Warframe developer Digital Extremes has just announced their first new project in five years. Soulframe was introduced with a five-minute trailer showcasing a fantasy world where knights where helmets encased with glass and giant moose-like creatures come with antlers adorned in wind chimes.
Longtime Warframe director Steve Sinclair will be moving on to head Soulframe's development. In an interview with The Washington Post, Sinclair described Soulframe as a very similar action MMO as Warframe, but leans more heavily into fantasy themes.
But don't think Soulframe will be the same as Warfarme with a different aesthetic. Sinclair said that there will be significant differences between the two games, starting with combat.
"Where 'Warframe' is focused on shooting, this one’s focused on melee," Sinclair explained. "Where 'Warframe' is super fast and crazy high-speed, this one’s going to be a lot more slow and heavy. But it still has a lot of similarities to the genre that we have experience in."
Despite the name, Soulframe's combat isn't entirely inspired by FromSoft's Souls series. "But ‘Elden Ring’ has absolutely been a subject of some conversation — maybe to do with camera, maybe to do with how excellent their combat pacing is," noted Sinclair. "And you know, screw those guys, because damn, ['Elden Ring'] was absolutely fantastic."
Sinclair described Soulframe as being familiar to Warframe players, but with fresh themes. Warframe is all about high-tech cyber ninjas, but Soulframe will be inspired by stories like Princess Mononoke and The NeverEnding Story and their ideas of man versus nature--themes that will shape Soulframe’s world.
"The conceit [in 'Soulframe'] is that the world itself is a little angry about what’s been done to it, and the grounds underneath tend to shift throughout the day," said creative director Geoff Crookes. "So there’s going to be proceduralism within the cave networks and crevasses and so on underneath the world."
Soulframe is still in very early development, but Digital Extremes wanted to give players a look under the hood to entice feedback early on. You can sign up for email notifications on the official Soulframe website.