Love Eternal Might be a Sleeper Hit Platformer, and Comes with a Psychological Horror Tilt

There's a fine art in the modern gaming landscape to imbue horror or unease on players when you present your game in lo-fi form. It's even harder to do when you're giving those players a relatively fast-paced, gravity-flipping platformer where art and tone need to dance, delicately, with precision movement.

Love Eternal from two-person team brika and publisher Ybsryd Games is attempting to do just that, and comes with an artstyle that is both familiar and unique all at once. It's also a bit of a mind-melt in terms of the "psychological horror" it's coming at us with -- take a warped peek for yourself.

Here's some official wordage to accompany the video above:

A mundane family dinner becomes a waking nightmare for teenager Maya. One minute, she's dealing with her frustrating parents; the next, the dinner table's empty, the house destroyed, and the remaining husk has been spirited away into a cavernous, eerie alternate dimension. Escape the echoing chambers of a decaying fortress, avoiding deadly traps and altering gravitational forces, and confront the powerful deity who kidnapped Maya.

Dash through the crumbling chambers of a laberynthine castle filled with puzzle-like challenges, leaping, flipping and strategically landing out of dangers way. Plan your jump arcs to ensure Maya smashes through floating stones that trigger her ability to maintain careful control of Maya's momentum. Avoid razor-sharp spikes, shifting lasers, and other deadly obstacles in precision platforming trials.

Behold the liminal spaces of a desolate, ancient landscape, littered with towering statues and rotting structures illuminated by blinding spotlightsacross its many biomes, from dank, dripping caverns to underwater grottos. Encounter other wandering victims abducted by the callous god, and brave meetings with eerie versions of Maya's loved ones, now transformed into horrifying abberations.

Love Eternal has been revealed to be coming to consoles and PC February 19 at an affordable indie price of USD$9.99. We have a handful of screens for you to peruse below. These types of games are often budget, but pack bigger punches than you might realise and this one is giving us that vibe.