#Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus

[ayeforscotland]

In for another big week this week, I'm launching a game!

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a 2D Action Platformer Metroidvania inspired by Japanese folklore, and it releases on Wednesday 17th July!

[deepfriedhopesanddreams]

Hollow knight, Nine sols and Bō: path of the teal lotus doodles

[ostebee]

Bo shenanigans

[hummingbird-hunter]

Me: Oh boy I sure was annoyed by the water-related platformer chase sequence in Ori and the Will of the Wisps! Well, time to pick up another game and relax, how about Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus? Boy is sure is nice that I don't have to do that chase sequence again!

The nefarious bridge spirit:

[beaubirds]

I'm doing a Charity Stream!!!

This Saturday 7/27 I will be hosting an 12 hour charity streamathon to raise money for our good friend Milkleftthegame and Medical Aid for Palestinians! Check out the stream goals and Game Line Up, and save some time to pop in and say hello :D

[furrylibrarian]

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a good video game because at one point a pretty fox lady calls me “little fox.” More video games should do that tbh

[algusunderdunk]

Ta and Ro from a cute little game called Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus.

[ignitedquils]

100x100 pixel of Bo! The upscaled version is at the right!

[febrilepenguin]

This was the first year I played demos in the Steam Next Fest (I didnt even know it existed before), and I will be doing it again, cuz it was pretty fun. I played a lot of games, and I thought maybe I could talk about each of them a little, so that more people know about them, and also to keep a little record of my thoughts and feelings about them for myself.

I'll list them in the order I played them cuz why not.

1. Mech Builder: I've never had any of those cool mech model kits that you have to cut out of the frames with pliers and then assemble yourself, but they've always looked really cool to me and I've always wanted to try assembling one. Well, this is that, but in video game form, and it was pretty fun! It was satisfying to snip the parts out of the frame and then snap them into place according to the manuals. There was also decals, coloring options and more. I just wish there was a way to pose the models a bit after they're done, or maybe see them from behind and the sides? Though I understand that it'd take a lot more work to make all the art for that and it might make it unfeasible but i think it'd be fun to play around with the models a bit after they're done. (Can you even pose the real mech model kits? I cant remember.)

Anyway, good game for relaxing and futzing around with cool mechs.

2. WHAT THE CAR?: This one was just delightful. It's just such a joy to play, being this silly little car with legs going through increasingly ridiculous iterations of movement with their accompanied puns and jokes. I was smiling and laughing the whole time i was playing, even in the harder skull stages, and i tried and got all the gold crowns for all the levels. (Also I still have that "What the caaaar" jingle stuck in my head, and Im not even mad about it). Just about anywhere you looked was a wordplay joke, or a visual gag, and I love it for that, and can't wait for the release. I will also be getting the other games from the devs, Triband. I also checked their website and they seem like really cool people too. (There was also a secret puzzle hidden in the game, that I was too late to solve for the rewards, but i had fun doing it nonetheless)

3. Mind Over Magnet: I've been a longtime fan of Gamemaker's Toolkit, and I've also been watching Mark's Developing series of devlogs, so I was hyped to actually play a demo of Mind Over Magnet, and it was cool to see how polished it had become. Cant wait for the full game!

4. SCHiM: Adorable little game that emulates that feeling of childhood playfulness you had when you used to walk through the sidewalk only stepping on shadows or you'd "lose". Loved the art style and the environments for this, though it was a bit hard to tell where you were meant to go sometimes.

5. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus: I've been waiting for this game for a long time, since a game that combines hollow knight with japanese folklore is a must play for me. The movement felt really fun, and its focus on staying midair and air control was a cool feature of it, because you basically get a double jump every time you hit something mid-air, and can hover around and over enemies while you hit them. It's basically floor is lava the metroidvania. And when you get the dash it gets even better, cuz you can chain the dash with the blue midair jump, and the momentum from the dash will carry over, (which i think was intentional, cuz whenever you do it there's a small glint of light happening) Kinda like a celeste super dash. The demo made me look forward to it so much more.

6. Tactical Breach Wizards: So, recently I've gotten into tactics games despite myself, (it's all Into the Breach's fault, maybe I'll talk about that too another time) and wow did I love this one! The gameplay was really fun and the abilities were varied, the concept and world were cool (imagine wizards as military strike teams, and a world where magic is pretty common so there are P.I. Storm Witches and Traffic Warlocks) but my favorite thing about this game was the characters and the dialogues and humor. My favorite bit was:

"You can't throw all of life's problems through windows, Jen."

"Maybe not, but we owe it to ourselves to try."

Look me in the eyes and tell me that's not hilarious.

