Japan-based indie games development collective Izanami Game Lab is making a new mecha game that’s both a bullet hell and a bullet heaven game.
Called Steel Knight’s ARMIS, players get to pick a pilot and get in their chosen pilot’s giant robot of choice. There is five chapters worth of story that will unfold starring a group of rebellions.
What makes Steel Knight’s ARMIS stand out is its gameplay features. It has elements of what some call “survivors” gameplay while others call it “bullet heaven”. Both being a reference to the progenitor of this subgenre Vampire Survivors, which spawned many other “survivors” game like how many games are labelled as “Simulator”, and also due to the game often described as a “reverse bullet hell”.
Steel Knight’s ARMIS has you move around a 2D plain dodging and auto-attacking swarms of enemies in mechas. And there is the usual pick-one-of-three random upgrade system like most roguelikes. But the game can seamless transition into a vertical shoot-’em-up. A bullet hell game, if you will.
It’s about time someone brings together (bullet) heaven and hell.
Steel Knight’s ARMIS will feature full voice acting in Japanese.
The game has no specific release date yet, only a release window of sometime this year (2025). Steel Knight’s ARMIS will be released on PC (Steam).