Zoink Games has announced that Fe will arrive in early 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The reveal came during EA’s Gamescom press conference.
Fe, an ambitious indie from EA Originals, puts players in control of a young cub who uses the sounds of the forest and music to interpret which creatures are friends and foes. The game takes place in a colorful multi-environment forest, and has a gorgeous art style somewhat reminiscent of Ori and the Blind Forest.
The game, from the makers of Stick it to The Man!, was originally announced at E3 last year. The premise intrigued us, but we hadn’t learned anything new about Fe until now.
“We wanted to create a game that gives the feeling of exploring something special,” Klaus Lyngeled, CEO of Zoink Games, said during the presentation. Lyngeled discussed how forests transition from feeling scary when you’re a kid to being a different sort of home. That’s the type of experience Fe looks to give to players. “Wherever and however the game is played, we ensure it will be a unique experience of discovery, unlike anything played before,” Lyngeled said.
Fe will be a game of no words, tasking players to interpret their own narrative. The new trailer (above) showcases how the young cub will travel through the forest and interact with creatures via sound. Although Fe has retained the same visual aesthetic through its first two trailers, the Gamescom trailer shows a much faster-paced game, with the cub gliding and running across the terrain.
The voice-over for the trailer chronicles the cub’s purpose:
“It was said when the dangers came, a new cry could be heard, the song of a cub. Born to sing in full voice. A song of all alike. A song to break the silence, to heal the forest of life. To take the shadows. To be cunning and sly. To stop the evil, the silent ones. To make the world whole again.”
The exploration will take place in third person. It’s unclear how large the game world is, but it seems to be more open than we originally thought.
EA Originals was created to support innovative, memorable narrative experiences. The first title in the program, Unravel, launched early 2016. Along with Fe, a cooperative prison escape game called A Way Out will launch from the program in 2018.