow Blank to intimidate and heckle his enemies, another will give him the ability to tell if something smells bad. Others might let him understand more complex topics, or grant him the ability to haggle for better prices in certain shops. You keep these brain parts forever, but you can only use a few at a time to keep things balanced.
Best of all, alongside the Kickstarter the game has a demo out on Steam for you to try out. Truth be told, while I’ve had my eye on Blanksword for a good while, I somehow missed that it was a roguelike on top of an RPG. Playing the demo for myself, I soon figured this out, but the roguelike element blended really nicely with the RPG side of it. They aren’t genres you often see combined, and in some ways could even be contradictory, but in my short time with it, I think something quite interesting is being brewed up. Here’s hoping the full game pans out just as well.
Blanksword’s “one of those” indie RPG vibes make it feel quite well positioned for a future fanatical following, a thing that’s often both a blessing and a curse. That all remains to be seen of course, the game needs to get funded first.
A release date hasn’t been set just yet, but the team behind it has conservatively estimated a 2027 release window. You can wishlist it, and try the demo out, on Steam here.