Garden Souls Blends Fighting With Endless Build Freedom

Statera Studio, the developer behind Pocket Bravery and the recently released Arashi Gaiden, has officially unveiled its next project. Garden Souls is an action roguelite developed in partnership with Nuntius Games, and it looks to combine fast-paced combat, deep build customisation and an original pixel art universe into something with serious replayability at its core.

Players pick from one of four Garden Princesses and fight through procedurally generated stages, mixing and matching elemental abilities to build something entirely new each run. Combat is built around more than just weapons and spells, though. Bombogs, small plant-based companions, fight alongside players automatically, while Strikers can be summoned mid-battle to extend combos and deal serious damage. The result, according to Game Director Jonathan Silva, is a game designed to make players feel powerful. “We want every run to inspire players to experiment with new builds and discover just how far they can push their combos,” he said.

Interestingly, Garden Souls did not start life as a roguelite. The project originally began as a metroidvania, but as development progressed, the team at Statera recognised that the combat was the game’s strongest element. They rebuilt the project around it. That fighting game pedigree shows in the attack cancel mechanic, which allows skilled players to chain together long, stylish combo sequences. It is the kind of system that rewards investment without punishing newcomers for not knowing it inside out from the start.

The world itself is a genuinely distinctive creation, built around warrior flowers, humanoid plants and a mythology rooted in the relationship between the Sun and the Moon. Developer Edjunior has noted that the universe grew far beyond what a single game could contain, with the team already looking ahead to future projects set within it. Sharp-eyed fans of Pocket Bravery and Arashi Gaiden may also notice something familiar, as the main character Rose has already made cameo appearances in both games, quietly hinting at a larger world long before this official reveal.

Garden Souls draws inspiration from titles including Hollow Knight, BlazBlue Entropy Effect, Spiritfall and Skul: The Hero Slayer, and it is now listed on Steam via Nuntius Games. A release date has not yet been confirmed, but players can keep up with development by visiting the Garden Souls Steam page and adding it to their wishlist.