Trailer for Druidstone brings back the Legend of Grimrock magic

Make every turn count.

The co-creators of successful franchise Legend of Grimrock, who now work under the studio name Ctrl Alt Ninja, have released the first trailer for their new game, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest. Ctrl Alt Ninja is made up of key developers from Almost Human, the studio that brought us Grimrock, which seems to have ceased producing games for the foreseeable future.

The top-down, turn-based RPG features a beautiful art style, instantly reminiscent of 90s RPG classics like Balder’s Gate, with just that little bit more modern vibrancy. Just like Legend of Grimrock, this is a new game with an old soul. The game aims to, according to their Steam page, combine ”modern RPG” ”with the elegance of tactical boardgames”. That’s an aim I can get behind.

In this RPG you are the team made up of Aava, Leonhard and Oiko the mage. The Menhir Forest, the setting for the narrative, is in uproar. The Archdruid has disappeared, a man who also happens to be Aava’s father. With your trio of unlikely in real life, but very likely in these circumstances, companions you must find the Archdruid trail, and hopefully rescue him. As well as the tricky turn-based combat, Druidstone takes its narrative pretty seriously, with each companions getting their own stories to delve further into.

The trailer gives us an excellent birds-eye overview of the environments that players will traverse, and with it a smattering of enemies that they are likely to encounter. The soundtrack and visuals certainly give me some 90s game nostalgia and the combat looks to require the tactical patience that makes turn-based combat so popular.

Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest will be released onto PC on May 15th, until then, check out its Steam page.