Check out our 1348 Ex Voto: Demo Impressions to see if we’re looking forward to the full release of the Medieval, Italian action-adventure
Following my slow and steady exploration as a hunched-over amber fuelled goblin in Styx: Blades of Greed, I decided I wanted to try something entirely different. I’d had my on 1348 Ex Voto following its reveal at the Future Games Showcase in August last year, and since they’ve released a PC demo for it, ahead of its 12 March release, this felt like a no-brainer.
Setting the Scene
The demo is set at the very beginning of the game, setting the scene, teaching you the basics, and setting up the plot of the game. You play as Aeta, a young knight errant with a terrible (but of the time) haircut. The opening is lighthearted as you practice combat whilst your ‘closest one’, Bianca (voiced by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Jennifer English) observes, and taunts you.
It’s not long until she’s sprung into combat to teach you the basics of the combat. Playing with a controller, you attack with RT. Hitting RT again as you connect allows you to swing quicker with a ‘perfect hit’. You block with LT. You can also attack with the two-handed stance whilst holding LT and using RT to attack. Switching in stance is helpful if your enemy is able to efficiently block your blows. You can also dodge out of the way with RB (Xbox controller).
Combat is feeling good throughout the demo. Carrying the large sword as you are, your swings aren’t super quick, so picking your moments to swing is important, lest you get a dagger, or a mace, to the face (always fun to rhyme).
Trial by Fire
Following the opening tutorial, you start making your way back to your town, Bianca going on ahead of you. As the town comes into view, the church bells begin to ring and fire sweeps up from places it really shouldn’t be. A raid is happening, the town, and Bianca, are in danger.
You make your way through the town, serving as an extended tutorial, coming face-to-face with soldiers and raiders. Assuming your ill intent, well you’re trying to save all the dead folk around you after all, they don’t waste any time in attacking.
Enemies seem to be good at defending themselves but they have a stamina / shield break type bar that you wear down as you strike. When the bar is depleted they’ll be open for damage, and it doesn’t take many swings to take them down. It remains to be seen if all enemies will be as fleshy as the initial ones, but it would be nice if tougher enemies didn’t just have longer health bars.
You, yourself can only take several hits (five to start with) before you die. Your health can be replenished by eating supplies from your ‘food bar’. Collect pieces of food as you scavenge and it will fill up blocks in the bar. One section of the bar heals one heart of health. You can upgrade your health, food storage capacity along with your skills and new attacks by finding paper throughout the game.
As you reach the end of the demo, you take out the remaining enemies to find everyone dead (dead on the ground!). And yet, no sign of Bianca, save for a pendant of some sort that belongs to her. At this point Aeta makes a dramatic vow that she will find Bianca. Thus endeth the demo…
1348? Must be Time for Second Dinner
The demo, definitely left me wanting more. It’s fairly short, but it did end as you would expect it to. I’m keen to explore the game further. There seems to a number of combat options, and I want to see how the story unfolds. The narrative setup is pretty strong from the beginning. It’s set in a medieval Italy, ravaged by disease, it could almost be connected to the Plague Tale Multiverse.
I felt some of the navigation was a bit clunky, climbing onto things, or dropping down felt a touch finicky, and you had to be fairly precise for the prompt to register the input on the controller. I think the game will look excellent on PS5, or a PC that’s not a potato like mine, but it runs fine (check out the video of my playthrough below).
There’s a clear love between Aeta and Bianca. Not necessarily romantic (nothing of that’s been implied) but there’s a strong bond between them. That seems to be the driving force for Aeta, who seems to not have much left in the world.
Yet, who hath taken her? Why did they not kill her like the others in the town? Many questions left unanswered, and they just make me want to play more. Luckily, there isn’t long to wait, with the game releasing in just a couple of weeks.
1348 Ex Voto releases on 12 March 2026 for PC and PS5. An Xbox Series version was in development but has since been cancelled.
