Last updated on October 8, 2025
I had the opportunity to talk to the director of Gideon Systems (Syed Ali Raza), who wants to deliver us a very ambitious metroidvania project, with the main inspirations taken directly from Mortal Kombat, Blasphemous and Shinobi. During our talk, i asked him 10 questions about the project which he was willing to answer.
Question 1 –
- I really love the concept of this game, can you tell me how the idea started?
Answer –
I used to wonder why indie games like Blasphemous, Hades and Hollow Knight are so successful while AAA games fail to gain this much hype and love from gamers.
I then got the motivation to make my own game. But you don’t just make a game, your game also needs to stand out from rest. After some brainstorming, I got the idea of a game where your character is stuck inside a dream and has to escape from it. But here’s the issue: how do you make the game’s world look like a dream? In dreams everything that is impossible can happen, so if a game’s setting is inside a dream, then you need to show the unbelievable happening… like a samurai carrying a big sword then suddenly pulling a pistol on his enemy.
This covers the setting so far, which is a dream. Where does the idea of samurai and japanese setting come from? Well, many of us love games like Mortal Kombat, Sekiro and Shinobi. What do they have in common? A medieval asian setting.
We thought how cool it would be if blasphemous was set in Japan! Our artist also made a concept about it, take a look at this:
(early concept of Mizurano)
It looked great but there was one problem: it looked too much like Blasphemous. We needed something more… I especially wanted the player character to look like a superhero, someone who can take down entire armies on his own. This was the end result we agreed on:
(current design of the main character)
Question 2 –
- I noticed that the goal is to raise 10,000£ , will that cover all expenses?
Answer –
Yes, £10000 should cover all expenses needed for marketing the game. We have already gotten funding to create the game thanks to investments and crowdfunding. But making a game is not enough, you also need to market it so more people play it and you have higher chances of breaking even.
Question 3 –
- In terms of difficulty, how difficult it would be?
Answer –
We are really looking at Hollow Knight Silksong recently and are impressed by its success. So I think this should answer your question: we will make the game hard but also rewarding at the same time.
Question 4 –
- If the game received all the funds, do you think it will standout as a Metroidvania game?
Answer –
Yes, we are confident that the game can stand out as a metroidvania. One of our biggest wishes is to implement modding capabilities to the game. Player created mods will ensure that a game is replayable due to continuous creation of new content by players themselves. We also had a post highlighting the modding tools progress:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gideonsys/mizurano/posts/4344771
Question 5 –
- How many open zones/regions will the game have?
Answer –
Ideally we should have a level editor tool which will allow players to create their own zones/regions. But as part of the campaign, we plan to add 25 unique environments. The fact that the game is set in a dream allows us to be very flexible with environment design. In a dream anything can happen and the world around you can also look very inconsistent and strange…
Remember key advice: some environments in Mizurano are dreams while others are nightmares.
Question 6 –
- Can we expect multiple huge bosses like in Blasphemous?
Answer –
Yes huge boss fights form the core pillars of this type of game. In our trailer: we have also teased a few big bossfights with giving many spoilers. There is that dragon, green ogre, giant zombie and finally the shadow mystery boss. We plan to add way more bosses, some of them unfortunately can not be shown in screenshots/trailers to avoid spoilers.
Question 7 –
- What can we expect from the main character? Can you tell me about his journey?
Answer –
I have shared some info about the main character in one of the previous answers, basically how we designed it. At the beginning he was supposed to be a samurai who fits in the Blasphemous world… but we wanted someone who is a superhero and this is how his physical image was finalized.
But he also has a very interesting backstory. At the start of the game, your main character will suddenly teleport into this strange world… he will not have any of his memories and will not remember anything.
Ultimately he will be discovered by a wise man who will realise that the main character is from the ‘real world’. Your character is then informed that everything he sees is fake as it’s just a dream world created by a wizard called Lord Zarimonde
Only your character is real and everything else is a part of this dream he is stuck in. Your character’s main quest will be to discover who they are by regaining their lost memories and to escape from this dream world in which they just got teleported.
Occasionally you encounter shadows of your character and these shadows will remind you of your past. Ultimately you will start looking for the shrine of Lord Zarimonde – creator of Mizurano dreamworld – to talk to him and ask him to teleport you out of this dream.
In Mizurano, not just dreams… Nightmares of Lord Zarimonde also become REAL.
Question 8 –
- I noticed in the trailer that the main character is forging a golden weapon, will we have more weapons in the game?
Answer –
Yes. We plan to add many more weapons and also weapon customisation to Mizurano. The trailer shows a sneak peek of the crafting system, there is much more we will be showcasing in future.
Question 9 –
How many developers are working on the project and how many will the project need in order to progress smoothly?
Answer –
We are a team of over 10 developers, artists, music composers and creatives who love playing video games and also making them. To progress smoothly, the project needs at least 8 highly talented individuals.
It is possible to make great games with a small team. Hades and Hades II for example and also Hollow Knight and its sequel are made by small teams… However they worked very hard and are very very talented.
Question 10 –
- Can you give us a tentative release window?
Answer –
June 2026 is when we plan to release. But we can also release earlier if everything goes well, or a bit later if things don’t go as planned.
A true fanatic of the Asian gaming industry, especially China. Passionate about modern gaming, cinema and mythology. Dante always gives us a helping hand when it comes to a Chinese title.
