Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

• Developer: Questline
• Publisher: Awaken Realms
• Release Date: Out Now!
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Shape the legacy of King Arthur’s reign, 600 years after his fall in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, a mature first-person open-world RPG set in a dark fantasy realm inspired by Arthurian legend. Mix skills, attributes, and gear to shape your playstyle as you embark on a branching main quest spanning three expansive zones, with 50-70 hours of content spread across them.

Alongside side quests to undertake, secrets to uncover, and the Wyrdness, a primordial force that descends at night, increasing the challenge, players can fully immerse themselves in the world of Avalon with numerous activities, including sketchbook journaling, fishing, farming, blacksmithing, alchemy, cooking, mining, managing your house, and more!

Wander a world trapped in a perpetual Autumn and interact with over 250 voiced NPCs, all with their own lives to live and stories to tell. Aimed at a mature audience, get ready to deal with morally ambiguous choices that will ripple throughout Avalon as you follow the dark legacy of Arthur Pendragon!

A demo is available on PC (Steam).

Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army

• Developer: ATLUS
• Publisher: SEGA
• Release Date:  Out Now
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2

ATLUS may be well known for its Persona series these days, but before the Phantom Thieves, there was Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army. Another spin-off from the Megami Tensei franchise, Raidou Remastered is an updated version of the 2006 release. In this demo, learn what it takes to be a devil summoner and explore convincing demons to join your side. 

As the new Raidou, you are sent to help explore mysteries occurring in this re-envisioned 1930s Tokyo. A young heiress asks you to kill her, but before you can learn why she’s been kidnapped. Now you are on the case to find out the truth behind her request. Along the way, you’ll quickly find out that you are not the only demon hunter out there. Who are they, friend or foe? Do they have as many demons as you can acquire on their side? Your demon allies don’t just fight alongside you, but can also be used during your investigations to find clues to the current mysteries at hand. Have them inspect, sneak around, and perhaps even attack from afar when needed. 

The demo will take you through the introduction to the keys and the first chapter of the full game. Your progress on the demo will also carry into the full version of the game. Will you have what it takes to not only be the best devil summoner but also the best detective?

A demo is available on PC and PlayStation.

Grimshire

• Developer & Publisher: Acute Owl Studio
• Release Date: Out Now!
• Platforms: PC (Early Access)

After barely escaping the chaos that overtook your hometown, you find a new home with the friendly residents of Grimshire, an isolated mountain village. In this “not-so-cosy” farming sim, become part of this little community, repairing the farmhouse, tending to the fields, mining for ore, and preparing Grimshire for the encroaching plague that threatens to wipe out your new home before you’ve even put down roots!

Try your best to look after the villagers of Grimshire, as more and more external pressures and obstacles crop up to slow your progress and whittle away at your resources. When you can find a moment for yourself, be sure to decorate your home and take in the beautiful, dynamic seasons and weather that bring the pixelated world of Grimshire to life.

A demo is available on PC.

The Good Old Days

• Developer: Yokogo Systems
• Publisher: GRAVITY
• Release Date: Out Now!
• Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

Take a trip back to the year 19XX in The Good Old Days, a nostalgic metroidvania that feels like a 16-bit reimagining of the hit film, The Goonies. Step into the scruffy sneakers of Sean, a young boy who travels to the fictional city of Arostia to free his friends, Foodie, Bruce, and Doc, and pay off his father’s debt.

Developed with an interesting blend of distinct mechanics, The Good Old Days is focused primarily on exploration, challenging you to collect the money needed to clear your family’s debts before time runs out! It’s up to the player to choose how to achieve this: find stashes in secretive locations, complete side quests that affect the ending of the game, try out a bunch of exciting minigames, or win the lottery; the options are nearly endless!

With an ending that is dynamically affected by multiple playthroughs, a colourful cast of eccentric characters, and unique skillsets for each of the four playable characters, you’ll have plenty of reasons to go back and replay The Good Old Days!

A demo is available on PC.

Escape From Ever After

• Developer: Sleepy Castle Studio
• Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
• Release Date: January 23rd, 2026
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

Fight back against the greedy machinations of capitalism in the genre-bending RPG, Escape from Ever After! Inspired by the classic Paper Mario games, experience an epic adventure across several captivating storybook worlds as Flynt Buckler, classic fairytale adventurer.

