The Art of Stylish Combat

Hey Slippers!

You’ll be cutting through a lot of Stepmothers’ armies during your runs. A lot.

Which means one thing became incredibly important while building Swords & Slippers: combat can’t feel like a chore.

We never wanted combat to feel like a slog you grind through just to push the story forward or chase the next reward. The combat itself is the important part. The thing you can keep getting better at. The thing that lets you improvise, pull out stylish moves, experiment, and occasionally turn the battlefield into complete fairytale nonsense.

Alright. Time to expose the quirky little ecosystem behind the violence.

Mashing buttons… But which ones?

Two attack buttons make the core of the combat: light and heavy. Sounds simple, but it isn’t quite so.

Attacks depend not only on what you press, but how. Holding an input may trigger a charged variant. Delaying the next hit for just a moment can branch your combo into a different route entirely. And naturally, every heroine bends those rules in her own way.

Then comes the rest of the toolkit:

Dash - for dodging or sprinting.

Defense - because getting hit hurts.

Jump and double jump - the air is a battlefield too.

Character switch - the true gateway to combo chaos.

Lock-on - when you gotta focus on that one enemy.

Ultimate attacks - still in the oven, but we’ll show more soon.

Every Hit Leads Somewhere

Our attacks are grouped into Attack Lanes - chains of consecutive attacks tied to either light or heavy inputs. Each lane eventually leads into a powerful finisher, but getting there depends on how you fight.

There are Ground Lanes and Aerial Lanes for both Light and Heavy attacks, sprint attacks, backdash attacks, and even special routes triggered by slightly delaying your next input, Pause Lanes. When performing attacks each Lane keeps track of what was your last attack on that lane and next attack from this lane will be.

That combo flow only resets once a Combo End is triggered - by performing a Lane Finisher, movement, knockback, falling, recovering after attacks, or dashing (unless you unlock a bonus that lets you break that rule a little).

Move set Snow White

Move set Red Riding Hood

And no, switching characters does not reset your combo progression. That’s where things start getting fun.

Every character specializes in different things. Some dominate on the ground, some excel in aerial combat, some are built around launching enemies skyward for the next character to continue the punishment. As you may have experienced yourself, Snow and Red don’t just look different - they fight differently too.

From Stagger To Swagger

Combat control is not just about damage numbers flying around the screen. Every hit in Swords & Slippers carries force behind it.

Each attack has its own knockback strength, while characters and enemies have knockback mass that can even shift during certain animations. The interaction between those two decides how hard a target gets interrupted.

The result can range from:

Twitch - not enough to interrupt anything.

Stagger - short interruption and slight pushback.

Push - stronger displacement and longer loss of control.

Knockdown - launching the target airborne for proper juggling.

And once an enemy is already airborne, keeping them there becomes much easier.

One thing worth noting, some attacks are designed specifically as launchers, smoothly transitioning ground combat into aerial combos - because sometimes the best place for an enemy is several feet above the battlefield.

Parry This, Stepmother

Let’s not forget that combat is not just about attacking wildly until something explodes. It’s kill or be killed, so staying alive matters too.

Dodging is performed with the dash button, though you cannot spam it endlessly - it would be too easy. Each heroine has her own dodge limits, movement style, and recovery rhythm. And naturally, perfectly timed dodges come with extra special effects.

Defense itself goes a little deeper.

Blocking reduces incoming damage and knockback, but it must be timed and re-performed properly - no hiding behind a permanently held button and a fat stamina bar. It also won’t protect you from on-hit effects.

That’s where parries come in.

A perfectly timed defensive move staggers the attacker and prevents those effects from triggering in the first place.

Show Us What You’ve Got

One of the things we’re most excited for?

Seeing what you do with the system once you get your hands on it.

The weird combos. The accidental discoveries. The stylish nonsense we never expected players to come up with.

Because the best combat systems aren’t just played.

They’re explored.

Wanna share your favorite combat moments? Join us on [Discord] and show off your best moves!