Hello people!
My title is Dave Mervik and I’m the Narrative Director for Tarsier Studios, creators of the soon-to-be-released co-op horror recreation Reanimal, which launches on PS5 Feb 13, 2026.
For these of you new to the world of Reanimal, it’s a story of a gaggle of orphans certain collectively by the world they grew up in, and torn aside by what that world grew to become. The Boy and The Woman are your playable characters on this story they usually discover one another very early on at the start of the sport. After they’ve stated their hellos, they set off of their boat to seek out and reclaim their lacking mates – Hood, Bucket and Bandage – from quite a lot of disagreeable locations and even extra disagreeable monsters. It’s honest to say that these youngsters have a sophisticated historical past with this place, so don’t be stunned in the event that they’re a bit nonplussed to see you at first, however all good mates come to those that wait!
This yr we have now travelled to each Gamescom and Tokyo Recreation Present to demo Reanimal for the general public and the response has surpassed all our wildest desires, listening to the screams of each pleasure and terror as gamers labored collectively to outlive has been music to our ears and is precisely what we had hoped for when concocting this concept of being Scared Collectively. So to all of you who gave of your time in Cologne and Tokyo, we give our most heartfelt thanks. It’s that form of reception that makes the numerous years of arduous work price it. Nearly!
As the discharge of the total recreation hoves into view, we wish to take this chance to announce to you right here at the moment that pre-orders are actually open! All pre-orders of Reanimal unlock a pair of unique masks – Foxhead and Muttonhead – which can be utilized by both character to make your travails on this hellish world a bit extra enjoyable, or to blind you to their horrors!
As a studio that reduce its tooth making hats and costumes for LittleBigPlanet, it feels surprisingly acceptable to be again right here all these years later speaking concerning the masks of Reanimal. These of you who’ve already performed the Reanimal demo will know, our newest vary of headwear has gone to a a lot darker place! Sure, gone are the times of donning your silliest hat to gambol with carefree abandon via a world of happiness and creativity. Reanimal is a wildly totally different beast, it’s a world of loss, violence and being scared collectively, a birthday cake hat would spoil every little thing!
At Tarsier, we attempt to make our worlds as wealthy and filled with character as potential, the place the story lives as a lot on the planet round you because it does in what our characters say and do. It’s each enjoyable and rewarding to concentrate to the little issues, filling the background with particulars that inform us extra concerning the world we’re in and the world we got here from. Masks and costumes fall into this class too. Adorning the pinnacle or obscuring the face needn’t at all times be a meaningless act, and in lots of circumstances the masks (or the motive for it) is as a lot part of the story because the individual behind it.
The method of making masks for Reanimal begins in a lot the identical approach as in previous video games, the artists start sketching concepts across the core themes that we discover within the recreation after which iterating these till they hit that elusive Tarsier High quality Bar™. The Foxhead and Muttonhead masks resonated particularly nicely as a result of they’d that bestial flavour that we have been searching for; whereas their predator/prey characterisations quietly reiterate the sport’s thematic undercurrents. They felt like a becoming pair to launch as exclusives, as they arrive with loads of baggage, similar to our protagonists.
So, whereas out searching for your folks, regardless that chances are you’ll dread to take action, it’s price exploring the world round you to see what secrets and techniques could be mendacity round. There are additional story snippets, hidden morsels of lore, easter eggs; and, in fact, a number of the most disagreeable masks we’ve ever created. We will’t assure that carrying them will maintain you protected from what lies forward, however you’ll a minimum of seem like you belong right here!
