“It’ll be a game for freaks,” said Ben Esposito of Neon White in a gameplay trailer when it was announced for Nintendo Switch last July.
Really, it’s a game for people who like fun, campy, melodrama alongside their speedrunning. In a video preview of the game, Esposito describes Neon White as a speedrunning first person shooter meets visual novel that’s “nostalgic but not in a superficial way”.
“We really wanted to make a game that felt cool and it really felt like the self-indulgent Y2K anime game of our dreams,” he says.
NEON WHITE | Gameplay Walkthrough Watch on YouTube
Rather than subvert expectations and shy away from obvious cringeworthy tropes, Esposito and the team have leaned into them. Here instead is a game that plays like an anime, full of vibrant colours, outlandish characters, and a fanciful story of Heaven and Hell. It’s even got anime voice actor Steve Blum (Cowboy Bebop) voicing the lead character.