Catechesis translates as “Catechesis” on the lands of Stéphane Bern. Term which designates all religious teachings transmitted to children in order to make them future good Catholics. What an irony of fate then that this Catechesis is a real Lazarus of video games. Like the biblical figure resurrected by the intervention of a transcendent power, the Baroque Decay project was lost in limbo almost 10 years ago. The curious will find traces of the 2013 trailer here). At the time, it was a resident Evil-like in pixel art, but despite the rather enthusiastic reception from the public, the inexperience of Baroque Decay did not allow the studio to realize this project. His relics were, however, found in their first works: The Count Lucanor (2016) and Yuppie Psycho (2019), which recycled some graphic and gameplay elements from the dying Catechesis.
The Omen
Ten years later, Baroque Decay has much stronger backs, both in terms of team management and technical mastery. So it was time to bring back from the depths of oblivion Catechesis. If the studio remains faithful to its love of very retro and falsely simplistic pixel art, Baroque Decay’s “new” project seems much more ambitious than Yuppie And Lucanor. Catechesis will be a horror RPG, strongly influenced by the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona sagas. The young hero of the game is possessed by a demonic spirit. Daniel, his first name, is an altar boy, member of a strange religion, a sort of Catholicism revisited with an esoteric fanaticism twist (hello Blasphemous). While he prays to save his grandfather, victim of a fatal illness, he performs a miracle and saves his grandfather by the strength of his faith. However, he realizes a little “hiccup”: this miracle has opened the Gates of Hell. Worse still, he notices that this portal opens a little more each time he performs a good deed. The game phases will be of two types: Daniel will follow his classes and help his neighbor during the day, and will have to purge the dungeons invaded by demons that he will have summoned against his will at night. The combat system (based on twin-stick mechanics) will be fairly slow and will ask players to switch between ranged weapons and melee weapons to defeat the demonic spawns.
Baroque Decay studio members discuss cinematic inspirations like Suspiria Or Halloween. On the video game side, reference is made to silent Hill, Deadly Premonition as well as Omori. To enhance an atmosphere that we hope is murky and sticky, Baroque Decay once again called on Michael “Garoad” Kelly, who had already composed the soundtrack for Yuppie Psycho and the excellent OST of VA-11 HALL-A. For now, Catechesis has no official release date.