After getting to try out a demo of the game, we got a chance to interview Shadow Labyrinth producer, Seigo Aizawa. This isn’t the first time we got to chat with Aizawa-san as we were able to interview him back in December last year.
At that time, Shadow Labyrinth had just been revealed, so our questions were focused on how the concept and the visuals for the game were developed. Now though, our focus was to learn about what challenges the development team faced, especially when it comes to making the game friendly for those new to the genre.
As Shadow Labyrinth is a unique Metroidvania take on Pac-Man, it promises to be quite a challenge. This is the case with our demo time with the game, as I found the combat and platforming parts to be quite a challenge, though they still felt fair. Players new to Metroidvania games won’t have to worry though, as the developers did consider the experience for new players.
Regarding the challenge specifically of the platforming segments, Aizawa mentioned that the demo we played takes place in the middle part of the game. This is important to note as the development team designed the game’s platforming and combat encounters to ramp up quite naturally.
Aizawa explained:
“The media preview happens around the midpoint of the game, which is somewhere around, maybe eight to 10 hours from the start. Normally, the levels are designed so that players can gradually acquire skills and get accustomed to using them step by step, growing alongside the swordsman.
As players obtain new skills and progress through the different stages, the experience is designed so that players can naturally get used to their abilities before moving on to tougher challenges. As such, I believe players don’t have to feel worried, or at least they can feel at ease while playing the game [when it comes to the challenges].”
While not all Metroidvanias have difficult platforming segments, the ones in Shadow Labyrinth make sense, especially considering that some of these parts feature Pac-Man elements, with the protagonist transforming into “Puck.”
Of course, platforming isn’t the only challenge in the game, as navigating the maze-like world is also not that straightforward. Players new to the genre won’t have to feel apprehensive, especially as the developers also ensured that there will be plenty of unlockable shortcuts to make retries easier.
“When exploring for the first time, players might feel that the next checkpoint or save point seems very far away,” said Aizawa. “But by thoroughly exploring, players can discover shortcut routes. The maze world is designed so that subsequent explorations or retries become easier, more rewarding, and less frustrating to the players.”
Aside from talking about the challenging aspects of the game from the player’s point of view, we were also interested in what parts of Shadow Labyrinth were difficult to develop for the team.
Aizawa responded by naming the GAIA mechanic:
“The GAIA element was a significant challenge to us. If it were too powerful, the game balance would kind of be broken, and if it were too weak, it wouldn’t feel worthwhile to use.
After extensive trial and error, we settled on making it strong and invincible, but we set a time limit to strike a good balance in its usability. In addition, because of its large size and jumping capabilities, we had to repeatedly redesign stages that were being developed in parallel, and that was also quite a big challenge.”
For those unfamiliar, in the game, players can transform into a mecha called GAIA, giving players powerful moves, but only for a short time. As such, it made sense that the balance between making it feel just right in terms of strength was challenging.
As for how a mecha mode like this fits into a “Pac-Man” game like this, Aizawa recalled that, in Pac-Man, players can get power cookies that make the ghosts vulnerable. In a way, the GAIA mechanic is a unique interpretation of that mechanic.
This is far from the only Pac-Man connection that this game has, though we’ve only scratched the surface of the game in our demo, as well as our recent chat with Aizawa-san. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long to see more of the game’s various Pac-Man nods as its launch is just a month away.
Shadow Labyrinth will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on July 18, 2025.