Norse mythology and roguelikes go together like Squaresoft and the SNES, and now the studio behind Figment is taking its swing at the pairing. Rogueliker reports that Bedtime Digital Games has announced Chosen by Odin, a co-op action roguelike.

Details are thin, which is par for the course with a fresh announcement and nothing else. What we know: it's built around co-op, it's Norse-flavored, and it's a hard genre pivot for a studio whose reputation rests on hand-drawn, dreamlike puzzle adventures. Figment and its sequel were never about frame data or build crafting. They were about atmosphere and a storybook charm most studios can't draw if you held a Mjolnir to their heads.

That's the part I find interesting. The roguelike space is crowded in a way that would've been unthinkable back when Rogue Legacy was the new kid. Every week brings another entry, and the ones that stick either nail the combat feel or bring something structurally fresh. A studio known for art direction and audio can absolutely differentiate on presentation. Whether they can make dying and restarting feel good fifty runs in is the open question.

Co-op is the smart hedge. I said as much with Dumpster Gang and Big Walk: when the hangout is the product, the loop can be a little looser and people still show up. A roguelike where you and a friend are getting wiped by valkyries together forgives a lot of balance wobble. And Norse mythology is basically pre-written boss design. You've got a whole pantheon of jerks to fight.

The Figment games dealt with heavy themes under their whimsy, so there's a real writing team in that building. Odin as a boss-giver who isn't necessarily your friend has plenty of narrative teeth, and a roguelike structure where death is baked into the fiction gives a writer room a linear adventure doesn't.

No release window or platforms were mentioned, so file this one under "watch, don't preorder." The Figment games were charming and flew under more radars than they should have, so I'm rooting for these folks. But charm has never carried a roguelike on its own; the loop is what does that.

We'll see if Bedtime Digital Games can make me eat my skepticism. Fenrir knows I've been wrong before.