If you play video games, you’ve probably internalized an automatic association without even realizing it: see isometric, think roguelike. Murals, a new action game from the makers of Disney Illusion Island, bucks that trend.

Revealed at the 2026 Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase, Murals is the next game from Dlala Studios, the British-based developer that also gave us 2020’s beat-em-up revival of Battletoads. Murals is a deviation from both of its hits: an isometric, narrative-forward action game. But it is not, as CEO and game director Aj Grand-Scutton was quick to tell me during a hands-off preview at Gamescom, a roguelike. Don’t expect a one-to-one Hades clone here, folks.

Murals is a (mostly) original IP for Dlala Studios. You’re cast as The Hero, a stony, let-my-fists-do-the-talking type, and are accompanied by a chatty anthropomorphic slice of bread named Loaf. In a neat touch, reflective of the game’s painterly art style, all enemies are in 3D, but all friendly NPCs, like Loaf, are in 2D. The gimmick of Murals is that it puts a dark, twisted spin on classic folklore like Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood. Rumpelstiltskin, for instance, takes the form of a gigantic Shelob-like spider monstrosity, according to an official prequel comic. Each of these stories is contained in a so-called magical mural, the idea being that you enter each mural as a form of level selection.

During the Gamescom demo, Dlala Studios showed off Murals ’ fifth chapter, in which The Hero enters a beachy, aquatic realm based on The Little Mermaid .

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