It's like god dropped this game in front of me as soon as he heard I've gotten into tactics games.

So so excited for this one!

7. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo: really stylish game with fun mechanics and gameplay, a good light-hearted adventure for whenever I get tired of dark and grim stories and games. Also did not expect I'd be able to jump in this lol. Kinda reminds me of Mina the Hollower, another game Im excited for.

8. Demonschool: first off, I gotta say i didnt finish this one, not because I didnt like it, but because I left the game and when i came back it wouldnt open from where I had already progressed, (it kept crashing when i clicked "continue") and I didnt wanna do it all over again, so I gave up. But! I really really liked it. Another cool tactics game, with a beautiful artstyle weird occult world and fun characters. And even though i havent played persona, I could tell that it was inspired by it, what with the school life sections and whatnot. Cant wait to be able to continue on with it when the full game comes out.

9. Cato: i'd played the older demo before and liked it, so it was nice seeing the game had progressed further and gotten more polished. Pretty enjoyable puzzle game, if a bit simple. Also the cat liquiding through tubes never stops being funny.

10. Metal Slug Tactics: I loved the old Metal Slug games as a kid, and we used to play them a lot with cousins at sleepovers, and I have fond memories of it. So im really excited for this game, with all the nostalgic characters and sounds, and now with a (again, someone must be stalking me) tactics coat of paint. The shield and cover mechanic and also the sync mechanic are pretty clever and fun to play around with. Im sure I'll enjoy this one a lot when it comes out.

11. Tiny Glade: A relaxing and lovely little game that made me feel creative and like a kid playing in a fantasy sandbox. I've been waiting for this one impatiently ever since watching the trailer ages ago, and it's so wonderful. I didnt get to play around with it as much as I wanted to, but im definitely going to make a whole bunch of different little towns and castles when I get my hands on the full version. The camera mode was also so detailed and nice. Best I can describe this game is Vibe.

12. One Btn Bosses: Clever idea, and cool minimalist artstyle, but it wasnt really for me

13. Tavern Talk: This feels like being a bartender in a D&D world, and I enjoyed it a lot. The art is lovely, and the characters are all interesting (Fable's anxieties were too relatable, man.) (And Caer...Lin was so cool) (i cant wait to meet the whole cast who's on the posters) the mixing part was also pretty fun and Im sure it's gonna have more drinks and variety to it in the full game, all in all a nice and cozy fantasy visual novel type game for when I wanna chill.

14. Caravan SandWitch: kinda solarpunk/hopeful sci-fi game, with a cool van. Seems like it's gonna be a wholesome cozy time. Roadtrips through gently postapocalyptic-looking places? Im not sure what the correct vibe is for this game, because I dont know a whole lot about the setting or the story, but it was pretty cool. Also watch the trailer, the french song is stuck in my head, it's so good.

15. Mira and the Legend of the Djinns: Im gonna start this one with things I liked and then things i disliked about it. I love the art style, and I think the game as a whole looks gorgeous. I like that it's inspired by moroccan culture and how it infuses every aspect of it. I loved the instrument playing, even though there was only one song to learn in the demo and it didnt get a lot of time to shine. (I havent played ocarina of time, but im pretty sure I'll enjoy it for the same reason of it having the ocarina playing, among other reasons) i liked the pickaxe too, and how it allowed you to climb and mine.

Now for the dislikes. I did NOT like the combat. The fact that all of your momentum just dead stops when you swing your sword was pretty jarring to deal with, and it made those floaty eye pricks so annoying to deal with. Especially because of the way they space themselves and distance themselves from you so fast, and also the fact that there's no upwards slash (not in midair anyway, there's one you can buy that only works from the ground) which means you have to jump in very close and level with the enemy, so it doesnt have much time to fly away, during which time there's a high probability of it shooting you and making you fall, also if you're a little below it, the third attack which is very horizontal misses, so you have to do it again. The final boss of the demo was also pretty much a slog, due to the one-pattern attacks and the huge health pool. And you had to first break away the shield to be able to damage him, (and it would not register multiple attacks on it at once, if you hit the shield it became intangible until the boss changed position again) so it just became a repetition of: dodge through projectile, *ding* hit the shield. Dodge, ding. Dodge, ding. Dodge, ding. Dodge, ding. Dodge, ding. Shield broke. Stab stab stab stab stab. Dodge big attack, and start over. Rinse and repeat for like, seven more times. It became a chore almost. There was a general stiffness in the combat that made it hard to enjoy.

Also a minor nitpick about the UI is that it was a bit hard to tell how much mana it took to heal how much. If there was a small line or indication in the mana bar to show if you have enough for a heal, it would be really helpful in combat to know at a glance if you can heal in the moment or not.

