The "Ryn: And the thread of life" demo has me in stitches! (Impressions)

At this point, it's no secret that a visually interesting art style and engaging gameplay loop are enough to hook me on a game, be it metroidvanias or 3D platformers and everything in between. That trend isn't stopping anytime soon, as I encountered a 3D metroidvania when scrubbing Steam's Platformer Fever fest page, curated by Microids. Among the dozens of quality platformers, I encountered a game called Ryn: And the thread of life, a 3D metroidvania in a PS1 visual style featuring characters stitched together by fabric and constructed by porcelain. Maybe it was the gameplay, maybe it was the character designs, but something about this game made me want to download and play this demo right away. After about 40 minutes, I think I've got a new 3D metroidvania to be excited about!

The demo starts with a relatively cold open. After getting a handle on the basic controls, you enter a cutscene where the dark witch Stella attempts to reconcile with Ryn by offering a deal: Ryn tells her the whereabouts of Luna, a mysterious individual that is believed to by why Ryn was trapped in this castle, and in turn Ryn gets to remain in Stella's castle as her "pet." Obviously that's a terrible deal, so Ryn naturally turns it down, leaving Stella to disappear as she is incapable of battle due to her fragile state as she is made from porcelain. There's probably a "throwing stones from a glass house" analogy that could work here, I'm sure.

After that intro, you get into the gameplay. Combat at this point is fairly simple, with Ryn being capable of light and heavy attacks. You attack with a set of enchanted scissors, which effectively function as a sword. Combat is relatively hack-and-slashy, with the player able to combine heavy and light attacks for combos. You can also dodge and block enemy attacks, and have limited heals should you sustain any damage. Similar to other hack-and-slash games, there are also finishers you can perform with bulkier enemies when they get to low enough health.

As it's a metroidvania, naturally exploration is a key aspect of the game. In the demo, you have a minimap in the top-right of the screen that gives a general idea of what doors are open and where you're going. Rooms contain a variety of puzzles, enemy encounters, and the occasional platforming segments. All that said, I do think an indicator of what doors are open versus which are blocked would be a good QoL change, as doorways are only marked in white regardless of how accessible they are, which confused me a little bit in my demo.

As for the general experience, however, this game felt great! I found the movement and combat to be very fluid, and I adore the visual style and character designs. The palace is decorated with chess pieces that can be broken for currency in the form of buttons and gears, and the enemy designs almost look like if chess pieces were brought to life in the same style as Beauty and the Beast's teapots. I'm almost certain there was some Disney influence as the dark witch also feels adjacent to the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.

If you enjoyed games like 2026's Duskfade, I think you'll find the demo for Ryn: And the thread of life to be similarly enjoyable. While there isn't a release window available for the game as of the time of writing, I really hope this project moves forward as I think it shows a lot of promise in its first impressions. In the meantime, the demo is available to play and download on Steam, so I'd recommend checking it out for yourself!