After discovering that storybooks and fairytales are being tapped for resources and cheap labour by the evil megacorp, Ever After Inc., Flynt teams up with his former nemesis, Tinder the dragon, to climb the corporate ladder, befriending your disgruntled coworkers on the way to bringing down Ever After Inc. from the inside!

Face off against a wacky menagerie of enemies and bosses in fun turn-based battles, mixing an assortment of items, badges, and partners to defeat every foe, and remember to perfectly time command prompts so that Flynt finishes off his enemies in style! Bursting with sidequests, secrets, and treasures to find alongside everything else, Escape from Ever After looks to be a fairytale like no other!

A demo is available on PC.

Roots Devour

• Developer: Rewinding Games
• Publisher: GCORES PUBLISHING
• Release Date: January 28th, 2026
• Platforms: PC

Roots Devour pairs a moody, Lovecraftian forest aesthetic with one of my favourite video game ideas. With games like Carrion and Maneater, I absolutely adore the “you are the monster” premise: you play as conscious roots, spreading across a map by connecting cards and feeding on fresh blood to keep expanding. It’s a short (about an hour) opener, but it already lets you see some of the bigger roguelike structure, including meta-progression/permanent upgrades that carry forward between runs in the full release. 

Not quite a deckbuilder, you can find cards to use as you slither through the undergrowth, dragging over ambitious cultists into the dirt, but they are used in very specific circumstances and are generally one-use only. If you’ve ever played Cultist Simulator, Roots Devour gave me very similar vibes – not just from the cultists – a game I’m definitely going to lose many an hour to, fumbling with systems I don’t quite understand but loving every minute.

A demo is available on PC.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined

• Developer: HexaDrive, Square Enix
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Release Date: February 5th, 2026
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is, as the title implies, a full remake of the beloved PlayStation JRPG of the same name. Square Enix and developer HexaDrive’s approach to a remake takes a new form, however, as this version aims to heavily streamline elements of the classic, such as smoothing out its pacing, building upon its class system, and adding tons of quality-of-life features to the iconic turn-based formula the series helped to define.

Here, players are introduced to the land of Estard Island, beautifully realized with stunning art direction that features character models based on real-life dolls, 3D scanned into the game. Despite this, it retains that classic Dragon Quest charm and Akira Toriyama art style.

Be prepared for a somewhat lengthy demo, too, as it took me over 5 hours to reach the cutoff. Thankfully, saves will transfer over to the full game when Dragon Quest VII Reimagined releases next month.

A demo is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo.

Pragmata

• Developer & Publisher: CAPCOM
• Release Date: April 24th, 2026
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2

Pragmata is CAPCOM’s first new IP in quite some time, and it appears they are putting a lot of effort into this one. After having the opportunity to get hands-on with the demo back in October, it was nice to revisit the demo as it has now found its way onto Steam. It’s also quite impressive that the demo has already seen additional polishing since its hands-on availability at New York Comic Con. 

In the Pragmata demo, you’ll play as Hugh and Diana as they look to try and connect with Earth and escape the robots that are now hunting them down. Hugh is your shooter, but Diana is who really brings in the punch. Navigate small puzzles on the right-hand side of your screen to hack the robots to make them vulnerable, unlock doors in the space station, and utilise lifts to make navigating that much easier. 

This demo also invites you to play more than once, as after your first completion, you’ll unlock the ability to counterattack, a new suit, and the chance to beat your own time. The demo for the first time takes about 20-25 minutes on your first play, and you can expect to try moves on your second run. Perhaps you’ll even find some secrets you missed the first time. Beat your best time and practice your puzzle skills before the full release in April.

A demo is available on PC.

Fallen Tear: The Ascension

• Developer: Winter Crew Studios
• Publisher: CMD Studios
• Release Date: Q1 2026
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

Fallen Tear: The Ascension combines the emotional weight and party-building of classic JRPGs with the freeform exploration of Metroidvanias, with a touch of rougelike challenge. Become Hira, an enigmatic child who is destined to stand against ancient gods, and enjoy an epic journey across a sprawling 2D world made up of over 20 biomes.

