Game: Elta: Defy All Gods
Developer: Afterburner Studios (Dreamscaper)
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Genre: Science-Fantasy Action-Platformer
Release: Early 2027
Platforms: PC · PS5 · Xbox Series X|S
Demo: October 1, all platforms
Revealed At: Opening Night Live
⚔️ Focus Entertainment revealed Elta: Defy All Gods during Opening Night Live — a science-fantasy action-platformer from the Dreamscaper team, arriving early 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
🎮 A Free Demo Lands October 1 — On Every Platform
This is the part worth circling. Elta’s free demo, covering the beginning of the game, arrives October 1 on all three platforms simultaneously — not PC only.
Console demos have become genuinely uncommon. Most publishers run a Steam demo during a Next Fest and leave PlayStation and Xbox players waiting for launch. Putting a playable build on all three at once, sixteen months before release, is a confident move — and it means you can judge this for yourself in about five weeks rather than taking a trailer’s word for it.
Bring down the gods. Bring one with you.
A people exiled for centuries, and a warrior monk searching for the god who was supposed to protect them.
Elta: Defy All Gods casts you as Victus, an elite warrior monk hunting for their lost god in the hope of finding a way forward for a civilisation that’s been exiled for generations. Restoring that god’s former power might be the key to something better.
The god in question is Elta — a dragon-god who accompanies you through corrupted worlds as a companion rather than a distant objective.
Brawler Meets 3D Metroidvania
👊 From Brawlers
Free-form melee combat mixing lethal martial arts with devastating magic, built for explosive group fights rather than one-on-one duels.
🗺️ From 3D Metroidvanias
Three sprawling science-fantasy worlds full of hidden secrets, gated behind an evolving traversal toolkit you chain together to reach further.
⚙️ Two Progression Tracks, Running Together
Afterburner state the influence outright — brawlers and 3D metroidvanias — and the interesting consequence is that Elta has two separate things to get better at.
Your combat deepens through new martial arts techniques and magic abilities. Your traversal deepens through acrobatic skills that open up parts of the map you couldn’t previously reach. Most action-platformers make one of those the real progression and treat the other as decoration.
Running both properly means a returning player is stronger and more mobile — and that a world you cleared early has genuinely changed by the time you can get back into its corners.
The framing on that is a nice touch too. Victus unlocks new moves by walking in the steps of their ancestors, which turns the ability tree into something with a bit of cultural weight rather than a menu of upgrades.
The God Is on Your Side
🐉 “Defy All Gods” — Except This One
The title suggests deicide, and it partly delivers: you’re bringing down the gods who wronged your people and left them exiled for centuries.
But Elta is a god too, and Elta is your companion. Victus isn’t rejecting the divine — they’re restoring their own fallen one and using them to settle accounts with the rest.
That’s a more interesting position than straightforward god-killing, and it gives the pair a shared arc: as the announcement puts it, Victus and Elta grow stronger together with each challenge, rather than one carrying the other.
🥋 Martial Arts and Magic
Intense melee mixing lethal techniques and devastating magical attacks in explosive group fights.
🌌 Three Worlds
Winding science-fantasy environments, each sprawling and hiding secrets in their furthest corners.
🤸 Chain Your Traversal
Link acrobatic abilities together to reach areas that were closed to you the first time through.
🐲 Grow With Elta
Both champion and god get stronger as you progress, unlocking new techniques along the way.
For our second title we’ve gone much bigger, taking all we’ve learned about weighty combat, satisfying game feel, and fluid action to another level. Focus Entertainment has been a terrific partner in our goal to create a world-class action title, enabling our team to realize a very ambitious vision.
— Ian Cofino, Co-Founder & Game Director, Afterburner Studios
Afterburner’s Second Game
“We’ve gone much bigger” is doing real work in that quote. Afterburner Studios’ debut, Dreamscaper, was a well-regarded action roguelite that launched in August 2021 on PC and Switch before reaching Xbox and Game Pass the following year — and has since passed 750,000 players.
That’s a strong foundation for a second title, and it explains the shape of this one. Dreamscaper was built on weighty melee combat in compact runs; Elta takes the same interest in game feel and stretches it across three explorable worlds with a publisher behind it.
🖥️ PC (Steam)
🎮 PlayStation 5
🟩 Xbox Series X|S
⚔️ Action-Platformer
👊 Brawler
🗺️ Metroidvania
🔮 Science-Fantasy
🤸 Traversal
🎯 Single-Player
Who’s Making It
🔥 Afterburner Studios
Founded in summer 2018 by Robert Taylor, Ian Cofino and Paul Svoboda, set up deliberately outside the large-studio system with a stated mission to make evocative action experiences that put fun first. Dreamscaper was their debut.
🎯 Focus Entertainment
Elta is Focus’s second Opening Night Live reveal of this cycle, alongside the open-world racer CLUTCH. We’ve also covered Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy and BioEden recently.
Focus are having a busy showcase. Two 2027 reveals in one broadcast — a AAA open-world racer and an ambitious indie action-platformer — suggests a publisher expanding in several directions at once.
Elta: Defy All Gods arrives in early 2027. The free demo lands October 1 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Hi there! I’m Marie, also known as CtrlQueen. I’m passionate about keeping up with the latest in gaming news and sharing my insights. RPGs steal my heart with their rich narratives and immersive worlds, but I also love unwinding with fun, casual games. Whether you’re here for deep dives into game mechanics or just to chat about your favorite casual game, you’ve found the right place! Let’s game and explore together.
