Qliphah in Providence’s Shadow: Anime Expo 2026 Impression

Qliphah contains undeniable style and flair and has the promise to be something quite exceptional if its combat remains engaging throughout its runtime and its setting and story contain as much depth as its presentation implies.

It’s not often that an RPG leaves me bewildered by its gameplay concept, but Qliphah in Providence’s Shadow did just that when I first heard of it. Billed as a tactical timeline RPG, Qliphah offers a combat system that lets players anticipate enemy actions, with the UI displaying upcoming attacks, their elemental nature, and timing on a timeline. Giving players such extensive foreknowledge seemed like an incredibly odd pitch, so, with my curiosity thoroughly piqued, I decided to check out the demo at Anime Expo 2026 to see how the game would work.

Qliphah isn’t just interesting for its idiosyncratic gameplay; the narrative pitch is quite compelling as well. In a collapsed, reality-eroded Tokyo, delivery boy Souma Hoshigami is attacked by an entity known as an Aberration, which warps him into a “half-turned” state. From here, police investigator Rena Hizuki forces him to help investigate the occult-flooded city, including demonic narcotics and cursed stigmas appearing on people’s bodies. While the demo didn’t include any story content, which is to be told primarily through visual novel-like scenes, the setting in the background looked thoroughly corrupted, with plenty of fascinating, otherworldly architectural putrefaction and grotesque demonic energy. The character designs also seemed promising, with Rena standing out as visually appealing.

The garish sight of Tokyo’s ruination.

The demo presented at Anime Expo entirely focused on a boss battle that seems to take place quite some time into the game. Players controlled both Rena and Souma against a large, misshapen demonic flesh monster. Combat is actually quite simple and sees the opponent mainly using one of three differently colored attacks: red, yellow, or blue. Using the timeline’s information, players must respond with a properly timed, same-colored attack. Lining these up properly, especially with both Rena and Souma, triggers a counter that deals massive damage in response, often with a flashy, colorful, and acrobatic assault. Counters, especially when performed as a duo, demonstrated impressive style and felt fun and easy to execute. Aside from countering, players can also slow or stop time and switch positions on the battlefield, allowing them to dodge neutral-colored attacks that inflict status ailments and adding interesting positional elements to combat.

After defeating the boss, the demo came to quite an abrupt end, with no story or explorative content on display, leaving this part of the game a little more opaque, although the setting seemed quite promising. The combat, while satisfying and engaging, seemed a little too easy, especially given its mechanical simplicity, although the full game is set to feature multiple difficulties and was set to the easiest difficulty. That said, Qliphah contains undeniable style and flair and has the promise to be something quite exceptional if its combat remains engaging throughout its runtime and its setting and story contain as much depth as its presentation implies.