Featuring dark fantasy that draws on folklore from across Southeast Asia, Kabaret is a visual novel with a rich scattering of minigames and other confections, all presented in an artistic style. outstanding hand-drawn and vibrant background music. While the developer of Persona Theory (Fires at Midnight) is based in Malaysia, they are collaborating with developers and musicians from across the region to breathe life into Kabaret’s captivating mythology.
The story follows Jebat, a recently deceased ex who must adapt to his new horned snake form in an afterlife full of monsters, keeping his nerve as he rubs shoulders with a suitor. harimau jadian, a pontianak vampire and other mythical creatures from Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and more.
The game unfolds through a combination of visual novel text boxes set against a large fullscreen painted background, a comic panel, a dialogue tree with abstract visuals instead of text, and mini-games. in which you have to lead a tea ceremony, lightly touch a guli marble or conduct a musical performance. There’s even an interactive glossary for Malay vocabulary. Based on legend but not bound by reality, Kabaret is shaping up to be a truly special experience. Pick it up on Xbox, Steam, and the Epic Games Store in March 2023.
Faerie Afterlight
This fun yet thought-provoking puzzle-platformer with Metroidvania elements is bold enough to ask the question: What if you didn’t have to kill every enemy creature you encounter? Yes, you can do it in Faerie Afterlight, from Indonesia’s Clay Game Studio, but you also have the option to leave them alive and have your fairy companion Wispy own them so you can use their abilities. For example, some enemies can’t see spikes, so riding on their back will help you safely navigate around spiked pits, while other flying creatures can help you reach high platforms. or across great depths.
Wispy’s skills evolve over the course of the demo, allowing you to unlock various mysterious doors, shortcuts, and respawn points, or control and rearrange platforms to allow you to continue through stages. increasingly non-linear segments.
All of this is expressed in a beautiful art style, a surreal and warm image in the Ori series along with a dreamy soundtrack. The game will be released on PC later this year or early 2023, and the demo is available now on Steam.
Katana Rama
With a focus on making the player feel like the bad guy, Katana Rama is a third-person action game from Malaysian developer Ghost Machine in which you play as an escape-fighting hacker program. from the digital security system. Cue ninja action and wall-running parkour, as you lock onto one-hit-kill enemies with your katana to increase Power Level, which then allows you to break through tougher enemies’ shields or open lock the next kill room.
Katana Rama uses a surprisingly smooth, fast and intuitive dash system, with great visual feedback using bright color and number codes to ensure you always know how many Levels you have and How many more points are needed in the battle?
With just three bosses, it’s a short game, but a replayable one: While each room is full of hand-designed enemies, they are procedurally strung together so that each run different from the last and limited by creativity and challenging boss fights. The demo of Katana Rama is available now on Steam Next Fest, and the game will launch in February 2023.
Never end
Petting animals is proven to be good for your mental health – but in Never Ending Beyond, it’s a survival technique. In this roguelite from Malaysia’s One More Dream Studios (Ageless), the player controls an android called CareTakerUnit, which has a unique skill for petting animals to unlock new abilities. You must explore manually linked islands but follow the procedure of a broken planet called Beyond to find and rescue animals – increase your arsenal of offensive and passive skills in this progress.
Each animal you find on your trip will follow you around until you find the warp to send it back to your base, where you will also return each time you die, allowing you to claim Mine pets and other resources to craft for the next run. And of course, depending on how you mix and match your weapons and skills, each run will be different.
The Steam page for Never Ending Beyond was launched during Level Up KL, so why don’t you squirm its belly.
Instantly familiar to fans of Overcooked or Moving Out, At Your Service is a house-keeping action game for up to four players, from Thailand’s FairPlay Studios. Players are tasked with cleaning up a messy house, starting with simple tasks like cleaning up trash and sweeping the floor. The action becomes more chaotic as the tasks become increasingly complex, such as washing, drying, and then storing in the closet – but what really throws the wrench at work is the inclusion of hosts who will be watching you around to make sure you’re working hard and getting crazier than ever when you miss a spot.
The game will launch on all platforms next year with three different world themes, each with their own gimmicks: 1980s suburban houses, sci-fi setting in the future and a magical kingdom of castles and wizards. It will launch with couch co-op, with online functionality added in the future. Fun and rambunctious, At Your Service is shaping up to be a welcome addition to the family party game space.
Troubleshooter
One of the wilder games in Level Up KL is Troublemaker, whose anarchy demo went viral after the co-play hit over 5 million views. The young developers at Indonesia’s Gamecom Team were heavily influenced by the Like a Dragon/Yakuza series, which threw a mixture of violent fights and whimsical mini-games into the schoolyard scene while studying. New transfer student to Budi takes on the Student Council bullies to climb the social ladder.
This “action-adventure-beat-’em-up” demo is filled with local slang and silly humor, plus plenty of violence – its surprisingly deep combat system allows players unlock new abilities and Sick Motions such as providing heavier combinations than punching, wielding a sickle, or throwing sandals in the opponent’s face.
The mini-games are hit and miss, but they certainly have a strange appeal as they paint everyday life in a dingy school – the fun, slow wheelchair “race” some of you classmates found lying around, participating in a first-person horror-survival game, training a “stupid bird” to fly, and even taking a difficult multiple-choice test at school. Troublemaker is set to release in 2023 on Steam and the Epic Games Store, and the demo is available on Steam until October 23.
Meeting point
Set in the futuristic version of Indonesia’s Bay City and Surabaya, Rendezvous from Pendopo Multi Creation is a cyberpunk noir adventure game with a local flavor. The stunning 2.5D pixel art design and snappy character animations have more of a classic 1990s Flashback, but its cityscapes are easier to explore and filled with intrigue and intrigue. the paranoia you’d expect in a cyberpunk noir game.
In a world where supervillains rule everyone’s life for the worse, protagonist and reformed crime agent Setyo are pulled back into the sinister underworld as he hunts down his sister. , who he learns is working with a notorious Cyberrunner gang. The adventure has you taking on Setyo’s mundane night job as a security guard, chatting with NPCs, hacking robots, collecting clues, and solving puzzles as the movie moves into full-blown action.
Rendezvous is due out sometime next year or so, and the playable prologue titled Rendezvous: Shadows of the Past is available now on Steam.
Honorable mention
Here is a series of exciting games from Level Up KL! The demo for Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is out now on Steam, and promises to be another insightful take on late-night java therapy. Gloom and Doom is a sassy 1990s romantic comedy, dressed up as a horror game, with a supernatural twist. Rhythm Doctor’s simple one-button mechanics deliver an incredibly powerful musical game based on complex rhythm theory and complex timing. Let’s Build a Zoo is a sweet management simulation infused with paired DNA, allowing you to create up to 300,000 different animals to wow visitors. And Cuisineer is a roguelite dungeon crawler RPG teeming with yummies.