Among the Waves positions itself as the first Metroidvania where the protagonist is pregnant, and that’s not just a cosmetic detail. Your powers literally come from the unborn child, whose emotional state directly affects your combat effectiveness. Developed by seven-person team VS/Studio and targeting a 2027 release, this 2.5D philosophical Metroidvania with immersive sim elements deliberately abandons genre conventions like double jumps and dashes in favor of weight manipulation, time distortion, and physics-based problem solving set in an “Orthodoxpunk” world inspired by Orthodox Christian iconography.
The premise follows the Nameless One, a pregnant mother infiltrating an abandoned futuristic fortress to reach the Birth Room where she can safely deliver Chado, her child who possesses a divine nature. The antagonist is also pregnant, creating thematic parallels around motherhood, power, and sacrifice. This isn’t pregnancy awkwardly shoehorned into an existing game design. The entire mechanical framework revolves around this central concept, with the child’s divine essence enabling supernatural abilities while their mood system influences gameplay rhythm and combat difficulty.
Your Baby’s Mood Affects Your Power
Chado’s emotional state fluctuates based on player decisions throughout the journey. Keep your unborn child happy and battles become noticeably easier as your combat effectiveness increases. Let Chado become distressed through your choices and your abilities weaken, making encounters significantly harder. This creates a unique risk-reward tension absent from traditional Metroidvanias where player skill alone determines difficulty.
Rather than upgrading the protagonist herself, progression focuses on developing the child. This inversion of typical power fantasy mechanics transforms how you approach exploration and combat. You’re not becoming personally stronger. You’re nurturing the source of your power, whose wellbeing depends on your decisions. This parental responsibility layer adds emotional weight to choices that would be purely tactical in other games.
The mood system also directly impacts gameplay variety. When Chado is content, you can experiment with aggressive strategies and powerful abilities. When distressed, you’re forced into more cautious approaches, using stealth and environmental manipulation rather than direct confrontation. This dynamic difficulty adjustment feels organic rather than artificial because it emerges from narrative circumstances instead of arbitrary slider adjustments.
Orthodoxpunk Aesthetics and Mysticism
VS/Studio coined the term Orthodoxpunk to describe their visual and thematic approach, drawing heavily from Orthodox Christian iconography, mysticism, and architectural elements. This cultural foundation distinguishes Among the Waves from the typical cyberpunk or steampunk aesthetics dominating indie Metroidvanias. Concepts like the Immaculate Conception, the Mother of God, and the arrival of a savior inform the narrative framework.
This religious foundation isn’t just window dressing. The mystical elements directly connect to gameplay mechanics. The divine nature of your unborn child explains supernatural abilities within the game’s internal logic. The Birth Room as a sacred destination provides clear narrative motivation for infiltrating the fortress despite obvious danger. The pregnant antagonist creates philosophical conflict beyond simple hero versus villain dynamics.
Orthodox visual language emphasizes verticality, ornate decoration, and symbolic representation, which translates beautifully to Metroidvania level design where exploration of layered vertical spaces forms the core experience. The architectural inspiration provides distinctive visual identity while reinforcing thematic elements about transcendence, sanctuary, and spiritual journey that mirror your literal journey through the fortress.
No Double Jumps, No Dashes
Among the Waves deliberately excludes staple Metroidvania abilities like double jumps, wall jumps, or dashes that nearly every game in the genre includes. Instead, the Nameless One possesses genuinely unique powers derived from her divine child. Adjust your weight to become lighter for longer jumps or heavier to break through fragile floors. Manipulate time to slow enemy movements or environmental hazards. Dash toward enemies at incredible speeds for devastating strikes rather than using dashes purely for traversal.
These unconventional abilities fundamentally change how you approach environmental puzzles and combat encounters. Traditional Metroidvanias gate areas behind specific movement upgrades: you can’t reach that ledge until you get double jump, can’t cross that gap until you unlock dash. Among the Waves gates progress behind creative application of physics-based powers that combine in unexpected ways.
Physics becomes your primary weapon rather than swords or guns. Understanding how weight manipulation affects momentum, how time distortion interacts with enemy patterns, and how environmental objects can be weaponized through clever power usage creates problem-solving depth that rewards experimentation over pattern memorization.
Environmental Hazards as Threats
Beyond aggressive enemies both organic and mechanical, you contend with environmental status effects that create constant pressure. Nausea, freezing, overheating, and suffocation force resource management and route planning. Traditional Metroidvanias focus primarily on enemy threats. Among the Waves makes the fortress itself dangerous, requiring careful navigation that accounts for environmental hazards alongside combat considerations.
These systems reinforce the vulnerability inherent to playing a pregnant protagonist infiltrating hostile territory. You’re not an unstoppable warrior. You’re someone with physical limitations and environmental sensitivities who happens to possess supernatural abilities. This tension between power and vulnerability creates unique emotional resonance.
