Welcome to GTOGG’s January 2025 edition of Promising Indie Game Releases, where we highlight indie and non-mainstream titles that we believe deserve your attention – in other words, “look at all this potentially cool stuff you might’ve missed otherwise”. That would’ve been too long for a title, though.
In any case, let’s get right down to it.
Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist
Taking place in the so-called Land of Fumes, Ender Magnolia invites players to explore a gruesome post-apocalyptic world where artificial life forms known as Homunculi have been driven to insanity by the toxic fumes rising from underground. The storyline focuses on Lilac, an Attuner capable of healing those afflicted by this madness, as she ventures into a devastated realm to save both people and Homunculi while uncovering her lost memories in the process. Read our Early Access review here. The full version will be launching later this month, on January 23.
Blade Chimera
Described as an “occult-inspired cyberpunk metroidvania”, Blade Chimera takes place in a semi-near future where demons and monsters have become commonplace, and where humanity continues to wage a bloody, decades-long war against them. On a more personal level, the game will follow the journey of Shin, an amnesiac demon hunter who must recover his lost skills and memories while slowly discovering what happened to his missing wife.
Tyrant's Realm
Inspired by the unique and unmistakable visuals of the PlayStation 1 era, the game will invite you on an adventure into an ever-changing realm of fallen kingdoms and otherworldly dangers as you attempt to end the reign of the dreaded Tyrant. Naturally, your success in this world will depend heavily on the kind of weapons and armor you find on your travels – that said, the project’s roguelite DNA ensures that every run will be unique with procedurally generated biomes, meaning you’ll never truly be safe from the unexpected.
The Stone of Madness
A stealth game from developer The Game Kitchen (the team behind Blasphemous), The Stone of Madness plays a lot like a Spanish, 18th century version of Desperados that takes place within a monastery/madhouse: you control multiple protagonists at the same time, utilizing their strengths – while working around their weaknesses – in order to get from A to B undetected. For example, one character is able to swiftly assassinate unsuspecting enemy guards, while another goes into a panic and gradually loses his sanity upon seeing a dead body; you’ll have one character who’s terrified of fire (forcing you to put out torches), and then another who dreads being in the dark for too long. It’s a bit of a rock-paper-scissors dynamic, with players having to figure out how best to overcome their obstacles without triggering the latent fears and paranoias of each protagonist.
Nunholy
I’m a simple man: I see anime nuns, and I immediately get interested. Okay, so jokes aside, Nunholy does seem like a fun little roguelike romp, and I do tend to like things with vampires and an overall gothic aesthetic. Interestingly enough, the game does give you a bit of a “deal with the devil” kind of choice: you can decide to absorb the powers of the vampires you defeat, or instead opt to stay human and keep hunting the traditional way.
Cruel
Equipped with plenty of 90s charm, Cruel is a retro-style FPS that reminds me of 1998’s Blood if it was just a touch more fast-paced and intense. And by just a touch, I mean a lot. In it, you’re thrown into a variety of procedurally generated levels teeming with bloodthirsty abominations, leaving you with only one real option: grab a gun and massacre everything that’s in your way.
