RPGamer Checks Out Steam Next Fest Summer 2025, Part 2
With so many RPGs releasing each year, it can be hard to keep track of which ones to keep an eye out for. Steam Next Fest offers players a chance to try out some of the many upcoming games ahead of launch and figure out those warranting paying closer attention to. Here at RPGamer, we looked at a few of the publicly available demos during the summer 2025 edition of Steam Next Fest. In this two-part feature, the first of which is available here, we picked out some titles we felt worthy of shining a spotlight on.
House of Necrosis
Sometimes a question is difficult to know if it is worth asking until someone provides an endearing answer. This is true for House of Necrosis, which asks the question: how fun would it be to mix Pokémon Mystery Dungeon‘s gameplay with a Resident Evil theme and Diablo-style loot? The answer is a whole lot of fun, as you will make tactical decisions, level up, and collect loot to put zombies and other nasties back into the ground.
The game plays top-down on a grid with both you and the enemies taking turns in parallel. While some enemies are on the slower side and take one turn for every two player turns, others are just as fast as the player. To defend yourself, you get a melee weapon in the form of a knife and a gun in the form of a pistol, which you upgrade as you find better weapons to replace them with. Sounds simple? Well, it gets more complicated; as your equipment also levels with use or has significant bonus effects which include hitting additional enemies or the ability to stun boss enemies. On top of that, you will find single-use hexes and serums to be used or thrown at enemies, which can teleport them or even clone the demo boss. Due to these factors, House of Necrosis offers an ever-changing experience that is hard not to like. My only gripe is that the controls at this point are less than ideal, but I believe improvements on that front will happen upon full release. It is definitely a game to keep an eye on. – Benedikt Geierhofer
Kid Kharagma
Kid Kharagma takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that already stands out due to its artistic style. I was surprised when there wasn’t a washed-out or drab background in sight, instead, the post-apocalypse is juxtaposed with bright colors – to great effect. The Wermwood Demo offers a taste of what to expect when the full game is released this fall.
The demo opens with Clancy on a mission – his first – to find a being called the Sporefather and stop the spread of spores in the area. During this section, players engage in turn-based combat which is reminiscent of Earthbound. Brightly detailed backgrounds are met with bombastic attack animations that make the turn-based combat engaging and exciting to watch.
The sound design matches the tenor of the art style, with jazzy synth beats pulsating in combat with more mellow (but still energetic) tunes playing in the field. It’s very Sega Genesis, in the best way possible. Even the writing fits the aesthetic, with plenty of quips and clever puns made during this opening demo. Ultimately, Kid Kharagma seems to have a very clear vision of the game it wants to be. RPGamers can find out this fall if developer Slugware can see it through to the finish line. – Paul Shkreli
Legends of the Round Table
Legends of the Round Table is a distinctive project from Artifice Studio. Of course, nothing is unusual about a retelling of Arthurian legends. Instead, Legends of the Round Table is remarkable in its presentation. The game is a side-scrolling, deck-based RPG with a gorgeous stained glass art style and voiced narration in the vein of Baldur’s Gate 3. In fact, Baldur’s Gate is a good analogue to this game, as much of what would be considered a “check” in Baldur’s Gate is not decided with a dice roll but through cards that are drawn. Characters have sheets that won’t be dissimilar to the character sheets of Baldur’s Gate, and combat has a similar feel while utilizing the cards as ways to determine whether an action is a success or failure.
There are some things to iron out. While the art direction is incredible, the UI is incredibly busy and hard to comprehend, and a lack of quest indicators can lead to a lot of time spent running around aimlessly. However, the core of Legends of the Round Table is solid and has a lot of promise, hopefully the full release is able to fully realize the vision put forth by Artifice Studio. – Ezra Kinnell
Mecharashi
Mecharashi arose from a failed Front Mission project, even to the point that Square tried to delay the game’s release in English due to reused assets. The game feels very much like a Front Mission title in a good way. The tactical turn-based battles are pretty snappy, at least in the early parts of the demo. It has skills and eventually unlockable skill trees, and the story seems interesting, with different factions and fun characters. The music was also very spot on and definitely fit the mood of the game well.
