INDIE Live Expo held its livestream presentation of indie titles in Japan earlier today. The presentation was divided into three sections: a series of INDIE Waves covering around 25-30 games in quick succession, a set of longer INDIE Spotlights on specific games, and some livestreamed gameplay. The full set of RPGs (and related titles) from across the world covered in the presentation is as follows:
INDIE Waves #1
- Mika and the Witch’s Mountain
Chibig, Nukefist’s Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is a fantasy adventure about an aspiring witch who delivers packages to the townspeople of a small island. It is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
Horizont Computergrafik and IndieArk’s Rogue Voltage is billed as an “engineering roguelike”. Players create their own skills by wiring circuits and building machines to zap monsters and trigger chain reactions. It is available now on Steam Early Access.
Thermite Games and Math Star’s LONESTAR is a strategic spaceship-focused deckbuilder. Players act as a bounty hunter, building up their ship to participate in maths-based shockwave battles. It is available on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, as well as Nintendo Switch.
BossyPino’s Muffles’ Life Sentence is a quirky dark RPG set in a prison where inmates are remade to match their crimes. It features a turn-based deckbuilding combat system, with tricolour graphics. The game is being released episodically; the first episode is available for free on Steam, with the second chapter also currently available as a DLC purchase.
- Netabare ga Hageshisugiru RPG – Shinyu no Shin no sugata wa Daimaou (Japanese only)
KSB Games’s title loosely translates to “RPG with Too Many Spoilers 2 -The True Form of My Best Friend Is the Demon King”. The turn-based RPG is available in Japanese only on PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Developer rokaplay’s Sugardew Island, subtitled “Your cozy farm shop”, is a farming sim. Players sell goods to cute Forest Folk, looking to fill their island with life once again by upgrading the island and fulfilling small orders from the Harmony Tree. It is currently available on PC via Steam as well as PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
- Robot girl’s dream -RobotBattleChampionship-
Robot girl’s dream -RobotBattleChampionship- is a 2D turn-based RPG game featuring a robot girl who has lost her memories. She finds herself drawn to a robot battle tournament where she competes for victory while interacting with both humans and robots. The game is available via Steam and, as of an update released today, is available in English.
INDIE Waves #2
Secret Mode and Silent Games’s sci-fi action RPG Empyreal sees players controlling an elite mercenary who is part of an expedition to an unexplored planet in a far corner of the galaxy. The expedition uncovers a giant monolith built by a lost civilisation, only to discover the monolith is not as abandoned as they believed. The game will be release for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on May 8, 2025.
Northern Studio’s Abyss Ring is a survival roguelike. It sees players needing to cook monsters to stave off hunger as they progress through a hundred-floor dungeon. The game is planned to release on PC via Steam in Q2 2025.
- Word Game World (Chinese only)
Team9’s Word Game World is a Chinese-only simulation RPG that builds on the developer’s previous title Word Game, where players manipulate and interact with with Chinese words to complete missions and puzzles. The game includes an editor for players to create and edit their own levels. It will release for PC and Mac via Steam later this year.
Doot Tiny Games’s Kabuto Park is a bug-collecting card-battling RPG where players collect and train their train critters to win the Summer Beetle Battles Championship. It features over 40 bug species to collect with upgradable bug-catching equipment. The game will release for PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam on May 28, 2025.
Andrei Fomin’s Effluence RPG is a sci-fi turn-based RPG utilising text symbol graphics. Players obtain new resources by defeating enemies and breaking them down into individual particles, which they use to print weapons, gear, and mechanisms on a special printer. It will release for PC via Steam on September 25, 2025.
- V.E.D.A: The Awakening of Souls
Tripearl Games’s V.E.D.A: The Awakening of Souls is a Soulsike action RPG. Players control a protagonist who awakens with no memory, and undergoes combat training in a simulator run by a powerful AI, where they uncover hidden secrets. The game is in development for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, and is available to wishlist on Steam.
INDIE Waves #3
Owlcat Games and Another Angle Games’s turn-based cRPG Shadow of the Road is set in a version of Japan with steampunk technology. Players take on the role of a master strategist behind a team of fighters, each member with their own motivations. While the forces of the Emperor and the Shogunate are fighting for control, a British trade conglomerate has its own agenda. It is available to wishlist on Steam, where a playtest is currently ongoing.
Mixed Realms’s 13Z: The Zodiac Trials is a hack-and-slash roguelike adventure. The game sees aspiring animal spirits battling against demons and existing Zodiac Guardians to become the 13th Zodiac. It features single-player adventure as well as two-to-four-player co-op trials. The game is available to wishlist on Steam, with a playtest currently underway.
Spiral Up Games and Game Float’s Bandit Knight is a 2.5D action stealth title. Players control a master thief looking to steal treasure and outsmart foes across a wide variety of locales. The game is in development for PC and is available to wishlist on Steam.
CFK and developer 21c.Ducks’s action RPG Chrono Sword takes place in the fantasy world of Adelnor and follows the adventure of Aenor, an amnesiac woman who awakens in a city in flames before going through a gate that leads her into the future. Players are tasked with traveling between the past and the present to uncover the truth about the ruined state of the world and prevent it from happening. It is currently available on Steam Early Access and is also planned for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
- Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall
Brave At Night’s Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall is a follow-up to its 2020 strategic kingdom-management RPG Yes, Your Grace. It sees players try to lead their kingdom in a Slavic-folklore inspired world, choosing whether and how to aid petitioners, send agents on missions, and care for their family. The game is in development for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, and is available to wishlist on Steam.
