Moon Studios – the developer behind Ori and the Blind Forest – began work on its next project back in 2015. Almost eight years later, we still know very little about the game, but studio head Thomas Mahler recently lifted the lid on the studio’s big ambitions.
To describe Moon’s past and present projects, Mahler drew parallels to two of the biggest game series of all time.
– Ori was our Mario, this is our Zelda, Mahler signed Twitter.
In terms of genre, of course, there are similarities: Mario and Ori are platformers, while Zelda and Moon’s Next are action role-playing games. Admittedly, the developer has also said that the aim is to revolutionize the ARPG genre, as Nintendo has done repeatedly with the Zelda series.
As the studio head explains, the team chose to make the Ori sequel Will of the Wisps – released in 2020 – to give more time to the studio’s next project. Three years later, the upcoming game is now a “full-fledged action role-playing game”, he says.
When asked by Twitter users, Mahler went into a little more detail about what we can expect from the experience. Among other things, Moon will retain a similar visual style to the Ori games.
– It’s important that our games have a unique visual style, so you know this is a Moon Studios game even if you just see an image.
While it was Microsoft that published Ori, this time Moon Studios has entered into a publishing agreement with Private Division. One of the main reasons for the transition was precisely to get the games out to more players, says Mahler.
Which platforms Moon’s next will come to has not yet been confirmed. This time, however, it seems that PlayStation players will also get to join the ball.
The next Zelda game is called Tears of the Kingdom.
Watch the trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild »
