Ultros

Players control a space traveler who wakes on a spaceship called the Sarcophagus, which imprisons a demon named Ultros. Players must prevent Ultros from waking. The ship has become overgrown with plant life, and various aliens live onboard. Interacting with these aliens can give players seeds, which can grow into edible plants.

Because of an endless time loop, some of the aliens have been driven mad and are now bosses that must be defeated in combat. Players have different kinds of attacks. Eating plants and defeated bosses allows players to increase their skills. Making precision attacks with advanced skills to defeat bosses gives players more powerful power-ups.

The artist, Niklas Åkerblad, said he wanted to create a coherent world. As a child, he believed Sonic the Hedgehog was more coherent than the competing Super Mario series, which he said felt like "an amalgam of very different ideas". The design of the Sarcophagus was influenced by H. P.

Lovecraft's depiction of Cthulhu, who retains an influence on our reality despite being trapped elsewhere. Åkerblad wanted to evoke the ecologically-themed terror and wonder of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and the difficulty of communicating with a non-human intelligence of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The time loop mechanic was designed to mimic karma, so that actions in one life carried forward to the next. The developers also wanted players to be able to experience decisions from different perspectives.

Ultros received positive reviews on Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 77% of critics.

Although Rock Paper Shotgun called it "vibrant and always interesting", they said the execution falls short of its promise. GameSpot said its complexity can occasionally be frustrating but it is an "engrossing adventure set within a visually memorable world". Comparing it to the work of Ovid, Eurogamer praised how Ultros changed the focus of a Metroidvania game from exploration to transforming the world while also having excellent combat, artwork, and music. GamesRadar+ called it "unique and fresh".