The Tokyo Game Show 2025 demo of Silent Planet – Elegy of a Dying World opened with a striking image: Apranik, a lone warrior armed with the blade Asimov, stepping onto Thulcandra, a planet that seemed alive and dying at the same time. The surface pulsed with biopunk detail, its textures a fusion of flesh and metal, and the atmosphere carried a sense of both menace and beauty.
The game draws clear inspiration from Metroidvania classics, something the development team is keen to point out, with this being somewhat of an homage to games of yore. Exploration in the demo remained on a single plane, with traversal and combat focused on weighty movement and deliberate strikes. Vertex Zero has highlighted a three‑layer exploration system, though – shifting between foreground, midground, and background – as a core feature of the full release. Therefore, although this was not yet part of the TGS build, it’s an intriguing feature to look forward to later on.
Combat was deliberate, with Apranik wielding melee strikes and psychokinetic abilities that demanded timing and precision. Enemies emerged as grotesque hybrids of machine and organism, their designs reinforcing the techno‑horror tone, and some of them just respawning to cause constant headaches. The narrative premise gave the demo weight. Set in the year 2997, Apranik searches for the Angel’s Egg, a mythical artefact believed to be the source of all life. Lore fragments scattered through the environment hinted at a civilisation long since collapsed, and the planet itself felt like a body in its final stages. The tone was mournful rather than heroic, and the title’s subtitle, Elegy of a Dying World, feels entirely earned.
Presentation was consistent and confident. The layered exploration mechanic was the most immediate innovation, but the sound design, enemy silhouettes, and environmental detail all reinforced the sense of a world on the brink of extinction. The demo avoided spectacle for its own sake, instead focusing on atmosphere and dread. The snippet at TGS offered only a glimpse of Apranik’s journey. It left the scale of the map, the breadth of abilities, and the shape of boss encounters for another day. What it conveyed was a project with a clear identity, however, and one that leaned into atmosphere and precision rather than spectacle.
Vertex Zero, a small independent studio co‑founded by James Alex Santoro and Virginie Cabana, is steering the vision. Red Dunes Games is providing publishing support, placing Silent Planet alongside a diverse line‑up of indies. The game is currently confirmed for PC via Steam, with a release planned for Q4 2026, and the team is busy taking on feedback from various places the game’s been shown so far, meaning this is certainly going to grow and grow into something special thanks to the heart being poured in, and careful attention being given to the development process.