All in all, this is not to say i disliked the game itself, I actually really liked it, and think it has a lot of potential, given a bit of fixes and improvements.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts on all the demos I played during Steam Next Fest. I hope you'll check out some of the games in here and wishlist them to help out the games you like!

[satoshi-mochida]

Humble Games has announced a partnership with Squid Shock Studios to publish its debut game Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, which will be available for PC via Steam in 2024.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus was successfully funded on Kickstarter back in March 2022, where it surpassed its stretch goal for a Switch version and nearly achieved its stretch goal for PlayStation and Xbox versions.

When asked if it could confirm the release of Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus for consoles, a Humble Games representative said it will discuss future plans for console launches at a later date.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

Drift down from the Celestial Realm.

Flow with acrobatic grace and agility through a mysterious world of myth and legend in Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, a colorful hand-drawn adventure inspired by Japanese folklore.

Undertake a mystical journey as Bo, a celestial blossom (fox tentaihana) descended from the heavens to play a key role in an ancient and mysterious ritual. Use your legendary bo staff to bounce and glide fluidly through an otherworldly realm of hand-drawn, dreamlike landscapes, strange and adorable yokai, and massive monsters summoned from ancient legends of Japan.

Key Features

Discover a Mysterious and Haunted World – Explore a diverse and interconnected world in a 2.5D side-scrolling action–platformer with Metroidvania elements. Journey to a haunted castle, a thriving Japanese-inspired metropolis, and many more strange and wondrous places—then find ways to travel back and fully explore newly unlocked paths and surprises.

Find your Flow – Navigate the world’s platforming challenges with acrobatic precision, elegance, and finesse. Use Bo’s distinctive move-and-reset system to reach new areas efficiently or recover when your footing flounders.

Master New Staff Transformations – Brew and drink arcane teas to unlock powerful new abilities for Bo’s shapeshifting staff. Mash foes with the Mochi Mallet, unlock new movement techniques like the Lotus Dash and Grappling Gun, and gracefully power up along your journey.

Collect Powerful Daruma Allies – Each colorful Daruma doll you discover can be upgraded and summoned to the battlefield, where these adorable and powerful allies can deploy spells and other spectacular abilities to aid you in combat.

Drawn from a Dream – Explore a vibrant 2.5D vision that blends the beauty of paintings, the personality of hand-drawn illustrations, and the elegance of papercraft.

Spirited Cast of Allies and Enemies – Engage with a larger-than-life cast of bizarre and adorable yokai (supernatural spirits from Japanese folklore) and other original characters inspired by Japanese myth, all brought to life with traditional hand-drawn 2D frame-by-frame animation. Help them with their side quests—or just stop by for a chat and a cup of tea.

Mythic Boss Battles – Challenge massive, awe-inspiring monsters drawn from Japanese folklore! You’ll need to call upon all of the knowledge and acrobatic skill you’ve gained to vanquish these powerful adversaries and advance further in your quest.

Move to the Music – Drift along to the music of a gorgeous original score composed by Moises Camargo, blending traditional Japanese instrumentation with modern orchestral music.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Publisher Announce Trailer 

[ayeforscotland]

Steam Next Fest

Looking forward to diving into Steam Next Fest demos. Here's two games I'm involved with.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is an Action Platformer Metroidvania inspired by Japanese folklore. I'm biased but this is going to be huge, it's an excellent game with amazing art and characters. It gently eases in genre newcomers and veterans of Hollow Knight and Ori will find themselves right at home.

I'm the Marketing & Community Manager for Squid Shock Studio, the games developer.

Play the demo and wishlist the game here.

Farewell North

Farewell North is a story-driven exploration game where you play as a border collie on an adventure with your human. You'll be restoring colour to the Scottish islands you explore!

I did some voice acting in this game, although I don't think it'll be in the demo.

Play the demo and wishlist the game here.

[deepfriedhopesanddreams]

Lil guys

[ostebee]

GUYS GUYS GUYS

YOU CAN PET A DOG IN BŌ: PATH OF THE TEAL LOTUS

[passionsod]

We Glide & Swiftly Strike To Shatter This Boney Skelly | Bo Path of the Teal Lotus Stream Vtuber Furry

Come heck or high water I will catch up. Might have to skip some random games to do it, but I will.

Hope you can join, have a great day.

Linktree in Bio.

❤️&🔃, thank you

[littlemxsunshine]

do we think this is an intentional demonslayer reference or am i ignorant of something?

and if so, are these two then a reference two something i haven’t seen?

[beaubirds]

BIG CHARITY STREAM!! Just chatting to start out :D https://www.twitch.tv/beaubirds