It's hard to know what to make of Bugsnax. On the surface, it looks like some cuddly game about furry walrus people exploring an exotic island. But there's a surprisingly dark undercurrent. Aside from the body horror of eating bugs that turn your fingers into hot dogs, the end of the first trailer shows some kind of monster devouring every food-shaped insect it can find and running at the camera. There's also a bizarre journalism angle where you may be playing a reporter trying to uncover a sinister conspiracy.
This game looks weird y'all.
It'll be a few more weeks until we know what Bugsnax plays like, but we don't have to wait long to know what Bugsnax sounds like. As it turns out, this odd little game with a stupidly catchy theme song has an impressive cast of voice actors. Many of whom have been featured in some of the biggest games and animated series of the last few years.
Bugnax's developer Young Horses - who also made the equally weird Octodad: Dadliest Catch - has employed some prolific actors to voice its odd bipedal creatures. The biggest name that stands out from the cast is probably Fred Tatasciore, who's been in just about everything. Some of his projects include Call Of Duty, Gears Of War, Ghost Of Tsushima, Overwatch, and the list goes on and on. With 790 IMDB credits, you could name just about any game and there's a good chance Mr. Tatasciore is in it.
Aside from him, there's also Yuri Lowenthal (Marvel's Spiderman), Debra Wilson (Cere Junda from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order), Roger Craig Smith (the guy who voices Sonic The Hedgehog), and Fryda Wolff (who plays Loba in Apex Legends.) In an interesting bit of trivia, several of the cast from Final Fantasy VII Remake show up here in Bugsnax. This includes Tatasciore, Lowenthal, One Punch Man's Max Mittelman, and Barbara Goodson (who voiced Rita Repulsa in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and is therefore awesome.)
Aside from learning about the cast, we can also see the characters they portray and the names are as bonkers as you would expect. For example, Tatasciore will play the role of Wambus Troubleham, while Mittelman will be voicing Filbo Fiddlepie. Other names include Snorpy Fizzlebean, Beffica Winklesnoot, Triffany Lottablog, and Clumby Clumbernut. Whoever came up with these names has the best job in the world.
With a cast of elite voice actors like this, it's safe to assume that Bugsnax will likely feature a very dialogue-heavy story. We actually don't that much about the game as it's been shrouded in mystery. Many suspect it will be much darker than its kid-friendly appearance lets on. Especially since its Twitter account likes to drop some ominous tweets from time to time.
We'll soon be able to uncover the secrets behind Bugsnax as its due to release on November 12th for PS4, PS5, and PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive.
Source: Playstation Blog, Twitter