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Way of the Passive Fist [Steam, Official Site] is a rather unique and very colourful arcade brawler and it's releasing with Linux support on March 6th.

I wrote about it briefly back in November last year, but back then it had no solid release date. That's changed today with the official announcement along with this new trailer:

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It sounds like it's going to be pretty decent, since it's not your standard beat 'em up. You will study enemies, parry, dodge and essentially let enemies defeat themselves by draining their stamina. There will be a levelling and upgrade system, fully remappable controls, a story mode and even an arcade mode.

To be sure about the status of the Linux version, I spoke to the developer on Twitter today who confirmed that Linux version will be available at release. Great news, as it looks like a damn fun game.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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6 comments

Kohrias Feb 20, 2018
I put it on my wishlist. Looking forward to the release.
FredO Feb 20, 2018
Classic Arcade stuff right there - wishlisted!
Joeyboots80 Feb 20, 2018
I love beat'em ups! Looks neat. Wishlisted.
D34VA_ Feb 21, 2018
Reminds me of classic Konami games like Turtles in Time or Sunset Riders.
Purple Library Guy Feb 21, 2018
I've always found the whole idea of the "internal", "wuwei", defensive martial arts, using the opponent's strength against them with chi and taoism etc fascinating (not that I think they particularly work in real life, any more than massive flying kicks do--they're just a cool concept). As a tabletop gamer I've noticed it can be very hard to represent well in a game. Both in tabletop and computer gaming your basic punch-harder, kick-higher, chi-as-lightning-bolt approach is much more common. So it's nice to see someone try to do a game that does the defensive style.
RanceJustice Feb 22, 2018
A few months back, HumbleBundle "Humble Monthly" subscribers were given an early taste of Way of the Passive Fist via a demo of sorts.

Offering the entire first level of the game, it showcases the unique gameplay style. The "defensive" element makes it very different from most brawlers and adds a ton of new mechanics. This is not to say you're entirely helpless or anything, as your relatively rare offensive moves are "fueled" by properly countering your enemy's attacks allowing one to build up devastating finishers. The battle system of parrying, counters, and super-moves, even at the very early stage of the game (before even the basic tiers of the skill tree are unlocked) is fresh and quite difficult. Stringing together long combos of parries, retorts, and abilities without error not only grants you a better score, it will allow you to build up to even greater attacks!

There is a neat custom difficulty option from the start that lets you change everything from the number of enemies to their health/attacks, your own health, and other things like flashing to telegraph attacks, which I am sure will lead to much replay value for those chasing high scores and/or want to defeat the game with every difficulty component tweaked to the max. Greyed out menus on various levels, skill trees etc.. portend there will be lots to do, but alas it does appear to be a completely single player title, which is a small disappointment. Brawlers like this, even with a unique combat system, are often best enjoyed cooperatively so it would have been nice to see a co-op mode, ideally both online and local. Perhaps if it does well a sequel or DLC could add alternate characters with additional playstyles, as well as the option for co-op play!

Overall I think it would be a a very enjoyable brawler and its even better to see it coming to Linux!
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