We attended BitSummit Drift this past July, the latest edition of Kyoto’s biggest gaming event. At this event we got to play many upcoming indie titles from across the world, but mostly from Japan. NantenJex will be sharing his thoughts on the games he played from his hands-on experience and providing important information on each of the titles. Trailers and links to each of the games Steam pages (or closest equivalent) will be included (although many are coming to multiple platforms so if you want to get the title on a platform other than Steam then please check your system’s digital store).
In this fourth preview block, we cover an assortment of random games that NantenJex played during BitSummit Drift. From different takes on boss battle action to simulator games with different perspectives on the world. Games with cute anime girls and throwbacks to the cartoons of yesteryear. Let’s dive right into these next six indie titles.
Robo Frenzy
- Platforms: Steam
- Release Date: TBA
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2324550/Robo_Frenzy/
Robo Frenzy is a sandbox boss battling game where you craft weapons and construct machines while fighting giant robots. Beatdown colossal bosses and capture robos to make your own sharable boss you can give to a friend to fight.
The first thing that’ll immediately stand-out from Robo Frenzy is its art style. It is incredibly Cartoon Network coded with character, world and enemy designs straight out of shows like Adventure Time and Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi. And this is intentional as leading the charge as head writer for this game is Patrick Baker, who previously worked on Regular Show. You can feel a similar vibe come through in this game as the premise relies on someone spilling food over a single modem that’s connected to every single robot household appliance in the city, causing them all to go on a rampage.
To help bring these bots back under control, the player (and a friend) must take them down in these big beat-em up-coded boss battles. It won’t be enough to wail on the boss with your sword, or any melee weapon you can find for that matter as they do break eventually. Instead, you need to participate in what is essentially a tower-defence style of gameplay. The player will place various machines around the arena that the boss will try to destroy. Some of these towers will just directly harm the enemy but others will generate weapons for the player to use or can be set-up to create an electric fence to keep the boss in. Which towers you build and where you place them is the real key to defeating the boss in the time limit required.
In a way it’s kind of like a more cartoon-y Monster Hunter game but with two players instead of four and robots instead of creatures. But because it’s robots that you are fighting, it means that you can not only collect their parts but you can also reprogram them to fight for you. One of the pretty cool features of Robo Frenzy is that when you defeat a boss you can create your own boss fight scenarios with them, which you can either battle yourself or send to a friend. It allows for so much content and I’m sure it will keep players engaged for a while.
Similar to Monster Hunter however, this game is definitely best played in multiplayer. I did play on my own and it was fine but I found the game started to get kind of samey and long. It’s a similar issue I have with Monster Hunter and other games focused around fighting bosses, and those are generally best played with friends. So that would be my recommendation for those interested. And if you are interested, there is a demo for the game on Steam right now so go and check it out if you want.
Maid Cafe on Electric Street
- Platforms: Steam
- Release Date: TBA
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1789030/Maid_Cafe_on_Electric_Street/
Maid Cafe on Electric Street is a leisurely maid cafe adventure set in the otaku haven of Nipponbashi, Osaka.
To start off this preview, I just want to say that the demo at the event was way too long. This is a story driven simulation game where you give up on your job and begin running a Maid Cafe in Nipponbashi, Osaka, and the demo on the show floor made me go through all of the story content before I even got a chance to start managing my maids. It was a bit of a slog, but I’m glad I kept going because it’s a pretty cute and engaging little story.
The game starts with an over exaggerated shitty office life that quickly ends and finds our player character unemployed and homeless in Osaka, until he ends up wandering into a seemingly empty Maid Cafe and passing out. After being woken up by the timid and clumsy Shiro, the only maid still left at the cafe, you take on the role of her new, temporary, manager and have to keep the Maid Cafe running, in the face of rival businesses and a critical lack of Maids in your employment.
The game has a ton of charm and that’s what kept me going through it. The pixel art is adorable and I always appreciate when a game is set in a real-location and does its best to replicate that as accurately as possible. The Nipponbashi here has many of the same shops you would find in real life like Surugaya and Super Potato, which is really neat. And you can explore each one and get collectables like retro video games or gashapon figures that can be used to decorate your apartment.
In terms of the actual simulation gameplay, you have to manage the four girls in your cafe and make sure they are keeping customers happy. Each girl has their own set of strengths and weaknesses so knowing where to put them during the work day is key. But you might get customers with specific requirements or fetishes that will change up your usual rotation, so getting to know your customers is also important. The player also needs to serve customers themselves, often through the use of making drinks in this robust system full of ingredients you need to purchase and keep on top of. It’s a lot of fun, even for someone like myself who’s never been to a maid cafe and doesn’t have any desire to go to one. It’s like any old cafe simulator with an otaku twist.
There’s a demo for Maid Cafe on Electric Street out on Steam so go and check it out yourself if you are interested.
Last Standing
- Platforms: Steam
- Release Date: November 2024
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2874130/Last_Standing/
This is an action game in which players compete to defeat the number of enemies that appear from the left and right sides of the screen. The most distinctive feature of the game is the control method, which is innovative and original, like banging on a keyboard.
