Tides of Annihilation wants its knights inside the combo, not waiting in a menu

Eclipse Glow Games brought Tides of Annihilation to Cologne for what it describes as the game's first global public playtest.

The build contains branching routes rather than one fixed slice. Different paths lead through different exploration and combat sequences, with Mordred waiting at the end of one and Geraint at the end of the other.

Summoning a knight does not stop Gwendolyn's attack

Gwendolyn already has a fast action-game kit built around movement, dodging, parrying and strings of melee attacks. The Knight System is layered on top of that foundation.

A knight can be called during Gwendolyn's sequence, attack while she continues moving or striking, and provide another link before the player commits to a stronger ability.

Control never needs to leave Gwendolyn.

That distinction becomes clearer during hands-on play. Simply pressing a knight button whenever it becomes available works, but using those attacks deliberately inside Gwendolyn's own strings produces a much more continuous rhythm.

The Knight System is supposed to create builds

Game director Ary Chen describes the knights as a way to support different character builds and combat styles rather than a checklist of Arthurian names to collect.

Individual knights bring their own abilities and functions. One configuration might help preserve pressure, another may offer a different way to control an enemy or extend an opening.

The important promise is that acquiring another knight expands the player's options instead of functioning as a simple numerical upgrade over the last summon.

The system becomes more convincing when the player has to maintain it

Tides of Annihilation moves quickly. Gwendolyn can shift between targets, evade an attack and bring a knight into the exchange without stopping for a separate cinematic super move.

Early in a session, it is easy to forget the summons and play her like a conventional character-action protagonist.

Once the knight inputs become part of the player's regular sequence, the distinction starts to matter. Gwendolyn can begin an attack, let a spectral partner hold the target in the middle, reposition and return before the enemy fully recovers.

The harder problem for Eclipse Glow is visual clarity. Multiple spectral allies, large enemies and elaborate effects can occupy the same arena at once.

The demo makes players choose between Mordred and Geraint

Gamescom's branching structure means attendees do not necessarily finish with the same boss fight.

One route culminates in Mordred, while another leads to Geraint. A single session does not expose every combat sequence in the build.

It is a useful way of demonstrating variation without reducing the demo to a boss-select screen.

Colossal encounters still operate on another scale

Tides of Annihilation continues to alternate its regular battles with enormous supernatural figures. Eclipse Glow has cited Shadow of the Colossus among its influences, while its moment-to-moment combat pulls from much faster Japanese action games.

That combination creates a design problem of its own. A combo system that feels precise against a human-sized opponent does not automatically survive when the enemy occupies half the skyline.

Earlier demonstrations showed Gwendolyn navigating around and across colossal threats rather than simply attacking one stationary weak point.

This version of Arthurian legend is already a long way from Camelot

Eclipse Glow is deliberately treating the myths as raw material. Gwendolyn is a modern protagonist living through an interdimensional catastrophe in a fractured London, while legendary knights become supernatural companions in her combat system.

Chen says the Chinese studio wanted to approach King Arthur from its own cultural perspective instead of reproducing another conventional Western version of the legend.

The team's stated influences range well beyond medieval literature. Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, Berserk, Fate and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are among the works its developers have discussed.

The JoJo comparison becomes particularly easy to see when spectral fighters materialize beside Gwendolyn and attack without replacing her.

Gamescom matters because the player can finally make the system look messy

Eclipse Glow has already demonstrated that Tides of Annihilation can look spectacular when the studio controls the camera and edit.

In Cologne, players can mistime a parry, summon the wrong knight and spend the final minutes of a session getting flattened by Geraint.

That is a much more useful test.

Tides of Annihilation remains in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Eclipse Glow Games has not announced a release date.