- Genius: Nezha has just been announced
- It will be a triple-A action game for PS5 and PC, developed in China
- This God of War and Devil May Cry-inspired action game to be launched in 2028
China-based developer Genigods Lab has announced Genius: Nezha, an Unreal Engine 5-made action game coming to PlayStation 5 and PC.
The game isn’t coming out anytime soon, with a targeted launch window of 2028, but I was recently able to get an early look at the project at a briefing with Genigods Lab’s Young Lui (Founder and Technical Expert) and Erdi Yao (Co-Founder and Creative Director).
With Genius: Nezha, the developer seeks to put its own spin on the story of Nezha, a deity from Chinese mythology. The gameplay will feature a mix of ground and air combat, with the player seamlessly switching between the two.
Like Black Myth Wukong, the game looks to feature one-on-one boss battles, and from the short snippet of gameplay I was shown, it certainly looks stylish and free-flowing. However, the team assured me of that Nezha will also feature large, sandbox-like levels, as well as puzzles, encounters with groups of enemies, and opportunities for exploration that can lead to finding new weapons, outfits, and the like.
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According to the team, Genius: Nezha takes gameplay inspiration from a number of contemporary hits, including the aforementioned Black Myth Wukong, and God of War, Devil May Cry, Nioh, and Stellar Blade.
Many of these are quite challenging games, so during the presentation’s Q&A session I asked the team what its approach to difficulty will be. I got an interesting answer as Genigods Lab takes inspiration from a rather unlikely place.
“We want new users to be able to master it [our combat],” said technical expert Young Lui, “we have made a control method like ‘Modern’ i Street Fighter 6. By holding R1 and then pressing any key, you can easily make cool combos. This should help new users get started quickly. Then we have for the very good players a ‘Classic’ version, where you can make more combinations and combine more moves together.”
Genigods Lab leaned further into the fighting game feel, explaining that it is developing a dynamic AI for Nezhas boss fights. The goal here, on paper, is to help bosses feel a bit more like player-controlled units. They will potentially be able to react, predict, and attempt to counter the player’s actions so that the player must do so in return.
It all sounds pretty interesting, but it’s also worth noting Genius: Nezha is in the early stages of development and, as mentioned, unlikely to be released before 2028. That said, the game is still aimed at the PS5 as its primary platform, and is slated to feature PS5 Pro enhancements, as well as full DualSense haptic feedback and adaptive trigger support.
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