Psi Knuckle

[GSK]

Yo!

bunaguchi, the Japanese dev behind such doujin games as Dual Prism, Shadow Break and Soul of Dracula, dropped a new game a day or so ago; it's a sidescolling action game called Psi Knuckle and I haven't played anything quite like it:

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA049213 ... index.html

At a glance, you might assume it's similar to something like Shatterhand and you're not wrong--the player sprite and the focus on Punching Everything are immediately reminiscent of that game--but what sets this game apart is the "Psi Trance" system.

In a nutshell, when you punch an enemy or an enemy bullet, you'll glow green and enter a "trance state" for several frames; you're invincible while in this state and you can also use it to float or jump/dash in midair. Additionally, punching enemies/bullets adds stock to a bar at the bottom of the screen and when it's full, you can press a button to teleport directly next to nearby enemies, so by chaining invincible dashes and teleports you can eventually move around at a crazy pace.

It took me a little while to come to grips with Psi Knuckle, purely because it doesn't explain the intricacies of the mechanic in game, like, at all, but I'm seriosly impressed by how fun and fresh it feels... bunaguchi says he was inspired by Shinobi 3DS' parry system but even that isn't a great comparison. I guess there's a little Alien Soldier in there too...

This game only came out a day or so and there's no trailer or any other promo material beyond what's on the page I posted, but it's free and runs on any ol' toaster, so give it a shot!

(bunaguchi was waiting for the manual to be translated before he introduces it to non-JP audiences... I knocked out an EN draft and he's looking over it, hopefully it's up to scratch.)

[trap15]

Just from watching videos of it that zuq and Zaarock have been putting up about it, I'm super into it.

[BIL]

(bunaguchi was waiting for the manual to be translated before he introduces it to non-JP audiences... I knocked out an EN draft and he's looking over it, hopefully it's up to scratch.)

Very cool.

[Squire Grooktook]

Nice to see some quality non-stg doujin's. Looking forward to giving this a shot.

[Zaarock]

This game is crazy.
stage example
boss example

Thinking about it the movement mechanics in this remind me most of Dustforce. I need to spend more time on Dual Prism, that's a great game but very difficult.

[GSK]

bunaguchi uploaded a new version with the English manual, if anyone's interested. Let me know if you see any dumb goofs, I knocked it out pretty quickly after only a short time with the game so I may have slipped up somewhere.

(bunaguchi was waiting for the manual to be translated before he introduces it to non-JP audiences... I knocked out an EN draft and he's looking over it, hopefully it's up to scratch.)

Very cool.

Thanks! After a few minutes with the game I knew I had to give it a shot.

[Hagane]

I wanted to try this but it doesn't start up for me. It just creates a process that never goes away from the task manager.

I'm on a crappy laptop with an AMD C-60 APU and Windows 7 64 bit, maybe there's some incompatibility with my system?

[GSK]

Heads up, bunaguchi released Psi Knuckle on itch.io as a pay-what-you-want release (and yes, that includes the option to pay nothing). No DRM, installers, etc, just unzip and go.

http://bunaguchi.itch.io/psi-knuckle