Mega Cat Studios and ZPF Team have published an update on the upcoming Mega Drive / Genesis shoot 'em up ZPF, revealing a new lore trailer for the game and announcing that the fulfillment date for the game's Kickstarter and pre-order rewards has now shifted back from Q1 2025 to May of this year.
This new lore trailer is narrated by a strange character called Quigely, and gives us some more insight into the three playable characters and the three distinct worlds that make up the game's setting. During the course of the video, for instance, we learn that the character Knight is actually an ancient set of armour built by forgotten gods that is being piloted by a talented magician, while Gold is instead a sassy cyborg doing high-risk work for the city officials.
As for Gladius, it is a ship carrying one of the remaining survivors of a space colony that has been attacked by xenomorph-esque aliens and is now intent on seeking revenge against these mutated abominations.
Thanks to a series of rifts, the three come together, with the goal of battling an unknown evil force that is beckoning them to their destiny.
According to the developers, the game is pretty much completed at this stage, with the team only having to put some small finishing touches to the project, such as implementing the names of the various "Knight of Legend" backers. However, due to "some unexpected vendor delays from the holiday season", the two companies have stated they have been forced to push the release date back to give them some more time to make sure everything runs smoothly.
The team has stated that they will use this time to further playtest the title, and said if there's a chance to ship materials sooner, they'll try to get them into the hands of those who supported the project as quickly as possible.
Here's the full statement:
“As we continue making progress on ZPF, we wanted to give you an update on the release schedule. Development is essentially complete, and the team is steaming along to put the finishing touches on the game, such as adding in the backer names from our Knight of Legend tiers. Due to some unexpected vendor delays from the holiday season, we’ve had to make the tough decision to shift the fulfillment date to May.
We know this is a bit later than expected and that delays for any reason are frustrating, and we truly appreciate your understanding as we work through these final details to make the ZPF campaign fulfillment the very best it can be.
That said, if the materials we're waiting on arrive sooner, we'll absolutely make sure to get them into your hands as quickly as possible. We'll be taking advantage of this extra time by focusing on further playtesting and QA so we can catch any sneaky bugs we might’ve missed, and guarantee a smoother and more enjoyable experience for everyone."
We'll try and keep you updated if anything ends up changing.