Rogue Spirit

Most action roguelites hand the player a fixed character and layer on weapon variety; Rogue Spirit, developed by Kids With Sticks, makes the body itself the variable. Released March 7, 2023, the game casts players as the incorporeal ghost of the Prince of Midra, a kingdom overrun by demonic forces from a corrupted spirit world bleeding into reality. Because the prince has no physical form of his own, combat is built around possession: take over an enemy, absorb their fighting style and abilities, and carry those skills forward until a better host presents itself.

The possession system drives every tactical decision. Across 18 distinct characters spanning different weapons and playstyles, the player is constantly weighing which body serves the current situation, and because runs unfold across ten procedurally generated levels spread through five biomes, the optimal answer shifts constantly. Stealth factors into this: approaching possession as a ghostly infiltration rather than open combat is viable and often rewarded. Dozens of essences and skills layer onto possessed characters, ensuring that even the same host plays differently across runs. Permanent upgrades carry between attempts, gradually expanding what the ghost is capable of regardless of which body it inhabits. Bosses and hidden secrets are scattered through the kingdom, rewarding thorough exploration alongside mechanical mastery. The visual direction draws on traditional Asian aesthetics rendered in 3D, giving the Kingdom of Midra a distinctive look within a genre dominated by pixel art and Western fantasy.

Kids With Sticks maintained an active early access period from September 2021 through release. Numbered updates arrived roughly monthly in late 2021, carrying the game from v0.3 through v0.7 by December of that year. Development continued into 2022 with v0.8 and v0.9 in the first half, followed by v0.98 in September alongside a Tokyo Game Show appearance, and a final pre-release v0.99 in February 2023 before the full launch the following month.

Players who found Phantom Lancer’s identity-swapping in competitive contexts compelling will recognize a similar pleasure here, though Rogue Spirit translates that premise into the structure of Hades-style run-based progression.