Customise Hira to suit your playstyle, mastering parries and dodges all while mixing and matching different skills and abilities. Forge friendships with more than 16 fully-voiced allies, from mages to tricksters, and use the game’s Fated Bond system to have them assist you in battle! Customise your very own castle, filled with comrades and other friendly faces you have met along your way, and enjoy a few minigames to take a break from your adventures, all while shaping the bonds you have made.

Realised using stunningly drawn sprites and environments, and with a summary like “Final Fantasy meets Hollow Knight in a hand-painted world”, I can’t help but get excited for Fallen Tear: The Ascension.

A demo is available on PC.

Lovish

• Developer: LABS Works
• Publisher: DANGEN Entertainment
• Release Date: Q1 2026
• Platforms: PC

I’ve been looking forward to Lovish for a while now. Announced back in 2024, the art, the music and the humour are all so charming, I immediately added it to my wishlist. And finally, in 2026 it’s due to be released! A 8-bit throwback that’s content to just be “retro”, Lovish is an addictive little room-by-room action-adventure about Sir Solomon, a knight so blinded by love (and jealousy) that he straight-up ditches the rest of the “saviours of light” and storms the Devil Lord’s castle alone, determined to rescue Princess Tsuna and make absolutely sure she falls for him! 

The hook is the rhythm: you carve through bite-sized rooms, slicing monsters and grabbing whatever you can, then the game yanks you into a short event scene where anything could happen – not just an item or a random encounter RPG scrap, but the sort of left-field nonsense that makes you laugh, shrug, and immediately push into the next room to fight your way to the princess.

A demo is available on PC.

Rubinite

• Developer: Cup Dog Games, GameWorks Ventures
• Publisher: Cup Dog Games
• Release Date: Q2 2026
• Platforms: PC

Rubinite is a dark fantasy boss-rush built around precision: you use Focus to study an enemy, find the weakness, then cash it in with a committed thrust that actually lands the damage. You’re Ruby, an escaped princess with a very pointed revenge plan, and your sword only really matters once you’ve learnt your enemy.

The demo put out by the devs at Cup Dog Games is small but sharp – two boss fights, a handful of talismans to start nudging your build around, and a set of leaderboard challenges that basically dare you to stop playing “survive” and start playing “optimise” instead. It’s grim and punchy in a way that’s easy to bounce off if you just want button-mashing catharsis, but if you like that loop of learning a moveset, tightening your execution, then going back in to shave seconds off your run, it’s already got its hooks in.

A demo is available on PC.

Bubsy 4D

• Developer: Fabraz
• Publisher: Atari
• Release Date: 2026
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2

Bubsy is back in a new, intergalactic, platforming adventure! This most iconic of video game mascots is up against his longstanding alien foes, the Woollies, who have stolen the world’s sheep and have returned as Baa-Bots after overthrowing their captors! Now empowered by Woolie tech, the Baa-Bots are out for Bubsy’s prized possession: the Golden Fleece.

Indie developer Fabraz is the studio shepherding Bubsy in this latest instalment, bringing their signature expressive approach to traversal to the series, fun for both beginners and advanced levels of play. Collect yarn to purchase new outfits and keep an eye out for a hidden blueprint in each level that unlocks new moves and upgrades!

Travel to craft-themed worlds, take on each level’s time trial, and enjoy a Pawsitively funky soundtrack by Fat Bard, incorporating elements of jazz, big band, electro-swing and more

A demo is available on PC.

Divinum

• Developer & Publisher: Sigil Games
• Release Date: 2026
• Platforms: PC

Tired of single-button combat in your sidescrolling RPG and adventure games? Divinum is a hack’n’slash RPG with metroidvania elements, and an intricate combat system which offers many possibilities for you to master and experiment with.

Take on the role of Fjor, a young woman who must awaken the powers that lie dormant inside her and unite with the spirits of ancient heroes to protect her homeland from an external threat. Explore your island home on the surface and underground, wielding two primary weapons to cut your way through hordes of enemies and challenging bosses. Discover runes that you equip for unique bonuses and modifiers that completely change the way you approach combat, but may come at a cost.

Beautiful pixel art, challenging but satisfying combat, and a world waiting to be explored: I expect Divinum to make its way onto a lot of wishlists!

A demo is available on PC.