Enotria: The Last Song developers Jyamma Games are making a new action-RPG inspired by and named after Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic poem La Divina Commedia, aka the Divine Comedy.
Like the poem, it sees you descending through the circles of Hell, each the geological manifestation of a particular Sin. Unlike the poem, it features a set of combat classes, a choice of protagonist genders, a narrative alignment system, procedurally generated extraction dungeons, and customisable weapons and armour. As the poet himself might say: in the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where I had to grind for crafting materials.
The games industry has not been mega gentle with poor old Dante, whose monumental work helped establish the Tuscan language and influenced a brace of English writers, from Blake to Beckett. The best-known video game adaptation is probably still Visceral’s cheeseball 2010 action-adventure Dante’s Inferno, which is often more interested in aping God Of War. A cynical man or snob (hello!) might look at the below, hacky-slashy trailer for Jyamma’s adaptation and consider it to be another act of wanton literary desecration. Terza rima isn’t supposed to be a three-hit combo, you blistering philistines!
Watch on YouTube
Still, this isn’t quite another exercise in crafting boobwalls for the circle of Lust or punching organs out of bodies. Enotria was pretty metaphysical for a Soulslike, building a universe and combat system around the practice of stagecraft, and Jyamma’s take on the La Divina Commedia is similarly dreamy – it turns Dante’s poem into a kind of overarching mythology.
“In this new adventure, the studio presents an epic journey set in a world where The Divine Comedy has supplanted the old faith, bringing about a golden age of righteousness among humanity,” explains a press release. “When dark forces subvert the promises of the poem, order collapses and the world is thrust into chaos. The player will take on the role of a warrior-poet trapped in the infernal depths, called to descend through the circles of Hell, face increasingly powerful demons, and redeem a sinful past.”
Sounds quite involved. Still, I’m not sure where the procgen extraction dungeons fit in, exactly. The idea of mining hell for loot and progression materials is the kind of videogame conceit I’d love to lay before an actual 14th century theologian. I’m sure the humour of the situation would be well worth the inconvenience of being burned at the stake. Anyway, there’s no release date yet for La Divina Commedia. The poem took about 12 years to write – hopefully, Jyamma will turn their version around a little sooner.
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