Today marks the start of LudoNarraCon, a yearly event that showcases narrative-focused games with demos, sales, and scheduled talks with media and game creators. While there’s no shortage of digital fests these days, LudoNarraCon has differentiated itself by highlighting story-centric games that you may not have previously heard of, like the excellent 1000XRESIST.
We previewed a range of demos for LudoNarraCon 2025, including everything from achingly personal portrayals of childhood to weirdo platformers about anthropomorphized houses looking for love, and from the chaos, we’ve compiled a list of our five favorite games of the show. Better yet, most of these games have demos on Steam that you can try out for yourself until the event ends on May 5.
Despelote
Release Date: 5/1/2025
Demo Available: No
Many great stories extend from the deeply personal as creators draw on the lived details of a specific time and place. This is very much the case with Despelote, a semi-autobiographical look into early aughts Ecuador about growing up during a country-wide zeitgeist. Set in 2001 during the country’s unlikely run to its first World Cup qualification, we follow the eight-year-old Julián, whose blurry perspective suddenly snaps into focus whenever there’s a soccer ball around. As we go about Julián’s life from a first-person perspective, the periphery is filled with interesting, grounded conversations: his parents talk about everything from a Pulp Fiction-loving neighbor whose name they can’t remember to how they’re going to sneak in a TV to watch the big game during an upcoming wedding. Anti-government protests simmer in the background as flailing economic policy brings on hyperinflation.
Of course, Julián doesn’t care much about this adult stuff, as sold by his constant daydreams where he punts soccer balls with the power of a superhero. Whether here or when he plays with other kids his age, we control the ball with a mixture of right-stick flicks that give us room to maneuver while still making it clear we’re playing as an elementary schooler instead of Messi. By drifting between magical moments and the specifics of everyday life, Despelote gracefully transports us to Quito, Ecuador.
It’s always tricky to tell a story about mental health issues without coming across as exploitative or fear-mongering (and doubly so with videogames), but Natasha Sebben’s Psychotic Bathtub seems to clear this bar and more. It’s a branching narrative game set entirely in a bathtub where you play as a young woman who hasn’t been taking her medicine for psychosis, resulting in talking rubber ducks, spiraling digressions, and pink bathwater extending into the void. Uncomfortable sound design and sharp prose capture the realities of this episode, like a persistent scratching sensation on the inside of her skull or anxieties made manifest in the form of anthropomorphized objects. As you click through inner monologues, cute-and-creepy illustrations bring these feelings to life, leaving room for humor while never shying away from its grim subject matter.
Case in point, the rubber duck eventually transforms into the main character’s dead dad, which, depending on your choices, can then become Jesus or lead you down guilty memories about not being there for your mom when she needed you. However, instead of these dark moments leading to some macabre “gotcha” moment, it’s all in service of placing us in the protagonist’s shoes (or bathtub) as she sits with her thoughts and tries to get to a better place. Overall, it’s a considerate, funny, and sharply written work of interactive fiction that encourages us to look at mental health issues from a more empathetic place.
While deckbuilding games are ubiquitous these days, there is a strange absence of more story-based, non-roguelike takes on the space. There are a few examples like I Was a Teenage Exocolonist or the Inscryption, but for every one of these, there are 50 more trying to be the next Slay the Spire. Enter Battle Suit Aces, a story-focused card game that combines mechs and Star Trek. We follow a hodgepodge crew (literally called Patchworks) investigating relics of a long-dead alien civilization while also dealing with an invasion from a very not-dead alien civilization. Although the writing is somewhat archetypical so far, the anime-styled designs and charming characters mostly make these scenes work.
On top of this, the battles are a lot of fun: your crew is represented by cards with unique abilities that leave room for strategy and decision-making. You have to think about card placement as you move units between lanes to tank incoming hits for your ship while ensuring that you have the right types of units on the board so they have enough energy to keep fighting and complement each other. In between battles, you chat with teammates and hone your deck by crafting upgrades for cards. Overall, Battle Suit Aces seems like it could fill a niche previously occupied by things like the Game Boy Color’s Pokémon Trading Card Game or old-school Yu-Gi-Oh! titles, and that’s pretty neat.
As its cheeky title implies, Building Relationships is about building relationships between, well, buildings. While there’s been a wave of anti-visual novels that poke fun at dating games in an uninspired way, this take differentiates itself by being both sincere and silly (and by letting you play as a house that can double jump). You control a little building vacationing on Happy Island, where domiciles meet and greet to find the Bachelorx Pad of their dreams. Each of these homesteads has their own fun personality, whether that’s your bubbly childhood friend Mint, the domme-coded Millie, or a chest named Chester who is having an existential crisis.
Although the demo didn’t provide many details about how the relationship systems will work, it did feature some surprisingly delightful house-based platforming. You roll your boxy character over the peaks and valleys of this 32-bit-looking tropical island like The Prince’s ball in Katamari, eventually gaining the ability to jump and even airdash. Even after clearing the demo’s story segments bits, I spent a considerable chunk of time hopping and wave-dashing around this island to find glowing tokens and hidden Chesters that provided upgrades, barreling down slopes, and utilizing an ever-growing number of jumps to reach seemingly inaccessible places. The vibes are pleasant, the movement is way better than it has any right to be, and the fishing mini-game is more fun than what you’ll find in 90% of RPGs. While it may pull you in with its ridiculous premise, Building Relationships’ charming dialogue and weirdly great platforming have me interested in this brick-and-mortar take on Love Island.
From the demo I played, InKonbini seems to be making the most of its grounded atmosphere, placing you in a charming, if admittedly idealized, part-time gig. You play as Makoto, a college student working the night shift at her aunt’s convenience store during the last week of summer break in 1993. While this type of job would normally be anything but relaxing, working during these off-hours ensures there are only a smattering of customers, giving time to chat with each. On top of this, you have as much time as you need before opening, letting you restock shelves and fix whatever chaos was recently caused by indecisive produce buyers and wandering school children.
While this may all sound like busywork, the pleasant art style and calming soundtrack make it therapeutic to scan through rows of goods as you figure out what’s on the wrong shelf and the best way to unload the stock in the back. Put simply, this store feels like a tangible place you get to know through your work, and by building on other games that revel in the mundane, like Shenmue, InKonbini finds joy in the quotidian.
Elijah Gonzalez is the assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.
