The developer behind a viral 2D Zelda-flavored Bloodborne tribute is cooking up a new Soulslike called Tombwater, and its enormous map looks like it's going to keep us busy for some time.
Indie dev Max Mraz (Moth Atlas)'s Tombwater is immediately reminiscent of Bloodborne, in its own unique way. The upcoming title's Steam description teases that we'll be able to "lay bare the eldritch horrors that lie beneath" the titular town of Tombwater, and splat and stab some monstrosities in 2D top-down combat (including over 20 "horrifying boss battles"). Much like FromSoftware's 2015 game, you'll also have a wide selection of weapons – from blades, to firearms, and spells.
Before Tombwater, Mraz created Yarntown, which first surfaced back in 2020 and was described as "a Zeldalike tribute to Bloodborne," allowing players to explore "a cursed, gothic town, hunting beasts and uncovering twisted bosses" in a top-down format with Bloodborne's signature shooting, Blood Vial heals, and more. Its cutesy, Zelda-like visuals now shine in Tombwater – the dev's "Soulslike Western."
Mraz has revealed Tombwater's full map to GamesRadar+, and it's looking like a chunky one. In a previous post on TikTok, he'd compared its size to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past's map, showing that you could fit numerous copies of the 1991 Zelda release into its world.
Now, we can get a better gauge of all its main areas. In a press release, it's estimated that Tombwater will take between 20 and 25 hours to complete, and it sounds like a lot of that will come just from traversing and exploring, with interesting landmarks including a traveling circus, cathedral, abandoned ranch, and many more.
Those can be found amongst almost 20 "distinct biomes," which can be explored in a non-linear way.
"We were having so much fun exploring what could be in each area that we didn't realize how big the map was growing," Mraz says in a statement. "We got together one evening to play through the game's main path – and, six hours later, we weren't even halfway through!"
In addition to the main world map, Tombwater also boasts "various mines, sewers, tunnels, or Lost City deep in the heart of the mountain," which aren't pictured in the image above. So, there's loads to explore underground, too.
Although Tombwater doesn't currently have a release date, it has a free demo to try out on Steam. This only includes around 5% of the full map – leaving plenty to look forward to in the full release.
You can find even more to play in our list of the best action games.
