After releasing an eerie 30 second teaser during Thursday night’s Video Game Awards, FromSoftware quickly drummed up fan speculation as to what their next game might be. While Hidetaka Miyazaki, President of From and all around Souls guru, has stated multiple times that he’s uninterested in revisiting the Souls series for the time being, that doesn’t necessarily rule it out entirely.

Here are our best guesses as to what “Shadows Die Twice.” might actually be pointing to.

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CHECK OUT THE TEASER ABOVE BEFORE MOVING ON.

Shadow Tower

Remember Shadow Tower? Of course you don’t. That’s because Shadow Tower is the deepest of deep cuts. This first-person fantasy RPG was released way back in 1998 for the original Playstation, and while Japan got a PS2 sequel (Shadow Tower Abyss), the series wasn’t exactly a hit stateside. It’s a methodical, decidedly bland dungeon crawler that featured no music, and tough as nails enemies. So, if we’re looking at torture device in From’s latest teaser, maybe they’re taking a metaphorical approach and we just might be getting a new entry in an old franchise.

But, I doubt it. Shadow Tower’s themes (exploration, avoiding traps, leveling up skills based on actions you use the most) have been fully explored and better realized in Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls. As spiritual successors, those games accomplished more critically and commercially, that revisiting a long forgotten franchise seems like a step backwards. But then again…

Bloodborne 2

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Fans have been clamoring for a sequel to FromSoftware’s 2015 hit for a while now. In fact, I’d have been willing to bed cold, hard, cash that we’d see Bloodborne 2 at PSX 2017. So… did we? This brief teaser is certainly showcasing enough blood, but the rest of the imagery seems incongruous. While this bone-forged pulley system definitely has the look of Bloodborne’s Trick Weapons, the overall design seems sort of off for Yarnham’s gothic Victorian setting. Also, the games tagline (title?!) “Shadows Die Twice” have very little to do with anything from Bloodborne, save for the Shadows of Yarnham boss fight. These three dudes made for a compelling encounter, but I highly doubt they would be front and center in any sort of sequel.

Couple these hypotheses with what’s going on behind this apparent torture device and it seems like FromSoftware is teasing something else from the depths of their history...

Tenchu

So the brief snippet of footage we saw during this initial teaser didn’t give it a whole lot to work with, but focusing on some of the details points to a game with definite Japanese influences. First off, the backdrop of the footage showcases writing in Japanese, specifically a cursive form on kanji written in a vertical form. The drums and flutes that play during the tease also sound specifically-eastern in origin. Combine this with what looks like the outline of a kunai throwing knife, and you get a bunch of Souls fans thinking the formula is going to Japan.

So why the hell did we immediately jump to Tenchu? Well, first off, Tenchu rules. But more importantly, FromSoftware has worked on the Tenchu series in the past. After nearly a decade of four Souls games and Bloodborne, it would make sense that From would want to take on a different aesthetic, setting, and challenge. But while Tenchu is definitely a possibility, my money says that the simplest answer is the right one in this case...

New Game!

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Yeah, I have a gut-feeling that what we’re seeing is a brand new game. That doesn’t mean it won’t share gameplay elements in common with what came before it, but I think this is a step in a new direction for From Software. And honestly, much like Bloodborne, this new adventure might’ve been secretly hinted at a few years ago.

Back in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC for the original Dark Souls, there was a character named Marvelous Chester who talked like a fop, spoke of a far away land, and dressed like someone straight out of Yarnham. Flash forward to The Old Hunters DLC for Bloodborne, and enter Old Hunter Yamamura, a stranger who hails from, you guessed it, an Eastern land. In the same way Chester hinted at the future direction of From Software, there’s chance that Yamamura did the exact same thing.

So those are just four of our theories about what From Software might be working on. Did you notice anything in the teaser that we didn’t? Any crackpot theories on the game? Let us know!

Zachary Ryan is a Senior Features Producer at IGN. He's triple stoked for whatever FromSoftware is working on... but mostly hopes that it's Bloodborne 2.

Marty Sliva is a Executive Editor at IGN. A girl he was dating once stepped on his PlayStation 4, and now he no longer owns PT. But don't worry, they broke up. Follow him on Twitter @McBiggitty.