OSSE announced on October 21 that its 2D roguelike action game TALES: INK GUARDIAN will launch in Steam Early Access on November 10.
Developed over approximately one year starting in October 2025 by a team of seven developers, the game features combat alongside plants grown from seeds. Progression elements that can be combined in a single run include 150 traits across 15 categories, over 170 relics in 12 sets, seed enhancement, and five blessings. A separate account-wide progression system persists even after a run ends.
Ahead of the release, a demo unveiled during Steam Next Fest is available to play until October 27 at 2:00 AM KST. Set in the "Village," the demo includes story quests searching for witnesses to a puppet attack, ink monster waves, merchant encounters, and trapped treasure chests. It supports Korean, English, and Simplified Chinese, with keyboard and mouse controls.
The story unfolds in a world where different fairy tales have been jumbled together due to Void Ink. A young boy named Eren is summoned by the guardian Lumen and enters the fairy tale world in the body of a small wooden bird. Players use magic seeds to fight the ink and restore stories by conversing with fairy tale characters caught up in incidents. The visuals feature paper-textured art reminiscent of a storybook.
In combat, players combine a three-hit combo using a leek and dashes with a system for planting seeds to deploy plants. Seeds are divided into deployable types that attack enemies from a fixed position and instant-effect types, which can be selected via a wheel menu to suit the situation. Seeds can also be combined to upgrade their tier. Carrot spears and pea guns are planned as future weapons.
If ink on the field is left unchecked, corruption progresses and empowers monsters. Purifying ink yields rewards but costs time and carries risk, forcing players to choose between fighting and purifying. Regular monster waves, stage bosses, and random rift events combine to make every run unfold differently based on the order of progression.
The overall game consists of four stages: Village, Forest, Castle, and Source of Corruption. In each attempt, players alter their combat style by combining relics, traits, and seeds, using persistent account progression to aid subsequent runs.
OSSE plans to run Early Access for approximately 12 months. During this period, it will sequentially add new fairy tale worlds, stages, bosses, elite monsters, plants, relics, skills, and playable characters. The studio also plans to expand difficulty levels and endgame content while making balance and quality-of-life adjustments. Development news will be shared via Steam discussion boards, Discord, and regular developer updates to incorporate user feedback.
