3 weeks Ago By Si Jia
Shares 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 This interview has been edited for clarity. Legend has it that the birth of the Chinese Zodiac started with a Great Race in Ancient China, involving various animals competing for the honour of having a year on a duodenary, aka 12-year calendar, cycle named after them. The Rat crossed the finish line first, with the Ox settling for second place, and soon enough, 12 different species were fixed as the final zodiac lineup.
As is often the case with folklore, its influence can extend into other cultures, including Asian and Southeast Asian, where slight deviations have spawned. The Vietnamese zodiac, for instance, replaces the Ox with the Water Buffalo, while its Malay counterpart eschews the Rabbit and Pig for the mousedeer and tortoise, respectively. Similarly, the Thai version features a naga – a divine, sometimes semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld – in place of the Dragon, but the total headcount always remains the same.
Breathing new life into the concept is 13Z: The Zodiac Trials, hailing from Singapore developer Mixed Realms , best known for their work on VR titles Hellsweeper and Sairento . Using the age-old tale as a springboard for creative inspiration, the hack-and-slash roguelike jaunt sees players participating in the Great Race, now reopened as a combat trial, to prove themselves worthy of the highly coveted position. As the game progresses, they will cross paths with the existing 12 zodiacs and unlock different story elements, revealing more about each of them.
The Chinese mythological roots run deeper, finding a steadfast, constant presence in the bagua (八卦), otherwise known as the Eight Trigrams, a set of symbols intended to illustrate the nature of reality as being composed of mutually opposing forces reinforcing one another. Each is associated with one of the eight natural forces of nature: Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Wind, Water, Fire, Mountain, and Lake, offering the opportunity to build the game’s upgrade system around them. “We take them and mix and match stuff that comes out of it.
For example, when you think of fire, what do you think of?” asks game director Chalit Noonchoo in an exclusive virtual interview with Geek Culture. “You think of damage over time, right, or this burning fury in you? We take these elements and translate them into the typical roguelike elements.” While those familiar with xianxia (仙侠) – a fantasy genre influenced by various philosophies, other traditional elements of Chinese culture, and the wuxia (武侠) martial arts genre, which concerns the adventures of marital artists ancient China – may draw parallels between the gameplay loop of undertaking several trials and their significance to the narrative structure of a wuxia story, Noonchoo clarifies that it’s more of a stylistic decision than anything else.
“At its heart, it’s a roguelike experience with these cultural elements tacked on, so from that perspective, it’s more of a flavour rather than the core focus of the gameplay itself,” he explains. “Where we try to make a difference [in the roguelike scene] is the introduction of the zodiacs.” Unlike the original legend, 13Z: The Zodiac Trials has the whole animal kingdom to tap into, since it puts the non-Zodiac ones into focus.
The array of options is hardly useful for the selection process, though, so the team fell back on two core pillars of gameplay to narrow down the list – accessibility and design coherence. The former is particularly important, as the co-op addition calls for the need to accommodate players of all skill levels. Supergiant Games’ indie hit Hades and Capcom’s Devil May Cry series are cited as major inspirations behind Mixed Realms’ upcoming entry, but expect echoes of Hopoo Games’ roguelike third-person shooter Risk of Rain 2 , as well as Gunfire Reborn , Duoyi Games’ level-based adventure title featuring first-person shooter, roguelite, with a mix of role-playing game (RPG) elements thrown in for good measure as well.
Offering both solo and co-op play, the latter also lends a multiplayer expertise to Hades ’ direct playstyle that’s free of complicated combos. “We choose to lean more into the side of so-called simpler gameplay, so that it’s easier to pick up and is more direct in terms of gameplay,” shares Noonchoo. “We aren’t building a game where you can continue building a character until he becomes a super god and stays there; it’s not an RPG.
” To that end, the first playable character in 13Z: The Zodiac Trials is specially designed to be beginner-friendly. Lyra the Fox is portrayed as “easy to pick up”, pairing a hybrid melee and ranged combat with agile movement, alongside a combo chain that triggers just by pressing the basic attack button a couple of times. There are, of course, upgrade options that will change how her basic and spinning attacks operate, with the ability to wall-run up surfaces proving unique to her being and reinforcing her nimbleness.
Similarly, Sylith the Raven can take limited flight around the battlefield, reflecting his ranged-focused play style. This balance between ease of play and a flashy presentation, a staple of the action genre – roguelike or otherwise – spills over to battle design, which utilises a third-person point of view. Citing comparisons to Hades ’ top-down camera, the game developer-slash-designer highlights that the different perspective doesn’t allow players to see enemy positions like how an overhead view would, resulting in a reduced level of awareness that has introduced some modifications to the formula: “A lot of times we have to do things differently, in the sense that maybe enemies need to have a greater kind of telegraphing, so we can hear them off-screen, or there’s some indicator off-screen.
In terms of speed, we also experimented with how fast or slow the game should be, and here, we’re leaning more towards faster-paced combat to bring it closer to a combat spectacle.” It’s a sticking point for Mixed Realms, who toyed around with a slower, more methodical gameplay in the vein of Souls-like (a subgenre of action RPGs known for high difficulty level and emphasis on environmental storytelling) experiences in their second playtest, but now finds a clear answer in a frantic, snappy approach. For Jun Shen Chia of the Xbox Global Expansion team, 13Z: The Zodiac Trials was “hitting all the right notes” even in its early development stages.
The title was one of the five made-in-Asia indie projects to be spotlighted in the 2025 Xbox Asia Developer Session — and for good reason, starting with its foray into a yet-to-mature space. “I already knew that this was going to be something special because I think the whole roguelike co-op thing is still relatively new. Then, there’s also the fact that it was like a third-person action combat,” says the industry veteran, pointing to Hoyoverse’s Genshin Impact and Kuro Games’ Wuthering Waves as artistic influences for the title.
“It was such a no-brainer to support this game because they were hitting all the right notes, and I think it’s a game that’s going to do very, very well.” As 13Z: The Zodiac Trials inches closer to the finish line, plenty of ideas are begging to be explored, even if they may not be implemented in the final build. For starters, the team is considering using the zodiac wheel to randomise – a core part of the roguelike genre – each run that the player goes on, in which the whole trial changes based on the element it corresponds to.
A companion mechanic is also a possibility, allowing challengers to have a, say, dog spirit or a tagalong from one of the 12 zodiacs, alongside an input system asking them to choose a zodiac, and having that set the tone for the first few runs. What’s certain is that more characters will be added to the roster moving forward. While Noonchoo cannot reveal specifics, he confirmed plans to introduce familiar archetypes, including melee and ranged fighters, spellcasters, and sneaky, backstabbing builds similar to a rogue or thief.
As he succinctly puts it, “The sky’s the limit. If you can imagine it, you can create something crazy.” 13Z: The Zodiac Trials is targeting a release for PC via Steam and Xbox consoles in Q2 2026 .
Si Jia Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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