Vaewolf’s source of inspiration is clear, but does this action role-playing game have more to offer? Editor ~Dani gave it a try.
I spent much of 2025 completing Hades 2. I already loved the first game, but the sequel really clicked for me. Ever since I finished it, I’ve been craving more. As if I’d summoned it myself, Vaewolf—coming out next year—might be exactly what I need.
The parallels are obvious from the very first glance at this action roguelike: its look and gameplay are heavily inspired by Supergiant’s iconic title. But developer Milky Tea aims to spice things up by offering me three different character classes: a standard elf, a vampire, and a werewolf.
I’ve already played the first level of Vaewolf and am cautiously optimistic.
Between Viking Werewolves and Vengeful Vampires
I take on the role of a powerful hybrid with grand ambitions. The intro reveals that my village and family were slaughtered by Viking werewolves when I was still an elven child. But instead of killing me too, they infected me with the werewolf curse. A wizard named Valtyr found me in the forest and took me under his wing to prepare me for my quest for revenge against the Viking king Bloodaxe.
But because I might have been too weak as just a boring werewolf, the wizard’s apprentice went ahead and turned me into a vampire as well. They wanted to play it safe.
But before I can confront Bloodaxe as a fully-fledged hybrid of mythical creatures, I first have to find him. And to do that, I’m wandering through the world of Cumbria, which is ravaged by war and misery. My first stop is Ravenglass, a village overrun by Viking raiders. No problem for me—I make short work of the scoundrels and secure a safe haven for myself.
This is where I return if I fall in battle, learn new skills, and unlock modifiers. There are also a few NPCs to chat with. Among them is my trainer, Avery, who makes it abundantly clear that she can’t stand me. Somehow, I have a feeling that might change as the game progresses.
Three Kinds of Brawling
Enough chit-chat—I want to fight! Valtyr sends me first to the Eskdale Woods, which are not only teeming with Vikings but also ruled by witches.
Just like in Hades, I enter several small arenas one after another, each unleashing numerous waves of enemies at me. Sometimes I face archers, other times poison-spitting herbal witches, or burly werewolves. To deal effectively with each enemy, I switch back and forth between my three forms as often as I like. As an elf, I fire volleys of arrows from a safe distance; as a werewolf, I shatter shields and armor in close combat; and as a vampire, I wield a whip.
After completing an arena, I receive rewards in the form of lucky charms and runes, which I use to customize my build for that run. For example, I can add fire damage to certain attacks or boost myself when switching between forms. If I combine my bonuses wisely, I can become a really dangerous guy.
Or I might bite the dust faster than I can blink, and then it’s back to Ravenglass. But I take certain resources I’ve collected during my battles with me and trade them here for new combat moves from Avery or buy modifiers that give me more health or other boosts for my runs.
This increases my chances of a successful run a little more each time, until I finally make it to the area boss. At the end of Eskdale, three witches are waiting for me, who seem to be related in some way, but I didn’t ask for details.
I should change my style, right?
During my playthrough, I made it to the boss twice, and one thing became painfully clear to me. The first time, I whittled away a good half of her health bar—but only in my archer elf form. So I thought, “Maybe it’ll go faster if I switch forms,” and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Just a few moments later, my werewolf collapsed lifelessly.
Is shape-shifting maybe just a gimmick?
So the second time, I wanted to find out for sure. I decided to play the entire run in just one form. And sure enough, the game became significantly easier when I stuck to my bow and arrow and avoided any physical contact with enemies.
As an elf, it was also easiest to keep the three witches at a distance, so I defeated Eskdale neither as a Vae nor as a wolf, but as a plain, ordinary elf. We could have saved ourselves that silly vampire ritual from the intro.
The Small “But”
This is where I’m still a bit cautious. Vaewolf borrows so much from the fantastic Hades and implements it quite well. But Vaewolf doesn’t reinvent anything here.
At the point where the game tries to add something unique to the mix, it still stumbles. While I can use runes and talismans to enhance certain forms or make switching between them a bit more appealing, it’s not really necessary. And even if I tailor my build specifically for that, it’s still smarter—at least in this first forest level—to just stay in elf form.
To be fair, this could simply be because the demo only covers the beginning of the game—the part where, as a player, I’m supposed to get to know everything and familiarize myself with the mechanics. So maybe it’s intentional that the enemies aren’t that tough yet, and shape-shifting only becomes truly important later on.
But whatever the case, I hope Vaewolf has the confidence it needs to set itself apart a little more from its big-name genre counterpart. Because I really enjoyed the demo and would have loved to keep playing for a few more hours.
Vaewolf makes no secret of who its target audience is. If you liked Hades and are looking for similar games, you can have a really good time here. That said, you probably shouldn’t expect any major innovations.
Basically, that’s not a problem for me, because that’s exactly what I wanted. Still, mechanics—especially when they’re advertised so prominently—shouldn’t feel superfluous. I’m curious to see how Vaewolf handles this. I don’t think this is a problem that can’t be solved.
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the game, because the foundation is pretty solid. The combat has a pleasant pace, the gameplay loop is challenging but motivating, and the style—including the graphics and sound design—is impressive to both see and hear.
It remains to be seen, however, whether the story and characters will be as captivating as they were in *Hades*. I didn’t get to see much of that in the demo yet.
