SUNSTONE: A Tale of the Briar King

The Sun King has called to you. The Briar King, god of the underworld, has taken the Sun King's daughter, and as the sun dims the briar spreads across the country.

Before she was taken, the princess scattered eight Sunstones and hid them under the old tombs. Their guardians still hold them. Recover the stones, restore the orb at the mountain summit, and go down into the underworld to bring her home.

COMING AFTER LAUNCH: CO-OP FOR UP TO FOUR

THE DESCENT is a co-op mode in development for SUNSTONE, planned as a free expansion after launch. Up to four heroes take on wide tomb arenas together, wave after wave of foes, with elites to bring down as a party, under one shared camera that pulls back to keep everyone in view.

• Couch co-op for 2 to 4 players on one screen, one gamepad each.

• Play online with friends through Steam Remote Play Together: only the host needs the game.

• Full online play follows in a later update.

Co-op is not part of the Next Fest demo or the launch version. Wishlist SUNSTONE to hear when it arrives.

A CARTRIDGE YOU CAN WALK AROUND IN

SUNSTONE is an 8-bit adventure at heart: four-way sword play, tile-by-tile rooms, secrets in the walls, all of it seen in 3D. Every overworld screen is stood up as a diorama from the game's own picture of it, and every tomb room is built from its own map.

• The orbital 3/4 view. A camera that swings around the hero with Q and E, lifts over the treeline and cuts away the walls in front of you.

THE ADVENTURE

• Nine tombs, eight Sunstones. From THE HOLLOW to THE BEACON and beyond, each tomb has its own puzzles, its own treasure and its own guardian.

• Guardians you have to read. Hornhead must be set alight before your sword can bite. Others have to be outthought, not outfought. Every guardian has tells, phases and a way to beat it.

• A whole country. Start in the village of Sunhome and travel through deep woods, a purple thornwood, red mesas, a lake you cross by raft, snowfields and the road up the mountain.

• Tools that open the world. Sword, shield, boomerang, bombs, bow, lamp, raft, ladder and more, each one a key to somewhere you could not reach before.

• Secrets everywhere. Bomb the walls, cut the grass, follow the clues on the stones.

• A second quest waits after the tale is told.

TODAY'S TOMB

A daily challenge on the title screen. Every day the game deals one tomb, the same for every player, with one rule from five: THE TOMB AS IT STANDS, HALF YOUR EMBERS, A DULL BLADE, THE TREASURE IS GIVEN, or NO LAMP. Walk in at the door with the day's kit and race to the guardian's fall. Your first run each day is official; after that you can practise.

HOW IT PLAYS

• Keyboard and mouse, or a gamepad: twin sticks in 3D, with the triggers to swing and throw. A pair of Joy-Cons is read as one controller.

• Battery saves with CONTINUE, an options menu with three difficulty settings, and the spin attack and lift-and-throw as switches you can turn off.

• A Chronicle of the story so far, a full instruction booklet, and eight languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian and French.