League of Legends Is Getting A Pixel Art Action-RPG

Have you ever found yourself waking up in the middle of the night shouting “no more kings, no more queens, no more mageseekers!”? If so, The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story aims to satisfy that sudden midnight urge to violently alter the political landscape of a fantasy realm. Hey, it’s a lot easier than overthrowing capitalism.

If you’re plugged into the world of LoL and its expanding media empire, then you knew The Mageseeker was coming. As revealed in January, South Korea’s Game Rating and Administration Committee let the magical cat out of the fantasy bag with a quickly removed listing that mentioned The Mageseeker as an upcoming action game featuring the champion Sylas, a dude who’s kinda sick of the whole mageseekers-killing-mages business. Today, Riot Forge officially revealed the game via a new trailer titled “The Year Ahead.” It also launched the official website, which is sparse on details beyond a “coming soon to PC and console 2023” statement for now. Check out the trailer here:

The Mageseeker will come courtesy of Digital Sun. That name may sound familiar to you as it’s the team that brought us Moonlight, an attractive little RPG, that balances shopkeeping and dungeon crawling. From what little we can see in this new trailer, it looks like Digital Sun’s pixel-art talents will be put to good use. It’s got that lovely modern-retro look that I always feel I need more of in my life, crossed with LoL’s signature art style.

Described as a “gritty action-RPG” in the trailer’s description, we know little else beyond the release window, the main character, and the setting: the tumultuous city of Demacia. The action, only seen through stylized fragments of glass in the trailer, looks bright, colorful, and quick. Also, unlike Moonlighter, it looks like you can move diagonally, thank god. Having just four directions of movement is like playing a Resident Evil game where you can’t move while aiming—not something I can put up with for long.

There is no release date beyond the always-helpful “Spring 2023” banner in the trailer. The trailer also shows glimpses of other upcoming projects, including Song of Nunu, an action-adventure game from Tequila Works (Rime, Deadlight), starring Nunu and his rideable yeti Willump expected in the fall of this year; and Convergence, Double Stallion Games’ (Speed Brawl) platformer with flashy combat and signature LoL art styles, slated to arrive this summer.