Amazingly, the thing that's sold me on Sword Sage: Awakening's potential isn't the adorable red panda deity who poofs out of thin air to serve you restorative tea whenever you rest up at its cheery Soulslike bonfire equivalent - although I'll admit it comes close. As its silly tea-stop interludes suggest, Sword Sage - which joins the rising swell of China-developed Soulslikes drawing inspiration from the country's rich folklore - is doing things a little bit differently. But its most interesting ideas go deeper than mood.

That said, its cheerier tone is probably the thing you'll notice first. Compared to the sombre stylings of your average Soulslike, Sword Sage feels - in my hour-or-so hands-on time, at least - positively buoyant. That starts with its effervescent, pinwheeling protagonist Pei Sanniang - a novice disciple of the Yuangong Sect who, as the demo begins, is returning from a year of wandering. She's an endearing presence, enthusiastically animated, as she bounds up ladders, launches into furiously elegant attacks, and turns bogstandard jumps into silly mid-air twirls.

Pei and the sect specialise in the disposal of yaoguai, malevolent entities from Chinese folklore. And wouldn't you know it, there's a whole bunch of them knocking around as Pei begins her trip along the Cypress Path - a misty mountain pass of verdant greenery, rickety wooden walkways, and, later, cloud-swaddled pagodas skewering bright blue skies. Here, it's gentle birdsong rather than discordant moans that accompany the sound of swirling limbs and dancing blades, and, honestly, it's refreshing to play a Soulslike that isn't so obsessed with perpetual gloom.

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