Possessor(s) is a stylish action-platformer from Heart Machine—the team behind Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash—and published by Devolver Digital. Revealed all the way back last year in June, it’s been a bit of a wait for any new info, especially considering Heart Machine is also working on Hyper Light Breaker, but it’s all been worth it. Ahead of today’s Day of the Devs showcase, I had the chance to dig into the newly released demo, and I am obsessed. Possessed, you could even say.
My initial reaction to Possessor(s) is to call it a Metroidvania. It has the common flags, the nonlinear exploration of a sprawling, interconnected map, and the need to find important items to progress. However, Alx Preston, Heart Machine’s founder, has previously pushed back against the term, favouring the term “search action” as opposed to Metroidvania. The genre has grown a lot, and honestly, after playing the demo, I think calling Possessor(s) a search action is pretty fitting. There’s a deliberate pace to its exploration, both of the physical world and the intertwined narrative, that sets it and other modern Metroidvania games apart from the faster, snappier rhythm of classic Metroid and Castlevania titles. It’s incredibly measured and atmospheric, with gameplay that has you soaking in the surroundings, searching for answers to a world that doesn’t let itself be understood easily.
That same slow, intentional pacing bleeds into the story, too. It’s tragic and riddled with layers of unanswered questions. You are Luca, a white-haired, green-horned high schooler who has somehow gotten herself into quite the situation (and by situation, I mean hosting a demon in her brain). Back in 1992, when she had brown hair, no horns, and certainly no freeloading passenger in her skull, a catastrophe tore her home, Sanzu City, apart. A rift opened, demons poured through, and in the chaos, Luca was crushed by rubble and forced to watch her friend be murdered in front of her. As she crawled from the wreckage, her legs destroyed, she encountered Rhem, a mysterious, wounded demon. Both on the brink of death, they struck a desperate deal: he would rebuild her body, and she would return him home. Three years later, Luca wakes up. She’s alive, with new, demon-built legs and bound to something she doesn’t fully understand.
This is where the game begins, and where the world of Possessor(s) opens up to you. As soon as Luca’s artificial legs hit the pavement, you’re off, searching the buried streets of Sanzu City, aiming to fulfil the bargain she made with Rhem. It doesn’t take long before the game introduces its core mechanics: movement and combat.
Movement feels tight and responsive. Wall jumps are smooth, ledge grabs are snappy, and Luca’s toolkit of sprints, dodges, and jumps lets you go about your business with precision. Early on, you’ll also pick up a whip, which lets you latch onto anchor points to swing about and climb around, adding another layer of mobility to Luca’s kit.
While the demo only features a small variety of enemies; potted plants, chunky flying desktop PCs, freakish little bugs, and beefy animated filing cabinets to name a few, it still manages to be a satisfying peek into the game’s combat system. Luca’s combat arsenal includes both primary and secondary weapons, which are discovered as you progress. Primary weapons serve as your default attack. The demo starts you off with a pair of kitchen knives, which give Luca quick, short-range slashes. Simple but effective.
Where things really open up is with the secondary weapons. These reminded me of Smash Bros B attacks, with secondary weapon attacks assigned to a main input (like left control on PC) and modified by directional inputs. Using left control and up or left control and down, for instance, offers different moves depending on your equipped secondary items. It’s a surprisingly expressive system. You can pepper distant enemies with baseballs while swinging around a multi-hitting computer mouse. You can also use the whip to yank enemies toward you, perfect for grouping them up, grounding aerial threats, or just pulling something closer for a quicker kill.
It was incredibly fun to experiment with stringing together movement and attacks to bounce enemies about or keep them locked in place and, ultimately, to render them helpless to Luca’s onslaught. Luca can also unlock a parry later on, arguably my favourite move in any video game. If you time it right, you deflect projectiles and stagger enemies, lining them up for some brutal combos. It’s a joy to pull off. It makes me incredibly excited to see what other unlockable moves or other primary and secondary weapons will come with the game’s full release, and how I can exploit them to make Luca even more deadly.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the stunning art direction of Possessor(s). I’m a huge fan of Heart Machine’s earlier title, Hyper Light Drifter, which is rightfully praised for its strong aesthetic filled with bold neon colours and delicious pixel art. Possessor(s) is shaping up to have an aesthetic just as striking, swapping out pixel art for hand-drawn animation layered over haunting 3D environments.
Sanzu City is broken, its palette dominated by murky colours and deep shadows. But it’s never visually monotonous. There’s always something striking that cuts through the gloom, be it the remnants of Agradyne’s flickering tech or the glowing orange light pouring from the massive rift, tearing through the city’s skyline and seeping into the ruined buildings. That same searing orange carries through the demo from start to end. It’s the colour of demons and violence, and you’ll see it everywhere.
The character designs are also just so well done. Luca is instantly endearing with her short little bob and yellow scarf trailing behind her as she runs about. Rhem, by contrast, is peak emo boy: brooding, greasy, wrapped up in his dapper blazer. The two of them even have matching horns, a cute touch tying the possessor and possessed together. And then there’s Tens, the character who appears just before the demo wraps up rocking sunglasses, a cigarette and two swords. I am in love.
Just seeing the beautifully drawn portraits appear during dialogue, especially in flashback memories scattered about the map or moments of dialogue between Luca and Rhem, adds a grounded, human dimension to the story. It’s something that sets Possessor(s) apart from Hyper Light Drifter’s abstract, wordless approach.
Possessor(s) has completely sunk its claws into my brain. It’s stylish and full of promise, with a story I am so eager to unravel and characters I want to spend more time with. The vertical slice offered in the demo feels polished and impactful, with satisfying combat, a unique narrative hook and incredible presentation that promises to only get better in the full release. I genuinely can’t wait to see what Heart Machine delivers when the full game launches later in 2025 on PC and consoles.
Play the demo now on Steam! If you’re looking for more Possessor(s) content too, you can watch the new animated short here.
About the Author
Anna Monti
they/them
Anna has been obsessed with video games since they made a Club Penguin account as a kid. If they're not playing an obscene amount of Final Fantasy 14 they're probably busy 'studying' or chasing after two orange cats.
