The world of Ex Sanguis has been drained of blood and color, and you’re about to put both of them back.
Developed by Lightbulb Crew, the studio behind Othercide, Ex Sanguis launches into Steam Early Access today. It’s a turn-based tactical roguelite where you command a group of elite warriors known as the Stillae and fight to restore life to a dying world. Blood plays a pretty important part in that.
Battles take place across stark black and white environments, but every attack spills vivid red across them. The more you fight, the more color you leave behind, turning each battlefield into a record of exactly what happened there.
Painting the World Red Is Kind of the Point
Ex Sanguis takes place in a world devastated by the Purge and held in Stasis, where stillness and perfection have replaced the natural flow of life. The Stillae are born from the Sanguis of the Mater and carry what’s left of her divine power. Their job is to fight back against Stasis, with blood representing the life they’re trying to restore. That idea runs through the game’s entire visual style.
Characters and environments are largely stripped of color until combat starts covering them in crimson. Blood isn’t simply there to make attacks look particularly brutal. It’s a visual reminder that the Stillae are bringing something back to a world that has had almost everything taken from it.
You’ll still need to make sure you’re spilling it in the right places.
Apparently Taking Turns Doesn’t Mean Leaving Them Alone
Combat gives you plenty of ways to interfere with whatever the enemy had planned. Timeline Effects let you manipulate the turn order by speeding characters up, delaying them, or swapping their positions entirely. That opens the door to chaining actions together and potentially stopping an enemy before they ever get the chance to carry out whatever horrible thing they were preparing.
The battlefield itself can also become part of the plan. Objects can be exploded, enemies can be set on fire, and obstacles can block lines of sight. Knock-backs let you force enemies into different positions, while facing, flanking, and damage-over-time effects give you more ways to build a sequence of attacks rather than simply trading blows until somebody falls over.
Abilities can also be combined into different builds as you unlock more of them. Getting the order right could be the difference between an elegant chain of attacks and watching the plan fall apart immediately.
How Much Trouble Do You Feel Like Getting Into?
You also have some control over how dangerous a run becomes. The map lets you choose your route and decide how aggressively you want to push forward. High-risk missions offer greater rewards, bosses can be tackled sooner if you’re feeling brave, or you can take your time gathering resources before heading into the nastier parts of the map.
Difficulty increases as you travel farther towards its outer rim. Failure still contributes to your longer-term progress. New powers can be unlocked between attempts, while the Stillae can regain memories and have their names and loadouts customized before heading back out.
Early Access begins with the core gameplay systems already in place and several hours of content available. Lightbulb Crew expects development to continue for at least six months, with additional content, balancing, features, polish, and potentially new game modes planned as feedback comes in.