Friends & Foes of Oceanhorn 2

Gaia, the world of Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm, is a thriving and dangerous ecosystem. During the course of your adventure, like in any respectable RPG, you'll have to face a multitude of threats – humans, and humanoids, concentrated in the urban areas, and beasts in the wilderness. But things are never so clear cut and our heroes are always treading a fine line – in the centuries past, Arcadians didn't consider Submerians and Owrus their equals, treating them more like beasts than people. Things have changed, but this doesn't mean you won't clash with characters from other nations!

With that said, how did we go about creating enemies that are both cool-looking and intriguing to fight? One peculiarity of Oceanhorn 2's worldbuilding is that there are no mammals besides Arcadians, Submerians, and Owrus. Everything else is either bug-looking, a bird or a fish. Why? These articles are spoiler-free, so you'll have to discover that in the game! 

From a design standpoint, we had two main directives: variety (some enemies are stationary, some charge at you, some are flying, and some have special powers) and recognizability (enemies would have to be colorful and easy to tell apart.) 

Let's look at a few examples!

Scarabaras

Scarabaras are the first enemies you'll encounter, and a returning iconic enemy type from the first Oceanhorn. When you halve a Scarabara HPs, it will aggressively leap at you and knock you over. On the other hand, if you can deliver a critical blow, the Scarabara will flip on its head and take double damage. 

Kaktos

The Kaktos is another enemy type from the first Oceanhorn and a symbol of the series. These jelly cactuses are meant more as an annoyance than a real threat – thus we made them fun and easy to beat. When one sees you, it will dive underground and try to hit you from below. Keep moving and you'll be fine!

Ghosts

Ghosts are the only undead enemies in Oceanhorn 2, and they are not the restless soul of a particular creature: they're just restless spirits wandering around. At some point during the development of Monster of the Uncharted Seas, we also had a zombie. That was discarded though – skeletons were enough for a non-horror game!

When a ghost gets damaged, it teleports behind the main character. One trick to beat it is to turn the camera but not Hero; that way you'll see the enemy appear right behind you and a swift extraction of the Caster Gun will most likely take care of it!

And what about bosses? Let's talk about Galactos!

Galactos

Galactos is a boss you'll encounter within an hour into the game. The first island of Oceanhorn 2 has been designed to recall the general vibe of the first title; this time, we wanted to keep the tempo high (Turmos, the first Oceanhorn boss, took about three hours to reach). Those returning from the previous episode will surely find similarities between the two, but that's by design. Galactos is a giant octopus that will try to smash you with its tentacles; you'll first have to fight those off, and then expose and hit all its weak spots. Like all other bosses in Knights of the Lost Realm, defeating Galactos is a matter of interacting with the environment in a clever way. With a good shot, for example, you could blow up the bombs scattered around the arena when its vulnerable points are exposed...

More mighty enemies are eagerly awaiting for a fight – are you ready? Jump into Oceanhorn 2, exclusively available on Apple Arcade, right now!