Penny Blood: Hellbound, a roguelike developed by YUKIKAZE, alongside Shadow Heart veterans has announced early access for Steam.

The announcement came alongside a Steam Early Access Trailer to commemorate the occasion, showcasing new footage from the game.

The game is now available for $19.99 (Roughly RM93.62) on Steam, with the developers acknowledging the pivotal role of the community in the early access stage of balancing the metaloop.

“The core meta loop of a roguelike is its most important aspect and we consider community feedback very important,” the developers wrote. “While we have had an initial closed beta for backers, bringing Penny Blood: Hellbound to Early Access allows us to get a wider range of community feedback to provide even more balancing to the overall game loop and quality of the game.”

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A new future roadmap was also set up for the game, promising a new playable character, online multiplayer, new stages, bosses, and enemies. Furthermore, fresh NPC characters, gameplay, and innovative facility systems will be introduced as well.

Now with that said, let’s take a look at the contents that are available in this Early Access:

New Content in Early Access

• The ‘Axeman’ character will be playable for the first time, bringing the total playable characters up to five of six.

• Area 3 ‘Daidouji Temple’ (Japanese horror themed)  will be playable with a new boss and new enemies.

• Two new ‘Dungeon NPCs,’ Alma and Denjiro, will fight alongside the player after befriending them.

• Two new Facility NPCs: Kugai, attached to the Accessory Facility and Oryo, attached to a brand new Gambling Facility, where a sigil mini-game can be played.

• Players will be able to purchase ‘Badges’ and use them to decorate the hideout.

New Systems

Dungeon NPC System

Players can befriend specific NPCs who only appear in the dungeon. After befriending an NPC, they will continue to fight with the player until the player dies. NPCs are AI-controlled and use attacks at specific intervals to assist players.

 Accessory System

On certain stages, players can purchase different accessories that can be leveled up through clearing stages with them equipped. A maximum of three accessories can be equipped and each has a completely different effect.

Gambling System

The gambling system, called ‘Psycho Hanafuda’ in-game, lets players bet currency to gain more. The game itself features a series of timed button presses, similar to the Psycho Sigil system in Penny Blood. If players don’t hit all the buttons at the right time, they lose. Players can select different difficulties, and the more difficult it is, the lower the probability of winning, but the higher the reward.

And finally, the game also includes an in-game feedback form and a dedicated Discord server, to allow users with an accessible channel to share their valuable insights.

Penny Blood: Hellbound is a roguelike developed by YUKIKAZE, Studio Wildrose, and Natsume Atari, alongside Shadow Hearts veterans such as Miyako Kato, Yoshitaka Hirota, and Matsuzo Machida.

Noriyuki Iwadare, well-known for his orchestral arrangements of the Ace Attorney Series, Gyakuten Meets Orchestra, will also be in charge of the soundtrack for the game.