Immersive Sim Freedom
VS/Studio describes Among the Waves as combining Metroidvania structure with immersive sim philosophy, allowing players to approach encounters through combat, stealth, traps, ambushes, consumable items, or hidden pathways. This freedom is uncommon in Metroidvanias where movement abilities usually dictate allowed approaches. Most games in the genre eventually give you every tool, limiting strategic diversity.
Among the Waves maintains meaningful choice by ensuring no single approach dominates. Players can specialize in combat builds focusing on aggressive abilities. Stealth-focused players can invest in avoiding detection entirely. Trap specialists can prepare ambush scenarios using environmental hazards and physics manipulation. This build diversity combined with the child mood system creates enormous replayability as different approaches feel genuinely distinct.
The level design accommodates this strategic freedom through interconnected spaces with multiple routes, destructible elements that open new paths, and environmental objects that can be manipulated for various purposes. This emergent gameplay philosophy borrowed from immersive sims creates memorable player-driven moments rather than scripted sequences.
Development Journey Since 2023
VS/Studio has been developing Among the Waves since 2023 with a seven-person team including an artist, animator, two developers, tester, project creator handling design and direction, and co-author focused on community engagement and partnerships. For a project this ambitious, that’s a remarkably small team, which partially explains the 2027 target date giving adequate time for proper development.
The developers actively engage with community feedback on Reddit and other platforms, explaining design decisions and addressing concerns about controversial elements like the pregnant protagonist. They emphasize this concept originated in 2014 concept art, predating any accusations of chasing controversy. The pregnancy isn’t a recent addition or AI-generated gimmick but the foundational concept around which the entire game was designed.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Among the Waves?
Among the Waves is a 2.5D Metroidvania with immersive sim elements developed by VS/Studio. It features a pregnant protagonist whose powers come from her unborn divine child, set in an Orthodoxpunk world inspired by Orthodox Christian iconography.
Why is the protagonist pregnant?
The pregnancy is central to the game’s mechanics and narrative. The protagonist’s supernatural abilities derive from her unborn child Chado, who has a divine nature. The child’s emotional state affects combat effectiveness, and the goal is reaching the Birth Room to safely deliver.
When does it release?
Among the Waves is targeting a 2027 release on PC via Steam. Development began in 2023, and the game is being created by a seven-person team.
What is Orthodoxpunk?
Orthodoxpunk is the term VS/Studio uses to describe their aesthetic inspired by Orthodox Christian visual elements, mysticism, and architecture rather than typical cyberpunk or steampunk settings common in indie games.
Does it have traditional Metroidvania abilities?
No, Among the Waves deliberately excludes standard abilities like double jumps and dashes. Instead, the protagonist can manipulate her weight, distort time, and dash toward enemies, creating unique movement and combat mechanics.
How does the child mood system work?
Chado’s emotional state fluctuates based on player decisions. A happy child increases combat effectiveness, while a distressed child weakens your abilities, creating dynamic difficulty that emerges organically from narrative circumstances.
What gameplay styles are supported?
The game supports multiple approaches including direct combat, stealth, traps and ambushes, powerful consumable items, and discovering hidden pathways. Players can specialize in different styles across multiple playthroughs.
Are there environmental hazards?
Yes, beyond enemies, you face environmental status effects including nausea, freezing, overheating, and suffocation that create additional challenges and force careful navigation through the fortress.
Conclusion
Among the Waves represents the kind of bold creative risk-taking indie gaming desperately needs. Rather than safely iterating on proven Metroidvania formulas with incremental changes, VS/Studio designed an entirely different experience that happens to use the Metroidvania structure as a framework. The pregnant protagonist isn’t shock value or controversy bait but a deeply integrated mechanical and thematic foundation that informs every system from power progression to emotional stakes. The Orthodoxpunk aesthetic provides distinctive visual identity while connecting to narrative themes about divinity, motherhood, and sanctuary that resonate throughout the journey. Abandoning genre staples like double jumps in favor of physics manipulation and weight adjustment forces players to rethink how they approach environmental puzzles and traversal challenges. The child mood system creates organic difficulty variation tied to player choices rather than arbitrary sliders. And the immersive sim philosophy of multiple valid approaches prevents the game from funneling everyone down identical paths. Whether this ambitious vision succeeds depends on execution, which we won’t know until 2027. But the willingness to pursue genuinely unique ideas deserves recognition and support. Too many indie developers play it safe, creating competent but forgettable experiences that blend together. VS/Studio chose to build something memorable, controversial, and unmistakably their own. That courage matters, especially in an industry increasingly dominated by safe sequels and proven formulas.