Murasaki Baby Release Date Revealed

Italian developer Ovosonico, founded by Grasshopper Manufacture’s former Director, Massimo Guarini, recently revealed more of their upcoming indie game Murasaki Baby at E3 2014.

Murasaki Baby tells the story of a little girl, Baby, who wanders through a nightmare dreamscape with nothing but her purple balloon and you to guide her. On its face, it sounds very simple and innocent, yet a look at the recent gameplay reveals a world that E.A. Poe or Edward Gorey would feel quite at home in. The art is highly stylized, heavily cross-hatched and organically proportioned, and absolutely everything is hand drawn by Ovosonico’s talented team.

Murasaki, the Japanese word for “purple,” invites players to lead Baby by the hand using the Vita’s touchscreen capabilities. Baby’s mood changes when she’s presented with scary things, and these changes are indicated by the color of the background. These moods allow the player to affect different actions in order to clear the frightening obstacles in Baby’s path. Her health is represented by her purple heart-shaped balloon — when she gets scared by something she will let go of the balloon, and the player must retrieve it before it floats off-screen and effectively ends the game.

It feels like it will be an enjoyable game that utilizes the Vita’s touchscreen nicely, but despite its innocent pretense, it does a good job of giving us the creeps. The artwork is a mixture of child-like crayon drawings and the grotesque, as Baby’s arms and hands are nothing but straight lines ending in a ball, and her mouth is worryingly positioned above her eyebrows. Baby’s main antagonist has a single large tentacle for a face. It makes us uneasy, which was the point according to Producer Chris Jones’ E3 interview.

Today, Ovosonico revealed the PS Vita exclusive’s digital download release date: September 2014. We will keep you updated with a more detailed date when it becomes available.

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Jenna Fraser

A New England born, Boston native, Jenna says "wicked" with reckless abandon. She loves video games almost as much as she loves words and to say that she has an obsession with Queen would be the biggest understatement of all time.