Today during the GamesCom 2022 the publisher Phoenixx announced that NeverAwake a multi-scrolling shoot’em up will be released for consoles during the first months of 2023 while it will be available for PC at the end of the next month.
Developed by the Japanese studio Neotro Inc., NeverAwake is the story of a young girl paralyzed by fear and unable to awake herself; in the deepest part of her subconsciousness she sees a fighter called Rem who fights to conquer the forces trapping her.
NeverAwake is a twin stick shooter which plays similar to Capcom’s Forgotten Worlds, the stages have both horizontal or vertical scrolling and each of the 80 levels loops until Rem collects all the souls and each loops becomes more challenging if he can’t defeat the enemies in time.
Hiroshi Satawari, developer of the game said :
“I aimed to create a shooting game accessible to all, and a neverending nightmarish loop of the same stage repeated over and over again seemed like an ideal way for players to progress at their own pace.
By designing the enemies from elements we all have feared or loathed in our lives, we hoped to create a setting that is both horrifying and sympathetic.“
NeverAwake is planned to be released in Q1 2003 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 and will include support for English language.
It’s not clear at the moment if the game will be also released retail in the future or not.