Sadly, that is where the good ends. First, this game feels like either a free-to-play gacha or game with microtransactions. This is very evident with early character unlocks and an “energy” system that would limit story mission attempts when the full game releases. The English translation is subpar; text goes beyond the box limit and is filled with grammar errors, spoken dialogue does not match the writing, and the voice acting is filled with stilted performances. Without knowing how the microtransaction and gacha elements will work, I’m hesitantly optimistic about this game. It’s going to be tough to break into a flooded free-to-play market with this kind of translation. – Robert Albright
OFF
OFF is a remaster of Unproductive Fun Time’s 2008 stealth hit, which made it big with fans of psychological indie RPGs with its surreal imagery and twisting plot. OFF’s well-wishers include the general populace of tumblr, where it was the 6th-most reblogged game of 2013, and the more esoteric fans of Blaseball and Starmen.net. With such a pedigree, it would seem more like an act of conspiracy than carelessness that has kept me from checking it out until now.
I think that I like OFF, but recommending a mystery based on its prologue can be risky. The new music pops, and the updated turn-based battle system is quick and inoffensive. But the main draws are its worlds of metal, plastic, meat, and smoke and their disconcerting inhabitants. Workers halve cows to extract the precious metals within; nearby, meat flows from a fountain to discourage cannibalism. The player’s physical instrument in these interconnected dreamscapes is the Batter, a man with a baseball bat. He clobbers ghouls, ghosts, and corrupted workers to a peppy electroswing beat, revealing little about his greater mission of purification. Between battles, the player – a distinct, named presence – guides the Batter through block-pushing and number puzzles, as well as conversations with an unsettling cat.
Clearly, there’s more going on than what the demo shows. References to demonology, Christian saints, zodiac, baseball, and the history of labor suggest all sorts of paths that could unfurl in the full release. But even if several of these turn out to be red herrings, I’m intrigued by the sinister writing and RPG Maker-friendly mix of minimalist sprites and public domain documents. Some games have layers like an onion, and the bite is worth the risk. – Zach Welhouse
Out and About
I finally went out and touched grass. Well, virtual grass. In Out and About, RPGamers get to walk around a small village and its surrounding forest collecting plants. This cozy title touts having a realistic knowledge of plants, and since foraging for plants can be dangerous in the real world, your aunt’s friend hooks you up with identifier cards that you use to compare the plants you’re picking to common lookalikes. The goal being to harvest chamomile, a flower used in tea, instead of hemlock, a flower used in poison.
After collection, plants get sorted, cooked, and sold to make some money for various upgrades and unlocks. Even better, since this is a cozy game, you don’t have to worry about accidentally poisoning the townsfolk. All in all, the general vibe is one of “take your time and enjoy nature and learn.” But don’t be surprised to be on a real life walk and suddenly go, “I know what daisies look like!” – Chris Privitere
Quartet
The Quartet demo starts off by giving you control of four overpowered characters who are looking to stop some evil doers from being, well, evil. Fans of their previous game, Shadows of Adam, will find the battle mechanics easy to grasp as they use the same Ability Points system. Each character has unique moves that cost AP, and they recover AP when their turn comes up. Each character also has a unique way to defend, which offers a way to gather more AP and also adds a variety of bonuses that can give a slight boost for that character on their next turn. Considering the hard-hitting moves are usually tied to AP, the trick is managing this resource to maximize your damage output for any battle that arises.
Only one main character is available to play in the demo. Nikolai is a sergeant in the Auslen Army, and his first assignment is to investigate some strange occurrences around some war-torn areas. While controlling Nikolai, you have 4 grunts working under you, so players also get to see how quick and easy swapping out characters in battles is. There was a fight when everyone’s guns were ineffective against a certain type of enemy, so the reserve unit had a grenade that quickly felled the beast. There is no penalty for doing this, so swapping is a great way to stay on top of any battle by forming the best team for every situation.
