Taomaru is a deadpan capybara monk and the protagonist that players will control in Yuzutsu, a new action-puzzle game announced this week. The trailer made me chuckle, as colourful animation introduces us to a capybara so chill that he treats deadly battles like a sleepwalk.
Each puzzle features Taomaru in peril at his onsen from various enemies and hazards, and instead of fighting them directly, you’ll swap positions with something else in the level. The game appears to work in a real-time-with-slowdown approach, allowing enemies to fire bullets, the player to swap places with an enemy, and the bullet to take out whomever you’ve swapped with. Elsewhere, you can swap out Taomaru’s near-death positioning as he is about to land on some spikes, so an enemy dies instead.
I love this interestingly violent, non-combat approach to winning. Many puzzles are designed to be open-ended so that there isn’t just one solution. That whets my appetite for setting up crazy combo chains of carnage. The game is set across five regions in Onsen Palace, with each region refusing to let our character onsen and chill. Can we help a capy take a break?
Yuzutsu is set for release in 2027. You can wishlist Yuzutsu on Steam.
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