Dreamy Ecuadorian football adventure Despelote re-emerges for 2024 release
It’s been a good long while since we first laid eyes on dreamy Ecuadorian football adventure Despelote, but now, after several years away from the spotlight, it’s resurfaced with a publisher and a planned 2024 release on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
Created by Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena, Despelote is described as a semi-autobiographical slice-of-life adventure about “childhood and the magical grip soccer held over the people of Quito, Ecuador in 2001”. It’s set during a period when the country’s football team was on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup for the first time, helping instil a sense of hope in a population still reeling from a major financial crisis.
That translates to “bittersweet and sometimes dreamy” game of kick-abouts and conversations, in which sees players – viewing the world through the eyes and ears of eight-year-old Julián – explore a dense corner of Quito, “full of activities, interactions, and mischief to get up to”.
It’s all brought to life through an immediately arresting art style that combines urban realism – monochrome photographs adapted to create a striking, stylised 3D space – with bold black and white character art, plus on-location audio recordings, and some wonderfully laidback tunes.
