I Played More Steam NextFest Demos (Oct 2023) (Part 3)
We got a big one here. I put all the rest in one post. I am free!
Sovereign Syndicate
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1674920/Sovereign_Syndicate/
It's kinda wild to suddenly see a bunch of new CRPGs pop up that are explicitly cribbing from Disco Elysium rather than its forebears. I don't necessarily mind, since it's got a solid claim to The Best One, but like... god, is this how the Bloodborne people feel while playing Lies of P, where a decent enough imitation still pushes some of the same buttons?
It's steampunk London with magic and robots, so this is also drawing from Arcanum, a noted CRPG I didn't include on the list because it's a pain to get running on modern hardware. Rather than attributes and dice, Sovereign Syndicate uses Humours and Tarot - though they function the same - and it seems more stage-based like Shadowrun Returns rather than having an open environment. I'll keep an eye on it.
Toroa
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2003490/Toroa/
A chill flying/gliding game informed by Māori culture. If I had to come up with a comparison point, maybe thatgamecompany's Flower? The gliding is a bit finicky but not to the point of being annoying, and it's got its heart in the right place.
Departed Away
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2564880/Departed_Away/
A bishoujo visual novel that appears to be of the Doki Doki LIterature Club variety. That is, seemingly normal with a dark, mysterious undercurrent; a selection of anime-stereotype girls to date; and a creepy stalker who may or may not murder you in your sleep or possibly be a schizophrenic hallucination.
Cursorblade
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2449040/Cursorblade/
One might perhaps call this an action roguelite for when you have 20 minutes to spare. Cute idea, cute aesthetic, and some decent power-ups make this something that'd be an excellent $5 time waster kind of game. Probably would be great on mobile, actually.
Knight of the Lions
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1711790/Knight_of_the_Lions/
A narrative platformer with a solid sketchbook aesthetic that draws in the platforms and obstacles as you near them. Unfortunately, I turned it off once I died at the same puzzle 20 times in a row; moving platforms are not a great design choice when your ability to jump is on a strict timer.
Laika: Aged Through Blood
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1796220/Laika_Aged_Through_Blood/
I'm just saying, allowing basic movement to kill the player at any time with relatively uncommon checkpoints might not be the best design decision. You have to do so many 360s just to use your basic techniques, and you might just tilt slightly too far and bump your head and die instantly with each one, while you're trying to dodge bullets. Maybe I just suck at Excitebike?
(Also, the story seems really Edgy-For-Edgy's-Sake, but I only played 20m)
Pixel Cafe
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2409360/Pixel_Cafe/
What if Cook, Serve, Delicious, rather than being a comedy game, had a narrative about the existential dread of being a young adult with no job skills? The loop seems pretty well polished and I could see the story going some places, but I find this sort of plate-spinning gameplay a bit too stressful.
Songs of Silence
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2195410/Songs_Of_Silence/
A really weird combination of 4X, RTS, autobattler, and deckbuilder with some Fire Emblem spice thrown in. The demo really throws you into the deep end without proper tutorialization and I feel like all the card stuff could simply be replaced with a regular UI, but I cannot deny that I was intrigued. I literally said to @yotsuben while playing, "this music sounds like some fuckin off-brand Hitoshi Sakimoto" and then lo and behold, they actually did tap Hitoshi Sakimoto.
Solium Infernum
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1893810/Solium_Infernum/
4X... IN HELL! Honestly, played this too late at night (and also, immediately after the previous entry) and I simply did not have the mental energy to parse another 4X game. Also, I'm just personally not a fan of the whole "Hell" aesthetic. That said, it seems solidly made and has the things that you'd probably want in a 4X, like an in-game wiki.
YOHANE THE PARHELION -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE-
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2404370/YOHANE_THE_PARHELION_BLAZE_in_the_DEEPBLUE/
Anime Metroidvania that seems like it's probably a sequel and expects me to know all of these characters already. One of the power-ups causes the protagonist to start singing an insert song which gives her unlimited MP, which is pretty fun. Also has a couple of weirdly solid quality of life things, like every random bark getting actual subtitles.
Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1964200/Phantom_Rose_2_Sapphire/
Roguelite deckbuilder. Managing card cooldowns and the shared attack timeline were kind of interesting, but the genre just really isn't my scene. Also, clearly designed for mobile in a way that reminded me a little too much of gacha games (though this does not appear to be one).
Jusant
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1977170/Jusant/
A climbing game taking traversal cues from Death Stranding / Gone Home and its vibe cues from Journey. DON'T NOD is a fairly noted studio as it is - they don't need some goon like me repping their games - but turns out a team of professionals with numerous games under their belt can put out a pretty polished experience. Weird.
Earthless
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058960/Earthless/
Okay, I've been shitting on roguelite deckbuilders this whole time, but I really enjoyed this one because it has the additional wrinkle of being a grid-based tactics game rather than just a back-and-forth combat system and some of that FTL DNA with upgradable crew members. Well, that and some cool UI work, though I wish I could rotate the map 45 degrees. Really solid demo.
Sandwalkers
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1639080/Sandwalkers/
A roguelite where you're sending caravans of magic animal people into the endless deserts to find the last remaining patches of livable greenery. I guess the way to get me interested in a roguelite is to put a grid of some kind in it? There's an overworld exploration layer where you're spending supplies to explore hexes between towns and a decent-seeming Darkest Dungeon-like combat layer. I like it.
Stellar Insurgency
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2317550/Stellar_Insurgency/
A space sim where you do... uh... space things...? I think this is probably meant to be like a GalCiv or Stellaris, but the mechanics are utterly opaque to me. The demo pop-up admits it's effectively a one-man passion project - and more power to them, it's a huge undertaking - but I personally need something more directed.
The Thaumaturge
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1684350/The_Thaumaturge/
An RPG set in Pre-WW1 Europe where you play as the eponymous thaumaturge, who's basically an empath Stand-user / Pokemon trainer. I've had my eye on this for a bit; I like a good historical setting, and the supernatural elements seem appropriately weird and creepy. The game appears to have zero qualms about gating you off from key quest information if you're not specced in the right stats, which I appreciate, but I can't quite tell if the storytelling has any real legs yet.
The Inquisitor
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1880470/The_Inquisitor/
I am utterly enthralled by how terrible this game is. It's like a low-budget competitor to the first Witcher game got stuck in a time warp and reappeared 15 years later. All the hallmarks of an early PS3 game are here: low-res textures, a muddy brown aesthetic, sludgy Unreal-3 style movement (with light-heavy-block-dodge 3D combat), casual misogyny deployed rapid-fire... I couldn't look away. Absolutely fascinating that a game with this exact tenor can still be made in 2023.
The Tower on the Borderland
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2063180/The_Tower_on_the_Borderland/
PS1-style graphics attached to some kind of tower-climbing Souls-type game, which in this context means slow attacks and meagre resources what recharge to full at specific checkpoints. 3D PS1 games were clunky by modern standards to be sure, but surely not this clunky?
Rabbit & Steel
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2132850/Rabbit_and_Steel/
A co-op bullet hell roguelike that's meant to emulate the feeling of fighting MMO raid bosses by managing your cooldowns. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to play it with friends, but I found this to be a really clever concept; I've only done a handful of real raid-type things in my life because they are always such a pain in the ass. I don't have the time or energy to grind up to the level cap, grind out optimal gear, and then spend eight fucking hours having people yell at me over coms.
Tunnet
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2286390/Tunnet/
This is one of those games that makes me feel like I'm stupid or something. You're in some kind of underground voxel facility and need to dig out tunnels to other shelters so that you can lay down the internet pipes... except you have to actually understand the intricacies of the network nodes and the port forwarding and in what order things need to be laid down and whatnot. I think for a very specific kind of person this game would be amazing, but I am not that kind of person.
Last Train Home
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1469610/Last_Train_Home/
Really cool. Historical RTS where you play as a Czechoslovak Legion trying to cross Russia to catch a ship home after WWI. Your squads are small - like 3-10 soldiers - and supplies (including ammo) are pretty limited. There's definitely some XCOM DNA here too, with your train acting as a mobile base where you're assigning folks to the medical bay or the engine in between missions.
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