First off some housekeeping – while we are a PlayStation-focused site first and foremost, there are times when we like to get a look at something before it’ll make it’s way to consoles. Lioncode, the two-person team of Lyle Moore and Sergio Garces behind Wildkeepers Rising does plan to bring the game to PS5, but that’s not something that’ll happen by the time this game hits Steam in Early Access. That’s the second piece of housekeeping – this is a game that will launch in Early Access, with the 1.0 version still a long-ways away. So everything I talk about here that makes me cautious and filled with doubt about its chances for success, could be totally changed and gone by the time it actually launches. With that out of the way, to give you the rundown of Wildkeepers Rising is that it’s a bullet-hell game where not only do different characters play with different abilities that are upgraded over the course of each run, you have a few helpful companions with you along the way. These creatures are called Guardians, and each of them have different functions they can serve in combat – but you won’t be building up a team in the same Pokemon fashion. Each time you enter into a level for Wildkeepers Rising, you’ll find and choose different Guardians to help you, so it really seems like you’ll have to go through plenty of runs to get a feel for which Guardians you prefer on your team and which you’d leave by the wayside. Not knowing which abilities you’ll be offered when you upgrade and which Guardians you’ll be able to take with you are where the rougelike elements of Wildkeepers Rising comes in. 
Also, as you may have already guessed, certain Guardians used together can create great synergies for different strategies to make your current run as strong as possible. By the looks of the gameplay we saw Graces and Moore demo, it’s clear that there’s a lot that can happen with the combat. Sure, you’re not actually firing yourself, everything is auto-firing a-la Vampire Survivors. But having up to four Guardians by your side, each with special abilities that work as support, defensive or offensive buffs and attacks is something that even just by looking at the gameplay, you can tell shakes things up. 
It’s intriguing, to say the least, and from a gameplay perspective is a good hook to draw you in if you’ve been playing plenty of Vampire Survivors but are starting to look for something a little more fresh. For me though, what I saw to be the most intriguing and exciting feature in Wildkeepers Rising is the fact that each level isn’t just one room for you to run around in. It’s a full-fledged map that you have to explore, with things to find and an end of the level to get to, whether or not you’ve dealt with the enemies in your way. Some levels even cap-off with a major boss. Go Big Or Go Home 
It’s not just the map that makes me intrigued, but what comes along with it – a story, which is not exactly something you find a lot of when playing bullet-hell games. This is where my cautious side starts to really come in. Since this was just a hands-off preview, and the game is still early in its development journey, Lioncode was hesitant to share much about the story. It also won’t be a big part of the Early Access release, because the main campaign mode is, currently, the only game mode Wildkeepers has. It’s also not entirely complete, as Garces and Moore told us in our preview Q/A period that they still have to flesh out much of the middle, while already having a beginning and an end set. You see, I keep bringing up Vampire Survivors because as far as bullet-hell games go, it’s the one that recently broke through the contingent of players that are already interested in bullet-hell games to people that might’ve never played one before. 
It’s hugely successful, and for me, the onus is now on other bullet-hell games to tell me why I should spend some of my time with them, and not just play Vampire Survivors instead. Wildkeepers choice to have a story-focus at all makes it unique in the genre, and also presents a huge opportunity for it to stand out as the bullet-hell game you play not just for the gameplay, but for the story. That the story isn’t yet fleshed out doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in me that it’ll be able to be impactful, even with the caveat that it’ll be releasing in Early Access first and there’s so much about the game that could change. 
This compounds with the fact that I’ve not actually gotten the chance to play Wildkeepers, so I can’t give a proper read on how the gameplay will feel. Addictive and tight gameplay can make games with even an offensively bad story fun to play, but I don’t yet know if Wildkeepers has that. It just struck me as odd, to have the story of Wildkeepers brought up as a point of interest that makes it unique from other games in the genre, but for it to also seemingly be the thing that’s the most unfinished out of this unfinished game. Now, The Real Challenge Begins 
There’s a lot that I like about Wildkeepers Rising from first glance. It’s an indie studio, a Canadian one at that, and they’re making a new kind of game in a genre I already love playing. I love narrative-focused experiences, and they’re trying to bring a narrative focus into a genre where narrative doesn’t generally play a big role. It’s also got a bunch of hand-painted art and interesting character and enemy designs. But what I’ve seen so far doesn’t give me enough confidence to say it’ll break through the noise, or even be worth checking out. I’d love to be wrong, of course. The story could be absolutely incredible by the time it’s all said and done, and when I actually play the game I could discover that getting synergies to work across the different Guardians and my character is a kind of fun that doesn’t get old. The map could also be filled with plenty of surprises that make exploration feel rewarding, and it could all tie-back into the narrative in meaningful ways. All of this could be true for Wildkeepers Rising by the time it hits 1.0, which is also when it would probably release on PS5 and other consoles. It’s up to Lioncode now, to execute on all that. Right now, Wildkeepers Rising is a lot of good ideas put to code, I just can’t be sure if they’ll all work well together. https://www.youtube.com/embed/7NqUf9zQy ... d_policy=1
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