Crea-ture Studios is making a Werewolf Metroidvania

Crea-ture Studios has announced Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Rageborn, an action-adventure game coming to PlayStation 5 in 2027. The project is a major pivot for the developer. They previously built the hyper-realistic skateboarding simulator Session: Skate Sim. Now, they are moving from kickflips to supernatural eco-terrorism.

The World of Darkness universe is usually associated with slow, dialogue-heavy vampire games. Rageborn takes the opposite approach. A new developer breakdown explains how the team is adapting the 5th edition rules of the tabletop RPG into a fast-paced Metroidvania structure.

Forms instead of items

Most Metroidvanias gate progression behind double jumps, colored keycards, or grappling hooks. Rageborn just asks you to turn into a wolf. The game translates the tabletop RPG's shape-shifting rules directly into traversal mechanics. Crea-ture Studios President and Creative Director Louis Lamarche explained the design philosophy during the presentation.

"In a classic action adventure, your character has tools. In our case, our character has tools plus forms, and you can dynamically constantly shape-shift between those forms in order to complete exploration and combat challenges."

Players swap between three distinct states. The Homid (human) form handles ranged weapons and takes out flying enemies like security drones. The Lupus (wolf) form is built for agility and platforming. The Crinos (werewolf) form exists purely to deal heavy melee damage.

Blending combat and traversal

The protagonist walks down rainy, isometric train tracks before seamlessly switching forms to navigate a cave system. This dynamic shifting applies directly to boss encounters as well.

One fight against a mechanical "Security Core" forces the player to dodge complex red laser grids. Surviving these encounters requires swapping to the Lupus form to clear the lasers. Once an opening appears, the player shifts to Crinos to execute massive area-of-effect slam attacks. It looks like a frantic system that demands constant input changes.

The visual design leans into the grim, industrial decay associated with the tabletop game's setting. The isometric camera angle pulls back far enough to show the scale of the environments, but zooms in during combat to emphasize the impact of the Crinos form's attacks.

A crowded universe

The Werewolf: The Apocalypse property has a spotty history in video games. Cyanide Studio released the stealth-action game Earthblood in 2021, which struggled to balance its human stealth and werewolf combat sections. Different Tales launched the much better received visual novel Heart of the Forest just before that.

Rageborn looks structurally closer to a traditional action-platformer than those previous entries. The focus on fluid, mid-air form switching gives it a distinctly different pace from the slow, methodical stealth of Earthblood.

Nacon is publishing the game. The initial announcement only lists the PlayStation 5, but Nacon rarely publishes console exclusives. We will likely see PC and Xbox versions confirmed closer to the 2027 release window.