Gamepie’s Dobbel Dungeon is a dice-based, roguelite tactical RPG. Players gather a party to stop a curse that has transformed wildlife into monstrous versions and caused them to rebel against the locals. Characters roll dice at the start of each turn, which are then used to power their actions. The game is planned to release for PC via Steam in Q4 2025.
INDIE Waves #4
DESTINYbit’s Nitro Gem Omega is a turn-based RPG focused on cinematic mech battles. It takes place in a future where humanity is on the brink of extinction after losing a war against the machines. Players command a crew of four pilots responsible for different systems on the mech and participate in timeline-based battles. It features a persistent asynchronous online world where every character is procedurally generated. The game is planned to release for PC later this year and can be wishlisted on Steam.
To Be Announced and Numor Games’s The Backworld is a party-based surreal horror RPG. It features a non-linear adventure as players slip between the cracks of reality into a broken world and explore endless dimensions to defy beings born out of pure chaos. The game is planned to release on PC via Steam in early 2026.
AMATA Games and Curry Croquette’s Crescent Tower is billed as an 8-bit dungeon crawler RPG taking inspiration from the RPGs released on Nintendo Entertainment System. The player is tasked with exploring the tower that appears every fifty years, whose top floor is rumored to house a wish-fulfilling jewel and a potion granting immortality. It is set to release in 2025 for PC via Steam.
- Labyrinth of Touhou Tri -The Dreaming Girls & The Mysterious Orbs-
Nise-Eikoku Studio’s Labyrinth of Touhou Tri -The Dreaming Girls & The Mysterious Orbs- is a party-based dungeon-crawling RPG with challenging boss fights. Players control a 12-person party made up of characters from the Touhou series with over 40 characters available to choose from. The game is planned to release on PC via Steam and is available to wishlist.
Springloaded’s Let’s Build a Dungeon is a simulation title where players manage a game studio creating an MMORPG. Players manage staff, development schedules, advertising campaigns, and press relationships while crafting their own game with quests, towns, monsters, and dungeons, and are able to jump in their created world. The game is in development for PC and Xbox Series X|S, and is available to wishlist on Steam.
Terahard’s Dunebound Tactics is a roguelite tactical RPG set in a post-apocalyptic as players lead a band of survivors in their ship across unforgiving sands. The game features a dynamically created world with players able to use its destructible and reshapable terrain to mold the battlefield to their advantage. It is in development for PC and is available to wishlist on Steam.
CULT Games and White Owls Inc.’s Hotel Barcelona is a parody action roguelike Metroidvania from Swery65 and Suda51. It sees serial killers from all over the US gathered up in a luxurious hotel just outside of Pittsburgh. Players control novice federal marshal Justine, who has an insane serial killer named Dr. Carnival living inside of her and must kill all of the killers before escaping the cursed hotel. It is planned to release for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and is available to wishlist on Steam.
Team17 and Spellgarden Games’s Ritual of Raven is a story-based farming sim where players aren’t required to do the farming themselves. Players instead collect and enchant Arcana Constructs to grow their magical herb garden while making friends with its quirky cast. The game is planned to release on PC (via Steam) and Nintendo Switch later this year.
INDIE Spotlights
- All in Abyss: Judge the Fake
Alliance Arts, Acquire, and WSS Playground’s “poker battle mystery adventure RPG” All in Abyss: Judge the Fake follows self-proclaimed genius gambler Asuha as she aims to climb to the top of the gambling scene in a dystopian world. Gameplay is based on the Texas Hold ’em variant of poker and sees players participating in one-on-one duels, trying to reduce their opponent’s coin count to zero. It is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch
- Marisa of Liartop Mountain
Alliance Arts and Unknown X’s Touhou doujin adventure RPG spin-off Marisa of Liartop Mountain follows Reimu Hakurei as she searches for Marisa Kirisame through magical books after Marisa suddenly vanishes at the same time that a mysterious mountain appears. The adventure progresses through a mixture of player decisions and dice rolls. The game will release for PC and Nintendo Switch on September 19, 2025.
- The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily
One or Eight, WSS Playground, and Alliance Arts’s turn-based strategy The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily follows Scarlet, a duchess who becomes the subject of false murder accusations. While she attempts to evade capture from the imperial armies, she forms a partnership with time-traveling livestreamer Lily to convince opposing generals of Scarlet’s innocence and begin her own rebellion. It will release for PC via Steam on July 24, 2025.
Akatsuki Games, Aniplex, and Blast Edge Games HYKE: Northern Light(s) is set in a world devastated by a war between humans and witches. It follows Hyke, a white-haired girl, who follows in her witch mother’s footsteps on a journey around the world, where she finds the unexplored “Forbidden Areas”. However, these areas turn out to be guarded by witches known as Metheos. It will release for PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch in summer 2025.
MAGI and Neotro’s Magical Princess is a life sim RPG where players raise their daughter while she attends a magical academy. Players choose what classes to attend, part-time jobs to take on, and various other actions, including engaging turn-battle battles against monsters. It features a cast of over 30 characters with over 50 possible endings. It is in development for PC and is available to wishlist on Steam.
