Aeterna Noctis is a hand-drawn 2D metroidvania released in 2021, built around a curse rather than a quest: the King of Darkness and the Queen of Light are condemned to fight forever, dying and returning to life each time the balance of their world shifts. The player takes up the King’s blade and crosses the realm of Aeterna to break the cycle.

Development came from the Spanish studio Aeterna Game Studio, which handled both the design and the illustration work, and the game’s dense, painterly art and punishing platforming are what it is best known for. Its challenge sits heavier than most of its genre, asking for precise timing and mastery of movement abilities as much as for combat, and it holds a devoted following among players who like their metroidvanias merciless.