The Baba Yaga is a creature of Slavic folklore, often appearing as a twisted crone and generally (but not always) portrayed as deeply wicked in nature: In one tale, cited in Wikipedia, Baba Yaga helped a man find his missing bride, but she has a wider and more well-established reputation for things like, say, stealing and eating children, or—in a slightly more modern take—killing three men with a pencil.
In Blacktail, an upcoming game in development at new studio The Parasight, players will have the opportunity to become the Baba Yaga—not the cool John Wick kind, but the deformed Eastern European version—in yet another twist on the tale. This one is actually an origin story that follows the adventures of a timid young woman named Yaga, who is exiled from her village for practicing witchcraft. Following the guidance of a dark voice, she takes up a bow and wields mystical powers to establish the myth of the infamous Baba Yaga.
But the nature of that myth is in Yaga's hands. Rather than kidnapping children and boiling them in her cauldron, she'll hunt down "living memories" through the woods, reincarnated as wicked spirits who can help her unlock the mysteries of your past and future. But not without a cost: She'll be forced to make difficult choices that will lead her to become either a benevolent guardian of the woods, or the more infamous creature of nightmares.
There will be more to do than simply recalling Yaga's past life. She'll craft arrows and potions, hunt game for food, harvest herbs, and uncover hidden treasures and snippets of Slavic legends. Side quests will enable Yaga to further define herself and the world around her, as her alliances, beliefs, and skills change based on the path she follows and the actions she takes.
It's an ambitious but certainly interesting concept, and while Blacktail is Parasight's first game, it's not the first go-round for the members of the team, many of whom are veterans of Layers of Fear and The Medium developer Bloober Team. It's set to come out this winter on Steam, and you can find more about what's cooking at blacktail.game.
