Indie Watch November: Five new Indie titles that you may have missed

November has been another month chock full of new Indie Games including cozy survival games like Winter Burrow. Here are five more titles you may have missed among all the releases this month: Home, As I Began to Dream, Possessor(s), Demonschool and Duskpunk.

Home

Home is an awesome little title. Based on the developer’s experience it follows the protagonist as he’s homeless for fourteen days. While predominantly a Visual Novel Home also adds some optional Rhythm game aspects similar to Guitar Hero with the additional complexity of chords; you can’t “fail” so you’re competing with yourself to see how well you can do. I’ll be honest, I found that concentrating on the gameplay made me miss the music so I started letting it autoplay just so I could experience the songs.

While the game only runs about two hours it packs a lot of emotion in that timeframe — it feels like you’ve watched a movie when you’re done. I highly recommend picking up Home.

As I Began to Dream

Another emotional title As I Began to Dream (also on Switch) has you play as Lily, a young girl dealing with the tragic loss of her parents. As you travel through the dream you encounter both interesting characters and the emotions of your past. The gameplay is simple yet clever — you can rotate and swap blocks to create paths and defeat enemies. While it looks easy at first glance there is timing involved; for example you might need to redirect an enemy into the path of a projectile (or vice versa) and you’ll have to wait to rotate or move to ensure it happens in the correct sequence. Fortunately the game has checkpoints before each puzzle and it’s easy to restart if you make a mistake that you can’t get out of.

The hand-illustrated artwork is gorgeous especially in the cutscenes and I look forward to completing this game with Lily to see if she can make it past her grief.

Possessor(s)

I’m a big fan of platform fighters and metroidvanias despite the fact I’m not always great at them so Possessor(s) (also available for the Playstation) is a game I’ve been keeping an eye for awhile. You play as Luca, stuck in a city dealing with an interdimensional catastrophe and with a demon trapped in your head named Rhem who was nice enough to give you new legs when yours got crushed. Together, you fight other demons and possessed humans, trying to unravel what happened and seeing if you can save the city.

Combat is frenetic as you would expect but in the amount I’ve played so far, the opponent density isn’t overwhelming, making it easier to plan your attacks and parries (although that might be a function of the difficulty level I chose to play on). The graphics are excellent and the gameplay is fun, so I’m planning to stick with it to see as much of the story as I can.

Demonschool

If Possessor(s) doesn’t satisfy your desire to slay demon than you also might want to check out Demonschool (also available on Playstation, Xbox and Switch) — there’s an apocalypse happening in 11 weeks and its up to you as the very excited demon hunter Faye to prevent it. Combat gameplay is isometric tactics with a strong line ’em up and knock ’em down vibe. The combat is divided into planning and action sequences so you can plot your best strategy before kicking it off. Like the Persona series allies and enemies can be weak to some elements so you’ll want to strategize but it’s a lot easier as you get to choose the order of attack each round.

The game also has social aspects similar to the Fire Emblem and Persona series with 15 other students at your school you can recruit and build ties with — maybe even romantic ones. There are also minigames such as fishing and an arcade game that looks suspiciously like the classic Outrun.

Most importantly Demonschool does not take itself seriously in the least. Character personalities are dialed up to 11 and while they can feel a little trope-y it’s still a lot of fun to interact with them. I’m having a blast playing this game and I look forward to seeing all it offers.

Duskpunk

The final game we’re looking at this month is Duskpunk. You’re a soldier mistaken for dead who winds up on the shore of the steampunk-like setting Dredgeport where you have to find a way to both survive and keep your sanity. Duskpunk plays like a tabletop RPG with two six-sided dice determining how successful you are at lying, fighting, and stealing your way through the slums of Dredgeport. Besides making sure you get enough food to survive you’ll also need to worry about your stress as the nightmares that plague your sleep and the beatings you take on the streets can increase it; too much stress will “break” the faces on your dice making it harder to succeed. Fortunately you’re addicted to a drug called Solace that can help reduce stress — if you’re able to find some in time.

The vibe of Duskpunk is really cool with its Victorian/steampunk aesthetic dominated by dark tones and gritty situations. I haven’t progressed far enough to do anything more than survive, let alone thrive, but I am hooked on Duskpunk. I am a little concerned that the stress mechanic may end up cascading failures until I die which, while realistic, would result in an abbreviated experience. Hopefully I can avoid that with little Solace and a lot of luck.

That’s all for November but be sure to let us know in the comments if there are any other new Indie titles you’ve been playing!