Memoria Wake Beta Demo: Soulslike Umbrella Combat

Memoria Wake is a soulslike action-adventure, and your weapon is an umbrella. It's built for fighting, not for keeping you dry, and that alone made me want to know more.

A beta demo for the game is now available on Steam. If you like your boss fights tough, your worlds a little strange and your gear a bit unusual, this one deserves a spot on your radar.

A Dreamer Lost in Shadow and Light

You play as the Dreamer, who wakes up in a broken land made of shadows and light. The landscapes are described as surreal, and they also shift around you. That's a nice hook for a genre that usually depends on learning a fixed map inch by inch.

The goal is personal. A friend has gone missing, and the Dreamer sets out to find them. Along the way, you slowly piece together a fractured past. The friend is described as long-lost, so this seems to be less a quick rescue and more a search that has dragged on for some time.

The developers put a lot of weight on mood. Beauty and horror are meant to sit side by side in a hand-crafted world. I'm always a sucker for that mix. Pretty places that feel slightly wrong tend to stay with you longer than places that are simply grim.

Parry Like You Mean It

Combat follows soulslike rules. You dodge enemy attacks, and if you parry at exactly the right moment, foes open up for heavy hits. Anyone who has spent an evening dying to the same knight in a souls game knows how good a clean parry feels. Seeing that moment delivered with an umbrella should be a treat.

There's plenty to fight, too. The game promises more than 15 bosses. For an indie project, that's a solid number, and it hints that boss encounters will be the backbone of the adventure.

Your umbrella won't be your only tool. Four secondary weapons can be unlocked, so there should be room to change up your approach once a fight turns against you.

Artifacts, Puzzles and a Tricky Energy Bar

Exploration pays off through artifacts. These grant new abilities, and they don't only help in combat. Some also open up puzzle solutions. That points to a world you'll want to search carefully, a bit like the dark fantasy action of SACRATA rewards players who dig around.

The detail that interests me most is the healing system. Special attacks and healing items draw from the same energy pool. So every heal is a real decision. Do you patch yourself up now, or save that energy for a big attack that might end the fight faster?

It's a simple idea, but it could make boss fights much more tense. Playing it safe has a cost, and so does going on the offensive. I suspect plenty of players will learn that lesson the hard way.

Where to Get It

The Memoria Wake beta demo can be downloaded through Steam right now. That makes it easy to jump in and test the umbrella combat for yourself. If you've already worked through recent demos like the gravity-bending Fallgrade, this is another free taste worth adding to your queue.

The pitch ends with a groan-worthy pun about nobody raining on your parry. I'll allow it.

Our Take

Soulslikes have become one of the most crowded corners of indie gaming. To stand out, a new one needs a hook, and Memoria Wake seems to have two. The umbrella gives it an instant identity, and the shared energy pool for healing and special attacks adds a layer of strategy to every fight.

The bigger question is whether the shifting, surreal world turns out to be more than a pretty backdrop. If the changing landscapes actually affect how you explore and fight, that could set the game apart from genre peers. If they are mostly visual, the combat will have to carry everything.

Story is another thing to keep an eye on. A missing friend and a broken past are familiar setups. As with Deadpact's survival horror descent, much will depend on how well atmosphere and storytelling hold together over a full playthrough.

For now, the beta demo is the best way to judge. It is worth watching how the developers react to feedback, especially on parry timing and on balancing that energy pool. Those two systems will likely decide whether Memoria Wake feels fair or just frustrating.