The upcoming Tides of Annihilation is a dark fantasy action game that seeks to reinvent the myth of King Arthur for the modern day. Developed by newly established Chinese game studio Eclipse Glow Games, it proudly wears its influences to modern action games like Devil May Cry 5 or Nier Automata and the spectacle of large-scale fantasy RPGs like Final Fantasy XVI. The developers weren't shy about their sources of inspiration, yet , they're committed to refining their own unique take on a spectacle action RPG that presents a visually stunning world to explore and battle through.
At GDC 2025, we had the opportunity to catch up with co-CEO & CoO of Eclipse Glow Games Ary Chen to talk about Tides of Annihilation. Following its reveal earlier in 2025, there's been much attention given to the game and its particular blend of action and RPG system, and Chen gave some key insights on the game's vision of a reimagined take on Arthurian mythology and why it's not a souls-like game that some people thought it was.
Set in alternate modern-day London, the present is shattered by the arrival of mysterious, otherworld monsters that have suddenly taken over the city. Taking on the role of Gwendolyn, she picks up a sword. She uses her strange ability to call upon the fabled Knights of the Round Table in battle, allowing her to cut down foes with various magical abilities. Throughout the story, Gwendolyn explores a fractured London that's been overtaken by dark magic, and she'll uncover the truth of what caused the devastation and how she can stop it from spreading.
During our talk with Chen, he reflected on the game's origins, what led the Eclipse Glow Games team to pursue their original game, and how Chinese-developed games like Black Myth: Wukong gave them the confidence to pursue work on Tides of Annihilation.
Take us back to the beginning; how long has Tides of Annihilation been in development and what was the general vision guiding the game?
We've been in development for almost 3 years for this project, and at the beginning, the objective was pretty simple – the core team wanted to work on a new action-adventure game that fits our style and ambitions. The whole dev team are huge fans of action games, and we wanted to do something creative with our take on grand action and storytelling. We've even created a battle system that is unique for our game, which is very story-driven, and relies on calling upon partners in combat.
This is very much a single-player game and not an online cooperative game, but we have made a combat system that features the protagonist calling upon partners to help her in battle and exploration. Coupling this with the setting of London and its history, which pulls on the legend of King Arthur and that mythology, we've made a game that is very exciting for us as developers to work on.
This game's combat is in the same style as Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, but it has other elements, such as calling in partners to assist. Can you talk about your approach to the core combat?
Firstly, as we've seen some comments online, we are not a soulslike game or even a traditional action game; we like to think of this as a large-scale action-adventure game. We're huge fans of action-adventure games like the Devil May Cry series, which focuses on dynamic action and spectacle. We've seen a lot of great titles within the action genre in recent years, especially, and we've really wanted to invest ourselves in this genre. We've made something that fits well within the slate of action games out now, and I'm excited for more players to get their hands on the game.
The trailer for Tides of Annihilation got a lot of attention during the State of Play livestream in February – can you talk a bit about the response you got from the audiences after the debut?
After our debut at State of Play, we have received great attention from global audiences, and there's been a lot of encouragement and positive feedback from our trailer, which we appreciate. We've also received a lot of suggestions and some criticisms for what we can improve, and we're taking in all that feedback to work on the game. There's been so much attention given to the game, and we're really appreciative of the feedback we have so far. We're still evaluating release plans, but once we're ready, we'll be prepared to share when fans can expect to play the game.
What's something about the game's vision that makes you feel excited for what players will see in the game at release?
Our core objective was to make something exciting for fans, and because we are a new studio, we are doing what we can to showcase our creativity. Because this is a new IP, we wanted to make an action game that is satisfying with its core action and spectacle but also presents a new take on the legend of King Arthur that people have not seen before. Recently, more games have come out from Chinese developers and have found success with high quality, and we certainly hope that players will be able to see that our game has potential as well.
We are confident about Tides of Annihilation and think it's a great time to make a game like this. The success of other games from Chinese game makers has made us more confident that we can also create something that can reach that quality.
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