Since the release of Disco Elysium, the indie scene has been awash with narrative-focused CRPGs with clear tabletop influence. Of course, these sorts of games existed long before Disco Elysium—Disco itself was inspired by the likes of Fallout and Planescape Torment—but the competition and panache of the genre seem to be at all-time highs, as any look through Steam will tell you. Enter Celestial Return, a hypnotic, psychedelic cyberpunk adventure coming to Steam on May 7.
Set in a far-future, neo-noir cyberpunk city, Celestial Return follows Detective Howard, a member of the Paranormal Investigation Division, which researches supernatural phenomena. As a series of gruesome and mysterious suicides befall the urban jungle of Netherveil, Howard must uncover the cosmic mysteries of the bloody phenomenon. Luckily, his partner is a benign, otherworldly creature with the power to speak with the dead, giving Howard an undeniable advantage in what’s an admittedly bleak situation. The unlikely couple must make their way through Netherveil, interviewing both the living and the dead, to get to the bottom of a case that’s clearly above humanity’s pay grade.
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Celestial Return’s Stunning Art Design Speaks for Itself
After spending a bit of time with Celestial Return, I can say that its art design is its greatest strength by a country mile. It adopts the UI design format popularized by Disco Elysium, but it also takes some clear cues from games like Citizen Sleeper, presenting its NPCs through full-body illustrations rather than just portraits. Not only does this allow the game to offer more expressive depictions of its characters, but it also gives its artistic vision extra room to shine.
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Celestial Return’s Steam page describes its visuals as taking cues from both American comic books and manga, naming seminal works like Berserk, Blame!, and Akira as specific sources of inspiration, which is plain to see. I would also liken it to Grant Morrison’s Invisibles, a comic book series that boasts a similarly playful science-fantasy aesthetic. This artistic flair bleeds through at every possible opportunity in Celestial Return, making it a remarkable treat for the senses.
Celestial Return’s sci-fi techno soundtrack is nothing to scoff at either: the game features a killer original score by Icelandic artist Berk Şermet, characterized by moody horns, deep percussion, and droning, funky techno beats.
What Is Celestial Return’s Gameplay Like?
While I don’t imagine that anyone will get tired of Celestial Return’s amazing art and head-bobbing soundtrack, gameplay is a different story; after all, this is what sets the medium apart from other forms of entertainment. And while a story-focused title like Celestial Return doesn’t exactly need to have white-knuckle moment-to-moment gameplay, it should still have some compelling mechanics that develop over the course of so many hours.
Luckily, it looks like Celestial Return is on the right track here as well. Once again, following the lead of both Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper, the game’s core mechanic is designed around rolling dice. Like in Disco, you will encounter skill checks of varying difficulty, and very much like Disco, Celestial Return allows you to invest in personality traits (Virtue, Foolishness, Intelligence, Anger, and Perception) which manifest as personified beings during dialog, and can influence these rolls. But like in Citizen Sleeper, the dice you roll are in-game items, which injects the basic TTRPG formula with a greater sense of planning and forethought.
Celestial Return is doing a few things differently, too. For instance, dice will often have subtractive effects as well as additive ones, which leads to unconventional scenarios and strategies. We will have to wait and see just how inventive the game winds up being as a whole, but at this stage, it’s certainly shaping up to be an arresting, sensually captivating sci-fi adventure.
