Sedleo and Dear Villagers / Plug In Digital have confirmed the release date for 1348 Ex Voto, but there’s a catch: the list of target platforms has shrunk. The Xbox Series version has been canceled, meaning the game will now launch only on PlayStation 5 and PC.
1348 Ex Voto is a cinematic action-adventure game set in medieval Italy during the year 1348. It follows Aeta (voiced by Alby Baldwin), who sets off on a brutal journey across the Italian peninsula to find her beloved Bianca (voiced by Jennifer English) after bandits raid their village.
The game is also the very first project from Sedleo, a newly founded Italian studio created by game director Tom Oceano and studio director Fabiola Martelli. The duo recruited an international team of AAA veterans in order to bring their personal stories and high-quality projects to life. As an Italian team, choosing Italy as the setting was an obvious decision, as they wanted to build lifelike environments. To achieve that, they spent extensive time in rural parts of the peninsula, exploring landscapes and recording everything needed to craft an accurate, believable world for the story they wanted to tell.
Then came the choice of the year: 1348, a particularly dire chapter in Italy’s history. As disease and pestilence spread across the country, instability worsened inside an already fragile medieval society. The population faced escalating violence and criminality from bandits and mercenaries, while religious zealots ran rampant throughout the region. At the same time, the upper class suffered from a power vacuum, further weakening leadership and authority.
It is under these conditions that Aeta, a young noblewoman, loses track of Bianca after bandits attack their village. Having been trained to become a knight, Aeta takes it upon herself to find Bianca – a decision that leads her into a brutal journey across medieval Italy, fighting her way forward to reach her goal.
The game invites players to experience the harsh realities of late medieval Italy through the eyes of a courageous noblewoman whose life is about to change forever. As Sedleo frames it, Aeta is a young knight-errant traveling across Italy to find and rescue her dear friend Bianca. 1348 Ex Voto is a thrilling third-person action-adventure inspired by genre classics and the motifs of chivalric storytelling.
Players will explore 14th-century Italy, portrayed as a cradle of political strife and rural exodus. Bandits, mercenaries, and religious zealots run wild, while pestilence festers in both countryside and city streets. Combat leans heavily into sword fighting inspired by historical European martial arts, brought to life through comic-book-flavored sequences captured with trained performance actors.
Aeta can use her martial knowledge to ambush and overwhelm enemies, with players strategically choosing between two combat stances: one-handed and two-handed. Skill books found throughout the journey unlock new combos, while different weapon parts allow players to tailor Aeta’s swordplay to their preferred approach.
The environments range from medieval villages and castles to the grassy slopes of the Apennines and even the remnants of classical Rome. Exploration is rewarded: searching the world can uncover trinkets and treasures that expand the player’s collection.
1348 Ex Voto will be priced at $25, while a Deluxe Edition will be available for $30 and will include a digital art book. According to game director Tom Oceano and executive producer Fabiola Martelli, everything in the story is deeply personal: it revolves around morality, ambition, and choice – and whether we fight for those ideals or against them. The developers hope these themes will resonate strongly with players.
1348 Ex Voto will launch on PlayStation 5 and PC on March 12. The Xbox Series version has been canceled so the developers can focus on delivering the best possible experience on the remaining platforms.
Source: Gematsu
