It was designed by Connor Ullman, has its soundtrack written by Josh Whelchel (who later worked on Masquerada Songs And Shadows), and was published by [adult swim] Games on February 27th, 2015.
In it, you are a masked warrior known only as the Harbinger of the titular Oblitus. You only fight with a spear and shield, though you get to throw your spear, and gain additional powers through picking up scrolls. Healing is extremely limited, and every time you die, the game starts all over again.
Has nothing to do with a 1991 Psygnosis game Obitus.
Oblitus provides examples of the following tropes:
- Airborne Mook: The plains area features black-winged, red-headed birds that are about twice as large as your character. For a good player, however, that just makes them easier to hit, and they'll die immediately afterwards.
- Attack Its Weak Point: The way the boss battles are designed.
- Bears Are Bad News: There's a bluish-grey bear that deals great damage and has can survive ~5 stabs from your spear. Luckily, he has a delay before attacking that allows experienced players do deal with it with minimal damage.
- Bigger Is Better: One of the upgrade scrolls is just named Bigger, with its description saying "The player is larger, has more health, and does more damage."
- Blackout Basement: Once you get through the open dry plains that lie after the lush forest area where you start the game, you are back in another cave, this time so dark that the only lighting is the greenish glow generated by your character.
- Bloodless Carnage: Enemies may flash red, but they do not really bleed.
- Everything Fades: The dead bodies disappear after about a couple of seconds. That even applies to the enormous bosses.
- Final Boss: Averted. There are four bosses which can be tackled in any order, and once you beat them all, the game ends. The true ending doesn't lead to a final boss fight, but instead simply caps off with a short cutscene where the protagonist is thanked for her trouble, and for supposedly breaking the cycle.
- Flash of Pain: Enemies flash red when they are successfully hit. If you find the Poison Spear enchantment, then they'll flash green for a few seconds as well. Your entire screen will flash red for a moment when you get hit.
- Giant Mook: There's a brown creature that's at least twice as tall as you are, attacks by jabbing with its arms (which look like underdeveloped talons), and is fully covered in leather armor, complete with a helmet that only exposes a single circle in the middle of its face. It looks much like an Owlking in Death's Gambit, except that this game released 3,5 years earlier.note
- The caves have armored spearmen with shields that are 3-4 times larger than your character, and are essentially in Boss in Mook Clothing territory.
- The Goomba: The initial, large-eyed enemies, which resemble The Greys in the traditional alien stories. While they can jump around pretty well, they have no equipment of any kind and so die in one hit from your spear.
- Ground Pound: The protagonist can get a variation of that with the "Impact Landing" scroll, which will set nearby enemies on fire every time you land after jumping.
- "Cannonball" power is an even more direct version of the trope, though it requires you to charge it up holding a shield while in mid-air first.
- He Was Right There All Along: You'll probably only detect the second boss when you jump on top of it, thinking it's just another boulder to climb before you reach the exit. To be fair, it still looks like a giant vaguely legged boulder even once it reveals itself, and attacks primarily through slamming its body into the cave floor.
- Homing Projectile: A scroll you can get after defeating a boss will enchant your spear to home in on the enemies.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The shield will reliably block attacks.
- Mook Maker: The boss of the crystal area only attacks through spawning lots of the small bugs through the green sacs on its arms. It'll collapse and fall apart once those are destroyed.
- Multiple Endings:
- Normal ending concludes with Harbinger walking into a giant clam, which closes on them, and then they re-emerge as a giant, legless version of themselves, which flies upwards.
- True ending, obtained after beating the game five times and thus getting all five fragments of the mask, features The Harbinger giving the mask to Mudd, who turns out to be the titular Oblitus, thanks you for freeing him and flies off to the stars. You find out Harbinger's real name is Parvus, as she's glad that she is free of the burden after breaking the cycle.
- No "Arc" in "Archery": Averted when your character throws their spear, as it will travel in an arc. The first boss in particular can be defeated by staying at the far edge of the arena behind a rock while curving the spear so that it hits his hump, which is the weak point.
- Procedural Generation: Each level undergoes minor changes in structure every time you play it.
- Samus Is a Girl: The true ending reveals that the Harbinger is a woman named Parvus. You still do not get to see her face, though.
- Sequel Hook: The true ending states that the story of Oblitus ends, and the story of Parvus begins, implying a sequel. Lukewarm reception to the game appears to have put a halt on that, as four years passed without a reveal of any further project.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: The second enemy you'll encounter in the game is a green, lanky Lizard Folk-looking enemy, who has a short dagger and round shield with sharp, toothed edges. It also has a scaled-up, purple-tinted version.
- Then, there are the large, armored spearmen with their shields.
- Shock and Awe: The Lightning Spear weapon upgrade.
- Spikes of Doom: Thorns pop out of the ground during your battle with the plant boss, to discourage rolling and jumping. They retreat back once it is defeated.
- The cave area often has sharp stalactites on its ceilings, so that you don't abuse jumping during combat.
- Story Breadcrumbs: There's even less here than in a typical Dark Souls-inspired game. The first time you hear any plot besides the awakening message is when you finally meet Mudd, the only peaceful NPC in the game, which usually happens about halfway through your playthrough. Before that, there's only a tiny area with cave wall paintings.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Staying underwater doesn't impact you. Granted, the water in that world is bright purple, so maybe it is also breathable somehow.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Obtained once you find the respective scroll.
- Weapons of Their Trade: One of the bosses seems to be a blacksmith automaton. Thus, he has a large hammer to go with his anvil, and will first rapidly grab the player with his free hand, before holding over the anvil for a finishing hammer strike. Luckily, you still get to throw spears right into his face while he's holding you.
