Future Knight, a new “2D action Shoot ‘Em Up that fuses the nostalgia of LCD screens with the brutality of modern combat,” has just landed on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch consoles. Future Knight was developed by Studio Koba, in collaboration with publisher Aeternum Game Studios. Other Studio Koba titles include Haneda Girl (2025) and Narita Boy (2021). Aeternum Game Studio is also well established in the indie fantasy market, as they are the studio behind Aeterna Noctis (2021) and Summum Aeterna (2023).
In Future Knight, players must “switch between a robot hero and his benign tumor to stop a bizarre cult.” Traveling back in time to May 23, 1993, “The Lady of the Past, leader of the ‘Present’ pyramid scheme cult, has just washed her underwear and, incidentally, wiped the brains of all humanity. Only you, a robot built over 30 years from the remains of a 90s soap opera actor, can stop her.”
Instead of an estimated run time, this game is equipped with an eight hour timer instead. In that eight hours, the player moves through the Lady of the Past’s daily schedule. They “will have to sabotage her day: from her walk in the park to her meal at an all-you-can-eat buffet,” anything the player can do to slow her down saves precious time.
While the robot, Future Knight, is the main hero, players also need to play as his benign tumor, Two More, in order to succeed in the game. Future Knight is described as “The Muscle,” tasked with “Fire[ing] your quantum plasma Techno Blaster, deliver[ing] lethal bites, roll[ing] to dodge, and unleash[ing] chaos with heavy weaponry. Two More, on the other hand, is “The Agility.” He can be ejected off of Future Knight, and used to “perform lethal Super Dashes, climb walls with his natural viscosity, fire at short range, and squeeze into tight spots.” “The key to Future Knight is Synergy. ‘Alone you go fast, together you go further.'”
Future Knight is a self proclaimed “visual homage to the handheld electronic games of the 80s,” featuring “fluid, hand-drawn animations that look like ink blots” in an LCD type display. It was released today, and can be played on Steam for Windows, PlayStations 4 and 5, Xbox Series S and Series X, as well as both iterations of the Nintendo Switch. The official launch trailer is uploaded to the PlayStation YouTube channel, and can be viewed below.