Tokyo Game Show 2025 Previews #3: Itachi: Haunted Abodes, Digital Exorcist, Time Flies, and MotionRec

We attended Tokyo Game Show 2025 and tried out some exciting new games! In this article, Brando shares his impressions of four promising indie titles: Itachi: Haunted Abodes, Digital Exorcist, Time Flies, and MotionRec. Other previews of other games are here (#1) and here (#2). All release dates and platforms are current as of October 10, 2025.

Itachi: Haunted Abodes – Wandering Through 2000s Tokyo Culture

A paranormal subculture story set in early 2000s Tokyo. Meet Itachi, a college student without a place to stay. He finds a part-time job that provides him a house… specifically, a stigmatized property. That is, a house with a dark past.

Releases in 2027 on PC (Steam).
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3846270/Itachi_Haunted_Abodes_Wandering_Through_2000s_Tokyo_Culture/

Itachi: Haunted Abodes – Wandering Through 2000s Tokyo Culture is a point and click adventure game where you can get a job, make instant ramen, and investigate occult mysteries. You play as Itachi, a college student in need of cash and a roof over his head. He finds a job posting that seems too good to be true: get paid just to live in a “psychologically undesirable” apartment, along with another live-in employee called Tanuki.

The catch? That apartment is haunted by a dark spirit called a “Landgod”, which Tanuki seems to know something about. It turns out that Tanuki hired Itachi as bait for the Landgod, so that he can exorcise it. Itachi seemed to be the main character, but interestingly, when the Landgod incapacitates him, the player’s viewpoint switches to Tanuki, who can see Landgods. You’ll have to combine both of their perspectives to discover necessary information about the Landgods and exorcise them from these properties.

The game has a grungy, punk rock atmosphere, and when I spoke with developer Achamoth after playing the demo, they confirmed that the game is packed with that sort of underground cultural energy. They’re a rock and metal fan, so in another case, you’ll go to a live music club to investigate the death of a visual kei band member. In other cases, you’ll visit a maid cafe, or hit the streets of fashion capital Harajuku. If you’re at all interested in visual novels, occult mysteries, or flip phone-era Tokyo, keep this game on your radar!

DIGITAL EXORCIST

DEFRAG. DESTROY. DELIVER. DIGITAL EXORCIST is a visual novel adventure game set in a world that blends late 20th century technology with advanced systems powered by occult magic. You play as a Digital Exorcist, solving supernatural crimes and eliminating digital demons along the way.

Releases in 2026 on PC (Steam).
Official site: https://en.hyperreal.jp/game/digital-exorcist/

Another investigative adventure novel game caught my eye, with its PC-98 style pixel art and turn-of-the-century vibes. Inspired by Snatcher and The Silver Case, Digital Exorcist developer Cool Beans Productions actually released a free version of the game on itch.io in 2023, and now they’re preparing a bigger release for Steam in 2026.

In the demo you play as Sawyer, a veteran detective turned Digital Exorcist that solves supernatural crimes and takes on digital demons.

Tasked with investigating the death of a superstar student idol, Sawyer goes undercover as a high school teacher. With help from his digital companion Tomodachi and computer-savvy student Tokio, Sawyer enters “the wired”, a cyberspace representation of the school’s network, where they hunt for clues surrounding the student’s death.

The gameplay in this demo consists of clicking through dialogue, some basic turn based combat and environmental puzzles. For example, walking around this “wired” 3D area in first person and navigating through mazes. It isn’t super deep, and the slow walking speed and lack of falling/jumping add some tedium, but it does provide a change of pace compared to straight dialogue reading and clicking. The story seems to be the main draw for this game though, and the setting is conceptually interesting.

In addition to adventure games like Snatcher and The Silver Case, the game is clearly influenced by other Japanese works like Shin Megami Tensei and Serial Experiments Lain, and isn’t afraid to show it. If you’re into that kind of 90’s/2000’s retro-future Japan vibe, check out the itch.io version today!

Time Flies

A little adventure about our limited time in this world. In Time Flies, you’re a fly – your life is short, but your bucket list is long! How will you spend each precious second as a fly?

Available now for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Steam, Epic Games Store, and Mac App Store.
Official site: https://timeflies.buzz/

This is a beautiful little game. You play as a fly, moving around a 2D world with just the up, down, left, and right keys. Your life is short, each lasting 80-90 seconds, and you need to fly around a 2D house crossing items off your bucket list. “Learn an instrument”? Find a guitar and fly through the strings a few times. “Make someone laugh”? Land on someone’s foot and tickle them a bit.

The experience is silly and simple, but strangely poignant. It’s already out, so give it a try!

MotionRec

MotionRec is a recording puzzle action game where you utilize the power to record and play back your own movements. Use this power to explore a devastated world.

Slated for release in 2025, for Steam
Official site: https://playism.com/en/game/motionrec/
Original Pico-8 version: https://donutshunter.itch.io/motionrec

I’ve been following MotionRec for a while, since the original Pico-8 version wowed me, and it seems like this puzzle-platformer’s scope and polish keep on growing. Like I mentioned last year, the game has a really cool fundamental mechanic: You can record any movement, like walking horizontally across the ground, and then replay that movement later, like to make your character move across a pit too wide to jump across.

The demo keeps things relatively simple, only introducing a few other obstacles, but it seems like there’s a lot of creative space here to explore. For example, if while replaying a motion you collide with a play sign icon, you get to replay your motion again. Mastering the controls and zooming around the environment feels really cool — try the free Pico-8 version at the above itch.io link to get a taste. I found a couple hidden collectibles off the main path in the TGS demo, and I expect there will be even more waiting to be found by maniacs and speedrunners in the full release.

That’s all for this year’s previews! Tokyo Game Show has gotten so big that they’re extending it from 4 to 5 days in 2026: 2 business days (September 17, 18) and 3 public days (September 19, 20, 21). Let me know in the comments if there’s a title or series you’re interested in, and I’ll try to check it out next year!