Sunken Crown will launch on April 22, 2027, publisher Paper Lantern Publishing announced during its Autumn Showfloor 2026 segment. Gilded Cartridge’s hand-drawn metroidvania arrives the same day on Nintendo Switch 2, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, priced at $24.99 digitally.
A physical edition will be available on Switch 2 only, at $34.99, with a fold-out map of the drowned capital and a printed score sheet for the main theme. Paper Lantern says there are no plans for physical versions on other platforms.
The new trailer focused on the floodgate system that sits at the heart of the game. Each district has gates that raise or lower its water level, and the footage showed Princess Isolde draining a cathedral nave to walk across its floor, then flooding it again to swim up to a balcony that had been out of reach. Combat looked quicker than in last year’s demo, with Isolde chaining the tidal dash into a downward strike that knocks enemies off ledges and into the water. The diving bell, which she can summon to breathe in the deepest sections, now has an upgrade that lets it act as a temporary platform.
We spent a long time making sure every district works at every water level. That’s most of the reason it took this long, and it’s the reason we’re confident in April.
Imogen Vale, director at Gilded Cartridge, in a statement released with the trailer
Gilded Cartridge says a typical first playthrough runs 14 to 16 hours, and that a free demo covering the opening district will arrive in February on all four platforms. The studio has also confirmed a built-in speedrun timer and an optional map setting that hides each district’s current water level, for players who want to keep track of it themselves.
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