The eight-year odyssey to create a high-level title from the Cuban scene ends with a very interesting title in more than one aspect.
Saviorless is a 2D game with hand-drawn designs that starts soft, calm, focused on the same concept of Narrative. Little by little its difficulty increases and, by the time you are aware, there you have it, showing your teeth, making you sweat the fat drop with each jump and each blow. And you look desperate at times, biting the dust over and over again, as you couldn’t imagine when you started your journey.
Well, Saviorless’ incredibly measured and almost maddening difficulty is nothing compared to what its developers have faced so that you can finally get your hands on the game. That true story could have ended a thousand times wrong during the intervening 8 years, but there the determination followed, avoiding the Game Over, advancing a little further in each game. The result, which we analyze today for PS5 (port, along with the Switch, courtesy of Pixel Ratio, in addition to its PC edition) is clear proof of everything that has happened. By the end of the game, it was worth the blood, sweat and tears that were spilled.
The loneliness of the long-distance runner
“Crossing a dense forest with machetes without knowing what you’re going to find at every turn.” This is how the authors of Saviorless describe this long journey. The artist and designer Josuhe Pagliery and the programmer Johann Armenteros began developing the video game Savior in 2016 in Havana. All around it, a gaming scene that is a graveyard of failed projects. Without means, holding on to dreams by doing other jobs, Empty-Head Games outlines a story where the stylization of the environments does not hide the harshness and intensity that pulsates on this side of the mirror.
Then comes the first milestone. The project catches the attention of an American foundation that opens the doors to crowdfunding on IndieGogo. The game, even sketched, already expresses truth, passion and authenticity. In two days it becomes a trend and in six it covers the objectives set.
From here, the usual mistakes in any early development that, in the case of Empty-Head, are aggravated by its context. In addition to inexperience, ideas above real possibilities or ambition about what you want to achieve, you have to add the daily power cuts, the absence of adequate technical equipment, the impossibility of working remotely or the very limited access to the internet. In spite of everything, in 2017 a demo is shown in Chicago that, although far from perfect, sets several visual and gameplay parameters. It’s all on track, right?
The U.S. then broke off its relations with Cuba over a serious incident at its embassy. From one day to the next, the duo can no longer attend events and festivals in the neighboring country. Visibility plummets along with the possibilities of selling the game to a publisher. Armenteros, the programmer, abandons ship, which is taking on water in a whirlpool surrounded by typhoons in the middle of a perfect storm.
Savior, saviour… David Arias, living up to the title of the game, appears to take the place of Armentero. The new blood makes itself felt, and with renewed strength incompatible with discouragement, the years pass in which the demos follow one another. Each one different and better than the last, until the perfect formula is distilled. The title of the game, despite the contextual ostracism, is already playing again in the international indie scene. Everything is going well again, the world is mine, as the Cuban protagonist of the remake of Scarface would say. Well, no.
“A studio of industry veterans in Portland, United States, seeing that we didn’t have the name ‘Savior’ registered – an impossibility for us from Cuba – decided to register it for their game, forcing our team to change to ‘Saviorless’ and accept that much of the promotion we had already done was in vain,” they say from Empty-Head.
Fortunately, the seed was planted in the form of a glossy demo. From France, the publisher Plugin Digital is interested in the game. They’re going to support the project. For the first time in years, the effort feels recognized by stable working conditions. This has a direct impact on Saviorless, which grows visually in its most laborious section, the visual. But not only that, the initial duration of the experience, around two hours, is tripled. That’s nice, isn’t it? Ahem…
These new decisions increase costs because the development takes a year longer than agreed. Again, inexperience in how the medium works plays tricks on them. Months go by and, finally, in June 2023, the project materializes after more than eight years of very hard work.
With the launch on the market in April 2024, the journey comes to an end. It is now up to the game to set out on its own two feet. Along the way, several milestones achieved in his country that, hopefully, will serve to mark the way, with what should be done and what should not be done, for those who come after. The first independent video game from its country to be hosted by an international publisher, to achieve worldwide visibility and be published on PC and consoles, faces its new challenge far from home, the one set by the players.
The guts of Saviorless, get ready to sweat
We found it curious to see some reviews of Saviorless published where the difficulty was penalized with fewer points in the final grade. And we don’t think it’s fair. Right here we have drawn attention to some games where the difficulty was poorly measured in specific places. If you’ve been doing this for a while, you’ll notice when it’s a bad balance and when it’s all very fine. And the case of Savioless is the second.
We recognize that, advanced in the adventure, we come to doubt at times. We felt that so much development time had led to extreme expertise on the part of the developers with their game and a lack of perspective on the capabilities at the controls of the target audience. And with that in our heads, we would have been left to give up. But we didn’t. And we can assure you that the game is in that delicate balance in which everything is so measured that any mistake of ours can lead to death, but that, if you do things the right way, you can move forward full of pride.
You haven’t read anywhere that a souls are lowered for their difficulty, or an Ori in its trickiest phases. Rather, the editor who masks his lack of expertise with outbursts should be lowered. And we say this without being very skilled at the controls here.
About Characters, Frontier Tales, and Decadent Landscapes
Echoes of Gris can be seen in Saviorless in the elegance of its architecture and how it is shown on screen. Also from dark games like Blasphemous, where beauty is expressed through decadence. Empty-Head’s gameplay is beautiful in that sense, and it is beautiful in its own way, with a strong personality.
Everything has been hand-drawn, from the ruined backgrounds to the characters that roam through them. And it looks like hard work behind it, and passion and care. Everything about Saviorless is a warm and long-suffering soul. The degenerate tone of a world that barely stands is consciously expressed in its narrative, with protagonists who want to survive the end of the story and antagonists who want to change who wins.
At the beginning of the game we already feel helpless by a fragile character who is unable to defend himself. We can only flee in the midst of desolation, use our wits, run and jump to save the life that slips from our hands in a single accurate blow.
Everything changes later on, with a powerful incarnation to strike and destroy. The game adapts quickly so that it is not a bed of roses but a forest of thorns. Hacking our way through without knowing what awaits us at every step, remember?
The sumun arrives with the quick alternation between both roles, changes that entail total control of the keypad and the directional pad. That’s where we’ll doubt our abilities. We, after falling and falling in those hellish places, get up again and again, and again, and again, because the game does nothing but grow and expand, and by the time we are at the limit of our patience, we can no longer stop because it has won us over. That story deserves an ending and you’re already committed to it and the characters. Give Saviorless the gift of your perseverance, because the game, in return, will be tremendously generous to you. Meri’s word.
CONCLUSION
Saviorless is a highly polished game that is the result of a long development that, against all odds in cases like this, has come to fruition. The first Cuban independent game to make a commercial appearance in the world is a title matured based on its own hardships. The difficulties of the project seem to carry over into the gaming experience. Because it starts out kind, simple, hopeful, like those early bars when a small studio looks like it’s going to take over the world. Soon everything goes wrong, and the years of uncertainty, potholes and emptiness without knowing if there will be anything to show the world are pure suffering at the controls in Saviorless. Don’t let the difficulty discourage you, just as Empty-Head stands proudly today with this great game as a flagship, you will be able to finish it if you are persevering. It’s something to be proud of in both cases.