Axiom Verge 2 Follows Up The Breakout Indie Metroidvania

The metroidvania genre has dominated the indie gaming scene for the past few years now. From Hollow Knight to Dead Cells to The Messenger, there's no shortage of these 2D, sidescrolling, exploring-focused titles out there, as long as you know where to look. Axiom Verge is another strong contender in that space, and after four hard years of work, developer Tom Happ revealed that he's working on a sequel to his indie darling.

Axiom Verge 2 was revealed today at the end of Nintendo's Indie World showcase. Just as it was about to end, Nintendo pulled its classic move of throwing in just one more thing. A heartfelt few words from Happ himself prefaced the gameplay trailer, in which he thanked Nintendo itself and all of the company's fans. Afterward, he kicked it to the trailer, which started with the ominous phrases, "You are not in control," and, "You are not yourself. You belong to us now." Spooky.

This new title plans to expand the universe of Axiom Verge, as it will explore the origins of this unique world. We can only speculate what that means, as most of what's going on here seems to be cryptic and mysterious on purpose. The gameplay, though, makes it look like this game will live up to its metroidvania roots. We see the protagonist use all sorts of abilities to explore the world, like sending a little droid through a small passage, or causing an explosion to violently move some rubble in their path.

The glitchy landscape from the first game doesn't seem to make as big of an appearance in the Axiom Verge 2 trailer, but glitchy designs were used during transitions in the video. Hopefully this means we'll get a better understanding of why the world looked the way it did in the first game.

Unfortunately, we have a bit of time to kill before Axiom Verge 2 drops, but we're hoping that gives Happ the time he needs to deliver a polished product. The sequel is aiming for a Fall 2020 release.