Fatekeeper was always going to lure me in like a rodent drawn into a trap by a pungent piece of cheese. A grimdark first-person slasher with strong Dark Messiah: Might and Magic vibes in Unreal Engine 5? There are few games I’d wishlist faster.
But Paraglacial’s glossy action-RPG shot even further up my most wanted list with its latest trailer, revealing that you’ll be accompanied on your adventures by a bedraggled talking rat. Said rodent sits on your shoulder and speaks gnomically in a voice that sounds like someone unrolling an ancient, cursed papyrus scroll, and I already love him and want him to be my very best friend.
The rat appears right at the start of the trailer, seemingly complaining to the player character about having narrowly escaped an ambush. There’s a bit of rhetorical back-and-forth between the two, before the player commands the rat to return to the safety of his knapsack, as the pair move on in search of their destination—the Moon Gate.
The rest of the trailer shows off a mixture of combat and exploration. Fighting certainly appears to have Dark Messiah-ish bones, letting you kick enemies off ledges and impale them upon conveniently placed spike-traps. But there’s a sprinkling of Souls in a dedicated dodge ability too, while your character is clearly much heftier than the swashbuckling protagonist of Dark Messiah. I also enjoyed the way he cleans off his blade after slaughtering a miniboss. I like a hero who takes care of his weapons.
But it’s the rat I keep coming back to. Not just because I want him to sit on my shoulder giving me cryptic editing advice while I’m at work, but also because it suggests Fatekeeper will have a quirkier tone to it than I necessarily expected from its pretty, if somewhat derivative fantasy world. True, the voice acting for both characters could do with being clearer, but I am broadly fond of how hard Paraglacial has leaned into weird voices.
Sadly, Paraglacial is keeping schtum on who exactly rat-boy is, saying his identity “will remain a secret for now,” in an interview with IGN. The developers did reveal some other interesting titbits about Fatekeeper though. Apparently the primary inspiration for Fatekeeper is not Dark Messiah, but Hexen, though Paraglacial plans for Fatekeeper to be a “full-fledged first-person RPG” with a focus on “character progression, tactical choices and exploration rather than a purse action-first shooter approach.”
As such, the weighty combat we see in the trailer above is not the only way to play. “While every character begins with access to both magic and melee combat, the paths you choose can transform you into anything from a hulking, hammer-wielding brute to a cunning alchemist, a raging pyromancer, or something entirely your own,” Paraglacial says. And while there might be “hints of a Soulslike” within Fatekeeper, Paraglacial says combat is designed to be “challenging and meaningful while not overly punishing.”
It sounds rad. Paraglacial aims to release Fatekeeper as an early access game in 2026. Weirdly, it’s not the only first-person RPG with strong Dark Messiah vibes being developed at the moment. Also in production is Alkahest, a more direct successor to Arkane’s work that likewise has an alchemy system and some very flashy combat trailers. In short, 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for fans of booting fantasy monsters down flights of stairs.
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