Escort lost souls when folkloric roguelike An Ankou enters early access on August 17th

Developers Alkemi Games made quite the impression with their lush card-battler Foretales, but they’re now pivoting into the roguelike action realm with An Ankou. The game’s explore-a-craft-y-slasher mix gives it some flavour from Hades and V Rising, only this time with a shadowy French-folklore skin attached. An Ankou hits early access on August 17th, and I’m very excited to juggle it alongside the zillion other games dropping this month.

‘Rest in peace’ means nothing in An Ankou, as you play as a reincarnated servant of death who's forced to work in the afterlife by escorting lost souls. Of course, the demonic beasties and ghost-rat hordes make things a little difficult, meaning you’ll also need to explore different maps, scavenge for resources, and craft better equipment.

Once you die, your Ankou is just replaced with another recently deceased normal person. At launch, you can choose between two jobs (classes): the soldier and the apothecary, and each one has a unique moveset tied to their former occupation. The Nun class joins the afterparty in September’s update as well, and I’m quite interested to see her inevitable holy cross boomerangs.

Alkemi Games’ roadmap details what else to expect including the Korrigan’s Gold update early next month, which adds a new currency to loot from enemies and a merchant NPC to spend your hard-earned coin on. Further down the early access road, An Ankou will continue to get more maps, enemies, modes, and classes - with the Hunter and the Cook supposedly coming before next year. Feeding demons boiling soup sounds like fun.

Our Katharine spoke very highly of the developer’s previous game Foretales, saying it was a “brilliant meld of strategic card battling, smart puzzles, and warm, characterful storytelling,” in her review. I’m hoping An Ankou can carry forward the team’s great storytelling in a different structure.

An Ankou launches into early access on August 17th on Steam for $5/€5. There’s also a free demo available to try out now.