The Soulsborne genre is over-saturated at this point. There’s really no denying it. Purposely difficult games with slow, plodding combat and a focus on tactical awareness and strategic counters is all the rage these days. Sometimes the Soulsborne clones work, others they don’t. In the case of Pupuya Games and SimonCreative’s Little Witch Nobeta, the magical girl-themed entry seems to have caught the fancy of quite a few gamers over the span of its three year development cycle, and you can give it a try for yourself now that a free demo is available to download.

You can grab the demo ahead of the game’s entry into Early Access on June 24th by visiting the Steam store page.

The demo features just under an hour’s worth of content, so you can get a fairly decent idea of what to expect from the title.

The game puts you in the role of the eponymous Nobeta, who attempts to go on a journey into a dangerous castle in order to discover her true origins.

I’m a little amazed to be honest. Valve usually has a hard-on of hate toward anything loli-related, but obviously Nobeta fits the bill yet they allowed the game on the Steam store.

I suppose it’s because there are extra measures in place to ensure that the upskirt shots contain nothing tantalizing and the focus of the game – based on the demo – is mostly on the Souls-like combat.

Mechanically the game is themed around utilizing Nobeta’s magic to subdue foes. However, she has a mana limit, so in order to recharge her mana you must dodge-roll out of the way of enemy attacks or use her staff to perform melee attacks on her foes.

This creates a fine balance between the combat loops, so you’re not spamming magic attacks all the time, nor are you stuck dodge-rolling and slowly whacking at enemies with Nobeta’s staff incessantly.

If the demo isn’t enough for you, the Early Access version of the game will become available on June 24th, and if that’s not enough for you, then you can expect the full version to release a some point either in 2021 or 2022.

For more information on Little Witch Nobeta feel free to visit the Steam store page.

(Thanks for the news tip BaldCape)