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Yesterday I accidently stumbled about The Year of the Ladybug and I am very intrigued by what I’ve seen. The game appears to be in the very early development stages, and Canadian developer Mint Mentis looks like they’re getting some inspiration for their title from our beloved, but very dead, Silent Hill. Not only it early days for YOTL, but it’s technically still a pitch. The story is written and the developer is waiting for somebody to pick up – which I hope they do. The developer wants you to experience “the true meaning of fear” through Year Of The Ladybug‘s disturbing and beautiful art direction.
The year is 2022, and the story follows protagonist James Hseih and his journey through a hellish hospital full of demons and nightmares while he tries to work out just what is driving these violent entities. The game plays from a third person perspective, and although guns are present they will be much like they should be in horror games – scarce and low and on ammo. No huge machine guns or rock punching antics, no, you get a handgun or a nailgun and that’s it. If you want to go melee, there are a few more hospital themed options including an arm cast and a circular saw. Weapons look upgradable and there seems to be some kind of RPG style leveling system, but again this is all at concept stage.
The game very much looks like a Japanese horror game as is evident from the art, which is all there currently is on show from this game, despite being from a Canadian developer. The official website shows a bit of concept art for enemy designs too including Nurse Amber, who stands in the shadows and stares at you, only attacking when provoked but often stalking. I also love the look of Bonsai Man too, but you can look at the art for him and enjoy that yourself!
I’ve been pretty intrigued by the abstract weirdness of some of the art, and I really hope it goes somewhere. Judging from the concepts and use of the PS4 controller and button icons it looks as though that is it’s target platform, but it doesn’t look like they are even at that stage yet.
