Surreal Resurrection: Blanksword Demo Launches, Blending Roguelike Peril with RPG Narrative

Copenhagen, Denmark – The landscape of indie RPGs has just been invaded by a fever dream of existential dread and turn-based strategy. The highly anticipated title, Blanksword, a surrealist Roguelike RPG, has dropped its demo on Steam today, inviting players into a world where solving your own murder is merely the first step in a chaotic quest against a tyrannical deity.

Developed by Quinn K. and their team—known for the IGF-nominated An Outcry—Blanksword promises a potent blend of deep, classic JRPG combat with the high-stakes, replayable loop of a roguelike. The core conceit is captivatingly bizarre: players assume the role of Blank, an amnesiac fallen Angel who begins the game not with a heroic introduction, but with the brutal, immediate memory of their own stabbing and the theft of their brain.

A Missing Mind and a Smiling Sword: The Narrative Hook

The story-driven RPG begins with Blank’s miraculous, brainless resurrection in “His Country,” a bizarre urban fantasy realm overseen by an oppressive, all-powerful despot known simply as God. The initial objective—to solve one’s own murder and recover the missing brain—is quickly elevated to a revolutionary act. The single, painful memory of the assailant, an Angel with a cruel smile, sets Blank on a path of vengeance and self-discovery.

This central plot is not a linear fetch quest. As a roguelike, the game’s narrative threads are woven through procedurally generated areas, with players exploring diverse, strange regions like a mushroom forest, a sprawling radio tower, and moldy apartments. Death is a feature, not a failure; each run is an attempt to gather more clues, build a stronger character, and permanently unlock new knowledge and upgrades to propel Blank toward ultimate victory against the corrupted divine order.

The Strategic Core: Building Your Brain and Battling God’s Army

The gameplay loop is built on three crucial pillars: Strategic Turn-Based Combat, Procedural Customization, and the Unique Brain Management System.

• Strategic Turn-Based Combat: Battles are deeply intricate, requiring players to manage a large number of status ailments and conditions. Moves can inflict effects like Wounds, Shell, or Existential Despair, all of which chain into different tactical advantages. Players must choose between cutting, burning, poisoning, or instilling terror in foes using the vast arsenal of skills collected on each run.
• Customizing Your Loadout: Each run offers a chance to build a unique character via move scrolls and battle rewards. The game features over 150 different attacks & skills, ensuring that a run focused on high damage may immediately precede a run focused on crowd control and debuffs.
• The Brain Management System: This is the most innovative feature. Since Blank is literally missing their brain, players must find and equip various “Brain Parts” on their travels. With over 15+ Brain Parts available—each with game-changing properties—players can drastically alter how Blank interfaces with the world. Will you be a gourmet who cooks to victory, a charming people-pleaser, or a scholar of the occult? This system ensures that the replay value is exceptionally high, forcing a new approach to traversal, dialogue, and combat in every life.

A World of Bizarre Dangers and High-Stakes Development

The setting itself is a key selling point, drawing comparisons to beloved titles like Hylics, Felvidek, and OFF due to its highly stylized, retro, and often unsettling aesthetic. The bizarre enemies—talking mushrooms, disgruntled landlords, and legions of weird monsters—create a backdrop of dark, absurdist comedy that belies the serious, high-stakes combat.

The developers have stated that progress in the newly released Steam demo will carry over to the full game, giving players a compelling reason to dive in immediately. The team is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding for the full 2027 release, with the demo serving as a substantial, 7+ hour proof-of-concept that showcases the game’s potential for complex, emotionally resonant, and strategically challenging gameplay. The immediate positive reception from the PC gaming community suggests that Blank’s quest for his missing mind is set to resonate deeply with fans of turn-based games and surreal narratives.

The future of “His Country” hangs in the balance, and it is up to Blank, the amnesiac fallen Angel, to die, learn, and resurrect his way to the truth.