At Fate's End gameplay showcase proves this indie game should be on your wishlist

Today, during the Xbox gamescom presentation, we got a look at At Fate’s End, the next game from Thunder Lotus, the team behind Spiritfarer and 33 Immortals. At Fate’s End’s game director, Nicolas Guerin, walked through roughly fifteen minutes of gameplay and described how some of the game's systems work. If you’re familiar with Spiritfarer, you should be prepared for the emotional narrative this game is sure to bring to the table, but it also looks like combat is fun, challenging, and weaves the narrative choices into battles.

At Fate’s End gameplay demo proves this is one of the best indies to keep an eye on in 2026

In At Fate’s End, you play as Shan, the red-armor-wearing, magical sword-wielding protagonist, a member of a family of eternal, god-like beings known as the Hemlock clan. From the game’s Steam page: “Explore a lush, hand-crafted fantasy world… Solve intricate narrative puzzles, uncover painful truths, and hone both your blade skills and knowledge to face your estranged siblings in intense, emotional duels…” Each member of the Hemlock family is inspired by a minor arcana from a deck of tarot cards. The game appears to deal with many themes, such as duty, guilt, family, and, of course, fate.

The first thing that stands out about At Fate’s End is the art style. This is where the “hand-crafted” part comes in. The character designs are all spectacular, and the animations are a joy to watch. While we have only been able to see a few areas of the game so far, through trailers and this gameplay demo, the landscapes and cityscapes also look wonderful. But one thing that really stood out from today’s gameplay was the menus. There is something so elegant about them. Place cards with knowledge and revelations to unlock new information, draw conclusions, and use this information in future conversations. In many ways, it looked like the mind place from Alan Wake 2, but a more fantastical version. In today’s gameplay, the protagonist Shan is deducing why her sister Camilla has become hated by the people she has sworn to protect.

This early look also revealed a deeper look at the game’s combat. There are many siblings who each serve as boss fights with their emotionally charged duels, but we’ll get to that in a moment. There are also weaker monsters that Shan will encounter, at least sometimes serving as roadblocks towards uncovering more information or useful tools. Each member of the Hemlock family has a sword that is specific to them, and they each had to sacrifice a part of themselves for the sword to live within them. This is why Shan’s sword appears from her throat, because she has sacrificed her voice, but now the sword speaks for her. Shan’s sister, Camilla, sacrificed an arm. And one of the characters from the initial trailer looks like maybe they sacrificed their spine, but that’s just speculation.

This could be the brother that sacrificed their spine.At Fate's End, Developer: Thunder Lotus

In combat, Shan can attack in all directions while in mid-air. Enemies will have shields that you’ll need to either break or find a way around. Some simpler enemies might just have a shield on one side, while others might have a rotating circle around them with small gaps you’ll need to take advantage of.

Related:Dispatch Episode 4 walkthrough and choices guide

When you eventually confront one of your siblings, there will be moments in the duel to speak to each other. Depending on the choices you make in these moments, the battle may become more challenging. Make the wrong choices, or the right ones, depending on your perspective, and the fight may become more challenging.

Your dialogue choices will impact the duel.At Fate's End, Developer: Thunder Lotus

But one of my favorite moments from today’s At Fate’s End gameplay showcase was more of a sillier one. As Shan is trying to talk to her sister about what happened, Camilla says she will answer questions only if Shan drinks with her and uses her sword’s powers to blast glass tankards out of the air. As the conversation continues, Shan starts to get drunk, which makes shooting the glasses more challenging and causes the dialogue choices to scatter around the screen and the screen to wobble slightly. It’s moments of brevity like this that give the world a lived-in feeling, not to mention a break from the more traditional gameplay loop of using those abilities to fight enemies.

You also will fight normal enemies, not just your siblings.At Fate's End, Developer: Thunder Lotus

At Fate’s End is planned to be released in 2026, so I’ll be doing my best to patiently wait for more news. I was already interested in this game from the first trailer, but today’s presentation has turned it into one of my most anticipated games of 2026. Thunder Lotus are really outdoing themselves lately between this, the multiplayer 33 Immortals, and the emotional narrative of Spiritfarer. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one next. If you want to check out more cool indies, I’ve written about a dozen more for you to check out. There are six from Opening Night Live, and another six from the Future Games Show.

At Fate's End

2026

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• indie games
• Thunder Lotus Games
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