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Roguelite

The creators of Deadly Premonition and No More Heroes are releasing a typically over-the-top roguelite ‘fever dream’ next month

by admin August 22, 2025

HOTEL BARCELONA – Xbox Launch Trailer | Coming September 26, 2025 – YouTube

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Back in 2019, Goichi “Suda51” Suda and Hidetaka “Swery65” Suehiro announced a forthcoming horror game under typically bizarre circumstances. As Fraser reported at the time, the duo—who are responsible for No More Heroes and Deadly Premonition respectively—basically brainstormed the project during a livestream. At the time they decided it would be an indie horror game called Hotel Barcelona. The PS2 game Siren would be an inspiration, and Devolver would publish.

Six years later, it turns out Hotel Barcelona is an actual game that will see an actual release next month—on September 25 to be exact—but it has clearly evolved away from those early ideas. For one, Devolver isn’t publishing: the relatively new Cult Games will handle that duty instead. Another big departure, at least to my eyes, is that Hotel Barcelona doesn’t look scary. It’s a 2.5D sidescrolling action roguelite set in a bizarre hotel, with all the surrealist flair you would expect from this duo. If you came away from that 2019 livestream thinking “great, two of the weirdest fellows in games are making a Siren tribute”, then maybe keep your expectations in check.

The trailer above is ample evidence that Suda51’s affection for 1980s edgelord trappings remains undiminished, but as for the basic gist of what you’re doing in Hotel Barcelona, I’ll let the publisher’s note do the talking. “With trippy anime-style visuals designed by the artists behind genre-defying Japanese hits like Chainsaw Man, Persona, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, try to escape this luxury getaway turned psychedelic nightmare and defeat the hotel’s bloodthirsty new management – tough as nails brutes, psychopaths, and criminals from all over America. Suffice to say, you won’t be alive by checkout.”

The precision-oriented combat comes with an interesting twist: as the protagonist Justine becomes drenched in the blood of her enemies she’ll build towards a special attack that unleashes Dr. Carnival, who is a “deranged murderer” she happens to share her brain with. The game will be split across seven areas, each inspired by different sub-genres of horror. There’s also three-player online co-op and PvP invasions.

Hotel Barcelona releases September 26 and it’s on Steam now. It’s also launching on Xbox Game Pass.

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August 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Starlight Re:Volver is an upcoming anime as hell Hades-esque, MMO inspired roguelite that already has the vibe

by admin June 14, 2025

I’m not much of an MMO person, I’ve dabbled over the years like with RuneScape in my youth, and a bit of Final Fantasy 14. These days it’s the level of commitment that puts me off, even though I really do love being able to partake in what feels like living, breathing worlds, the hustle and bustle of actual people going to and fro. Luckily, I think I have a lower-key way to get this kind of feeling in the upcoming action roguelite Starlight Re:Volver.

Right from the first second of Starlight Re:Volver you’ll absolutely be thinking to yourself “oh, this is anime as hell.” That’ll be offputting to some, maybe, but it does so with such a ridiculous degree of finesse and style, I was won over right out the gate. The core gameplay loop is that you set out on runs with up to three of your friends, going through different rooms with waves of enemies across them, picking up abilities and buffs along the way.

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It definitely seems like there’s a Hades-like approach to the game, though the demo that’s currently available for Steam Next Fest is more like an online playtest above all else. Right now I’d say there’s a bit of an onboarding issue, as the game doesn’t really do much to tell you much about anything, but with multiple characters to choose from all with unique playstyles, I had a fun enough time in the few runs I went through.

All of that can be smoothed over of course, I’m not that worried about that, so the real thing that’s pulling me in so far is the vibes. The game’s Steam page refers to itself as an “anime-inspired MMO universe”, and the game’s hub area certainly offers a slice of such a pie up.

There’s an in-world Suika Game rip-off to play, a fishing mini-game, clothes to unlock, different areas to just hang out in. You can see different players running around too, and even if there’s not much to do right now, it really does capture that specific feeling of being in a virtual place with a whole bunch of strangers.

How that may progress whenever the game comes out, I can’t tell you, it’s certainly something I hope to see expanded upon. In the meantime, you can wishlist the game on Steam here, and you have until June 16th to try out the demo for yourself.

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June 14, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Devolver Digital Reveals Ball x Pit, A Brick-Breaking Survival Roguelite That Looks Awesome

by admin June 7, 2025

Devolver Digital has revealed Ball x Pit, a brick-breaking, base-building survival roguelite that looks like the next indie time sink I can’t wait to jump into. There’s a demo out today on PC, and it’s launching on Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC sometime this year (here’s hoping it makes its way to PlayStation 5 one day, too). This was revealed as part of today’s Devolver Direct, which went with a different approach to its summer showcase this year.

Instead of the zanier off-the-wall antics of the annual summer Devolver Direct, which usually contains multiple announcements, it released a documentary called “BALL x PIT: The Kenny Sun Story,” alongside a trailer for the game.

You can view the Ball x Pit reveal trailer for yourself below:

“In Ball x Pit, Ballbylon has fallen,” a press release reads. “After a meteoric and completely unexpected event annihilated the great city, all that remains is an ominous, yawning pit. Treasure hunters far and wide flock to the city’s tomb to seek their fortune, plundering the depths in search of Ballbylon’s scattered riches. Few return.

“The pit plays host to armies of barbaric creatures, hellbent on ending your quest before it even begins. Armed with a growing arsenal of magic-infused projectiles, batter your way through multiple levels of increasingly challenging obstacles to claim the ultimate prizes and rebuild New Ballbylon. With every glob you lob, gain valuable experience to develop overpowered spitball combinations, and recruit additional heroes to unlock new skills to send the gutter-dwelling goons packing.”

As you can see in the Ball x Pit trailer above, it fuses quite a few different gameplay mechanics to create a roguelite. There’s classic brick-breaking action (with Vampire Survivors-like explosions of numbers all over the screen), base-building, and survival gameplay, all morphed into one experience as you attempt run after run. It features over 60 randomized balls to equip, 70 unique buildings for New Ballbylon that provide gameplay bonuses, power-ups, and characters, and more.

You can try out Ball x Pit on PC via a new Steam demo right now before it launches on Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC sometime this year.

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June 7, 2025 0 comments