TAILS OF IRON 2: WHISKERS OF WINTER

It's rats versus bats in Odd Bug's chilly sequel

Things might be a bit parky in the aptly named Winter’s Edge, but young rat Arlo is looking on the bright side. After all, his father is about to take him out on his first hunt – a rite of passage for which he’s been preparing for some time. Within this fortified settlement, the rodent townsfolk seem rather satisfied with their lot, if the hubbub around the castle is anything to go by. And they don’t have to worry about the amphibious aggressors their kind in the south are constantly having to fend off. “Why,” narrator Doug Cockle asks, his bassy growl ladling on thick helpings of portent, “should he want for more?” Well, we’re about to find out.

A sequel to Odd Bug Studio’s side-scrolling Soulslike – think Wind In The Willows meets Game Of Thrones with splashes of Hollow Knight, Unto The End and Salt And Sanctuary – was always on the cards, producer and designer Jack Bennett tells us. “Even when we first signed with United Label, we were saying we want to take this game further,” he says, citing Westeros as a major inspiration for expanding the ‘Ratdom’ and the potential for “loads of stories and races and characters” within that world.