NeverAwake, the nightmarish twin-stick shoot’em up set in a world of a young girl’s fears and horrors, from developer Neotro Inc and publisher Phoenixx, invites PC gamers to the nightmare realm via Steam on Wednesday, Sept. 28, as revealed during Future Games Show at Gamescom.
Get a more in-depth look at the grotesque vegetable monsters and other terrors in the extended cut of the PC release date trailer here. The Vermillion Gate Grand Prize winner at Japan’s prestigious indie game festival, BitSummit 2022, will bring its bizarre nightmares to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4|5 in Q1 2023.
Discover the grotesque nightmares of a little girl, trapped in her slumber, paralyzed by fear, seemingly never to awake. In the deepest parts of her subconsciousness, she sees Rem, a fierce fighter armed with a demonic, dragon-shaped gun, who fights to conquer the forces trapping her.
Dodge, aim and shoot in 360-degree levels, gather enough power to unleash a wide blast around Rem when surrounded by foes as she drifts through beautiful hand-drawn landscapes of fears and monstrosities of the girl’s nightmares. Annihilate the abominations haunting her waking hours like dentists, angry dogs, and going to school. Other foes represent terrors more familiar to Japanese youth, like the first boss, a radish monster representing the acquired taste of wasabi.
Each of the 80 levels loops until Rem collects all the souls, and each loop gets more challenging if Rem can’t defeat her adversaries in time. Fight more than a dozen bosses, discover what lies at the core of the girl’s subconscious and what might lead to her freedom from this sleep paralysis.
“I aimed to create a shooting game accessible to all, and a neverending nightmarish loop of the same stage repeated over and over again seemed like an ideal way for players to progress at their own pace,” said Hiroshi Sawatari, developer of the game. “By designing the enemies from elements we all have feared or loathed in our lives, we hoped to create a setting that is both horrifying and sympathetic.”
NeverAwake releases on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022, on Steam for PC for $19.99 with a 15% launch discount, and support for English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese language text. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 versions will release in Q1 2023.
Players wanting to get their hands on NeverAwake early can check out the demo now available on Steam or on the show floors of Gamescom, TOKYO GAME SHOW 2022, Busan Indie Connect, and Crunchyroll Expo Australia, where it’s been selected to appear.
For more information, visit the official NeverAwake website, and follow Neotro Inc. on Twitter.