Last Standing is a very unique survival game that was just not explained to me very well at all when I played it. The only thing players can do is attack left and attack right, and you have to defeat hordes of enemies coming from either side of the screen. Each attack takes stamina and while you can block attacks, they still do damage – just a lot less. So what’s the big gimmick, other than lacking the ability to move outside of attacks? Button presses, by which I mean the sheer quantity of button presses.
This game really works on a PC as the entire left side of your keyboard dictates attacks to the left and the entire right side dictates attacks to the right. The more buttons you press in one go, the bigger and more bombastic the attack will be so the player wants to slam into their keyboard and go wild in order to defeat more enemies. But, the bigger the attack the more stamina it will drain. Stamina can be refilled with the space bar so finding gaps in the waves of enemies to fill up, or having some self control and understanding how big your attacks should be in those moments is the key to success.
Unfortunately the stamina refill mechanic wasn’t really explained to me and so I found the game to be awkward and confusing. I couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong, but now that I did some research and understand what the game wanted of me, I think it’s a pretty neat concept. I pour one out for all the broken keyboards this game will produce and the hardcore players who will be summoning their inner ‘angry german kid’ in order to get the top score.
Copycat
- Platforms: Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Steam
- Release Date: September 2024
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622350/Copycat/
A narrative-driven game about rejection, belonging and the true meaning of home. It follows the story of a newly adopted shelter cat who becomes the victim of an elaborate plan when a jealous, stray copycat steals her place in the household.
Cat games have been popping up across the gaming landscape over the last year. You had Stray, which told a cyberpunk fantasy driven story from the perspective of a cat, and then we had Little Kitty, Big City, a light hearted adventure game where the name gives it all away – you play as a little kitty in the big city. CopyCat is the final part of this kitty trilogy of games and by far the most down to earth of the bunch.
The game has you play as a newly adopted kitten whose latest owner is this old Australian woman who is just seeking some companionship in what appears to be her final days on earth. It’s a very sombre game but I didn’t get far enough in the demo to see if the story goes in the direction you might expect.
Instead, my playtime involved running around as a kitten and seeing the world as a kitten does. I hide in the garage to avoid my owner, I steal food left out on the counter, break vases when no one is around and get inspired by Tigers on the TV. It’s more of a realistic cat simulation game than the previous two cat games were, while still trying to tell an interesting story. Will that work out in the long run? Well it’s hard to say. This is a game that definitely relies more on its storytelling than gameplay and I can’t fully judge that from a demo, so we’ll just have to see when the game releases.
Fairy Carrots
- Platforms: Steam
- Release Date: January 11th 2024
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2687530/Fairy_Carrots/
The ultimate case study of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. Fairy Carrots looks absolutely bizarre. You play as a ‘Fairy’ who has to run around a house and collect as many carrots as possible, all while avoiding the most generic looking anime girls you’ll ever see, holding machine guns that are ready to fire on sight. The assets clash in a fascinating way that makes the game look like an asset flip.
But this weird 3D stealth platformer has some of the best control feel I’ve experienced in the genre. It’s a parkour game where the environment is a gigantic house that is surprisingly fun to play. It has very responsive controls and clever level design that allows for both stealth sections and parts where you just have to run and dodge the bullets of some red haired shoujo.
I didn’t realise this game was already out when I started writing this preview so uh… go check it out for yourself if you are interested!
Homura Hime
- Platforms: Steam
- Release Date: 2025
- Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1820000/Homura_Hime/
Homura Hime is a third person action game, featuring anime-styled visuals and intense 3D bullet hell gameplay. Alongside Homura Hime, fight against archdemons possessed by deviant emotions, and get closer to discovering the truth behind both the archdemons and her own veiled legacy.
The last game in this block is one I played at the request of my colleague PhantomZ2. Homura Hime is a third person action game that plays like a cross between Nier Automata, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm and any mainline Touhou game. It’s a bullet-hell action game where you fight through rooms of enemies and big bosses in a system that heavily encourages dodging, stunning and unleashing special attacks.
The final game might have more modes but at least for this demo, it was all combat focused with a training room and then a big bullet boss fight that I managed to beat on my second try. The game is a lot of fun. It’s face-paced and action-focused gameplay kept me constantly moving and on my toes. I ran around the boss and did slight chip damage with my ranged attack until I saw an opportunity for a close-quarters strike. However, the real damage comes from the well timed parries you can perform, that will temporarily stun the boss and open them up to be wailed on with one of the players several special attacks. These abilities are similar to Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s art system, where they are just a button press away but have a cool-down so you can’t spam them. Not all of them are offensive as well, as some provide stat buffs as well.
Homura Hime was a blast to play. I hope it’s not all just boss fights, as I mentioned in the last preview block that I find those tiring to play, but at least this one is an incredibly fun character action game with a great cel-shaded art style that I found very appealing.
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I have been keeping my eye on Homura Hime for a long time, I hope it turns out good. 🙂
Fairy Carrots looks…..unique,🤨 thats all I’m saying right now.😅
The maid game and cat game both looks interesting.