I reached the end of the demo and was left wanting more. If you enjoyed Shadows of Adam, or wanted something akin to Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, this feels like a game that will scratch that itch. Quartet is coming out in a few months, and it’s shaping up to be another classic from Something Classic games. – Ryan Radcliff
Shrine’s Legacy
Retro fans, rejoice! Shrine’s Legacy looks set to have us covered once it fully releases, if it’s (rather lengthy, at 90 minutes!) demo is anything to go by. The game gives off strong vibes of Squaresoft’s Secret of Mana, being playable in 2-player co-op, with elements of Quintet’s Illusion of Gaia thrown in. All of it is backed up by a retro-inspired art style featuring very pretty pixel art character portraits, and a lovely soundtrack. In addition to showcasing some fun and snarky character writing, the demo also allows players to experience the gamut of elements included in the gameplay loop, going past just combat and including some light puzzle-solving as well.
Early indications are that the narrative is nothing incredibly complex, though there are clever and engaging story beats aplenty woven throughout. Players take on the role of Rio, a young man whose ancestor once slew the great evil being that was plaguing the land, and whose family has since guarded the sword she used to do it, the Sword of Shrine. It isn’t long before rumors of the dark lord Aklor’s return begin to surface, and a mysterious stranger steals the sword right from Rio’s home. Teaming up with the supposed thief, a woman named Reima, Rio learns that he must travel the land to find eight magical gemstones that will give the sword the power it once had to defeat the evil chasing them.
Surprisingly, by the time the demo ended, I had already gathered the first three gemstones, granting Rio and Reima the power to cast ice, fire, and healing magic, respectively. Of course, the story could turn some unexpected corners from here on out, so who knows how long the final game will be. But the demo certainly oozed charm, making the game an easy recommendation for retro fans to keep an eye out for! – Pascal Tekaia
Titans of the Past
Build an Undead Embassy. Not a common task in most people’s lives, but just another Tuesday in Titans of the Past, where RPGamers are tasked with guiding a party of adventurers in a traditional first-person dungeon crawler combined with a twist. Whenever the party isn’t attacking or moving, time stands still, allowing RPGamers a more turn-based approach to combat in a real-time setting. Dungeon runs are a relatively short affair, centered around first-person fireball flinging action while also needing to dodge incoming attacks.
This is in stark contrast to the town, where low resolution static menus with simple button presses dominate; the entire experience feels like a completely separate game. For example, building undead recruits is just a button found under the Undead Embassy. There aren’t any buildings to enter or characters to talk to, which makes the existence of an embassy just for show. You can quickly return to the action with one button press and get back to the real game. Testing out all those upgrades and seeing if the latest build you created will work is indeed satisfying, given how much ruckus and flying bodies your spells will cause. It’s just a shame the town and menus are so generic and devoid of life. – Chris Privitere
WiZmans World Re;Try
WiZman’s World Re; Try is a remaster of a long-lost Nintendo DS game that never made it to the US. Sadly, the demo version of the remaster does not provide a compelling argument as to why this RPG shouldn’t have been left lost to history. The demo dumps a mountain of story and strange philosophical text on the player at the start before finally giving players control of the wizard protagonist as he creates some monster companions using his master’s homunculi, who look like fairies. The tutorial for this is very confusing, and when getting into the dungeon featured in the demo, little is explained about the battle system, with players seemingly expected to just know how it works based on other classic JRPGs. Graphics and animations overall just make the game feel like one of the dime-a-dozen JRPGs capitalizing on nostalgia, with the only difference being that this game is actually old. Human sprites all look like they have no face, which gives the whole game an overall unsettling feeling, making it feel like graphics were given a bump in resolution without consideration for how they look on a much larger screen. With a whole monster taming type mechanic and a competent battle system, it’s quite possible the full game provides enough depth to make it more than the sum of its parts, but the demo doesn’t provide a strong case for this. – Michael Apps
We hope you enjoyed reading about our staff’s Steam Next Fest summer 2025 experience. Check out part 1 as well, and please let us know what games you played during the event through the comments, social media, or our dedicated Discord server!
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