Forget Hollow Knight 2, this dazzling new hand-animated Metroidvania is the one I'm looking out for in 2025

INAYAH – Life after Gods continues to look like one of the most appealing action-platformers of 2024, an opinion which has solidified following a fresh showing at the Golden Joystick Awards. The debut project from Exogenesis Studios – a new team formed of veterans from Blizzard, Pixar, Owlcat Games and others – is a beautiful hand-animated experience deeply rooted in the Metroidvania genre.

Exogenesis is promising that INAYAH – Life after Gods will contain over 20 unique bosses, a variety of biomes to explore, and in-depth progression systems tied to the weapons systems. Inayah will be able to transform her gauntlet into blades, flails, and fists – with each form offering its own distinct impact to both combat and movement. Better yet, Exogenesis says you'll be able to develop each weapon through specific skill trees, and switch between the forms seamlessly in mid-air to give more expression in combat. It looks utterly delightful, and I'm keen to see more of it in action.

Which is all to say that INAYAH – Life after Gods is an exceptionally promising Metroidvania for 2025. You can have a hand in making it happen too, with Exogenesis soon launching a Kickstarter campaign to help get its ambitious development targets over the line. The studio is pushing for release on PC (Steam) in 2025, with PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch to follow. If you want to keep up with updates on this ambitious new project, you can wishlist INAYAH – Life after Gods on Steam.

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Josh West is Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+. He has over 18 years of experience in both online and print journalism, and was awarded a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Feature Writing. Josh has contributed to world-leading gaming, entertainment, tech, music, and comics brands, including games™, Edge, Retro Gamer, SFX, 3D Artist, Metal Hammer, and Newsarama. In addition, Josh has edited and written books for Hachette and Scholastic, and worked across the Future Games Show as an Assistant Producer. He specializes in video games and entertainment coverage, and has provided expert comment for outlets like the BBC and ITV. In his spare time, Josh likes to play FPS games and RPGs, practice the bass guitar, and reminisce about the film and TV sets he worked on as a child actor.