Constance – 2025
Constance is a Metroidvania with puzzle and jump’n’run elements. The focus is on exploration, combat, and riddles. It is currently in an early stage of development and will be released for PCs and consoles. The game’s story is about the name-giving protagonist Constance, who one day mysteriously finds herself imprisoned by her inner demons in her subconscious. Players take on the role of Constance and help her face these demons and fears, overcome her mental blocks and strengthen her acceptance and awareness, so that she can develop the strength and balance to leave her inner prison behind. The game’s visual style is defined by detailed hand-drawn environments and frame-by-frame animations of the characters that lend the game world a deep and lively atmosphere. The game deals with themes of mental health, creativity, art, passion and work culture. The worlds are diverse, imaginative, and filled with dangers, puzzles, obstacles, and unique characters, all waiting to tell players their own little stories.
Our thoughts:
We were initially drawn to this Metroidvania by its stunning hand-drawn 2D graphics, depicting intensely emotional and relatable scenes of an artist’s journey with mental health and maintaining their creative energy in a chaotic world. However, when we picked up Constance and gave it a go, we immediately realised the team developing the game is intensely attuned not just to storytelling and art, but have ensured the gameplay and mechanics are top-notch as well.
Playing Constance almost felt like a study in game design – equal parts stunning, sentimental, and satisfying, the mechanics are clearly very precisely tuned to ensure every attack, jump, and glide feels like a pure dopamine hit. The team explained to us that they’ve actually been drawing and re-drawing the game’s scenes over and over again to ensure everything flows perfectly.
The masterful attention to detail and thoughtful care that has been put into every element of this game was very impressive, and we thoroughly recommend checking it out when it releases later this year.
Tales of Tuscany – 2026
Tales of Tuscany is a fast-paced, hilarious RPG where you control your own story. Build a team of misfits to take on bosses with and make choices that shape the world around you! Tuscany has been obliterated by the evil wizard Thunder Goober for his own personal entertainment! Play as Lambypoo and adventure through the broken land of Tuscany, either making friends and having them join your team or defeating enemies for their EXP in your efforts to save your cousins and reunite Tuscany… Each journey through Tuscany is completely unique to the player at the wheel, and you’ll be awarded something called a Rhapsody each time you complete the game – a postcard which details your entire playthrough which you can trade cross-platform between friends! You’re tasked with reuniting Tuscany, but nobody is telling you how… do whatever you want!
Our thoughts:
What can we say about this zany JRPG to effectively describe its quirky mechanics, “choose-your-own-adventure”-style progression system, and absolutely hilarious narrative? Honestly, you just need to check it out for yourself. Don’t worry if you haven’t played its predecessor, Athenian Rhapsody, the core theme of both games is to have fun, make it whatever you want it to be, and ignore the rules.
The booth at PAX (where both games were on display) was consistently filled with laughter from the watching crowd as irreverent storylines reminiscent of EarthBound played out in Pokémon-style battles with WarioWare-like elements. Playing as “Lambypoo” (which developer Nico Papalia confirmed was inspired by his dog’s Lamb Chop toy), you’re encouraged to be as ridiculous in your decisions as possible – and none of the options are boring.
We couldn’t get enough of Tales of Tuscany, and are anxiously awaiting the game’s release. Until then, we highly recommend checking out the first game, Athenian Rhapsody, for a taste of this topsy-turvy universe.
Demonschool – Q3 2025
Demonschool is a new-style tactics RPG where motion equals action. Defeat big weirdos in between the human and demon worlds as Faye and her misfit companions, while navigating university life on a mysterious island.
Our thoughts:
The long-awaited tactics RPG from Necrosoft is finally coming to Switch this summer, and it should definitely be worth the wait. If you’re looking for a grisly horror-style JRPG with chess-like strategy and a solid friendship & romance system for building your party, you’ll love Demonschool.
We also enjoyed the mechanics of boosting our party’s skills via the school-based activities – extracurriculars, class schedules, training, and side quests. A darker, more demonic take on some of the best elements of Persona and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Demonschool is looking like it could be an (oc)cult hit.
