Lunarium launched on Steam on 29 July 2026. It’s a hand-drawn isometric action RPG from Shanghai-based indie studio Lunarium Game Studio — nine people, their first game — published by Imperfect Games. It costs $17.99. And it’s worth your attention before it gets buried under the week’s noise.
The game has been in development since at least early 2026, delayed from an original May launch window. The extra time appears to have been well spent: previews from the Steam Next Fest demo were generally positive, with reviewers picking out the combat system and art direction as the standout elements. PC Gamer, which got hands-on time ahead of release, called it closer to Sekiro than Dark Souls — a meaningful distinction that shapes everything about how the game plays.
Two Heroines, One Fighting System
You play as Ave, a swordswoman navigating a world coming apart at its edges, with Lune — a mysterious floating archer — as her constant companion. The premise centres on memory and self: two characters whose identities are bound together in ways the story gradually unpicks.
Ave is the controlled character; Lune is not directly playable, but she’s far from passive. As you fight, successful dodges and parries build a shared resource called Resonance Points. Spend them to trigger coordinated attacks between the two, weaken tougher enemies, or amplify the pair’s combined damage output. The mechanic separates Lunarium cleanly from genre neighbours that treat companion AI as window dressing.
Progression systems: Embroideries (passive charm slots) · Weapon upgrade paths · Skill trees per character · Resonance Point abilities shared between Ave and Lune
Ave’s stat growth rewards playing aggressively and cleanly. Early on she feels deliberate, but collecting upgrades shifts her into a considerably more agile fighter. Lune, meanwhile, comes into her own in the more demanding encounters — described by PC Gamer as “a ruthless combatant” in the game’s hardest sequences.
The Parry Is the Point
The soulslike label gets applied lazily to any third-person action game with a stamina bar and a punishing boss. Lunarium is genuinely closer to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in its design logic — the parry is the primary skill to develop, not the roll.
In most soulslike games, the i-frame roll is the dominant survival tool. Parrying is an advanced option, useful but not required. Lunarium inverts that. The combat is built around reading enemy attacks and meeting them with a well-timed block or counter. Success opens enemies up for Ave to deal damage while building Resonance Points toward Lune’s contributions.
That shift changes the feel significantly. Rolling out of everything is a panic response that works in Elden Ring but breaks down in Lunarium’s rhythm. The game is asking you to stay close, stay engaged, and learn the patterns — and the difficulty curve is designed to teach rather than punish. TechTimes, which previewed the title, described it as wanting “to be listened to” rather than simply beaten.
Is It Worth Picking Up at Launch?
At $17.99, Lunarium is priced like an indie debut — reasonably and without pretension. The full campaign is included; this isn’t early access. The main question is whether the art style and combat philosophy translate to sustained play across the full game, which preview coverage can’t fully answer.
What the early impressions do confirm: the hand-drawn isometric visuals are distinctive, the combat system has more depth than the genre average, and Lunarium Game Studio has built something with a clear identity rather than a collection of borrowed mechanics. For players who enjoyed Sekiro’s emphasis on precision over attrition, it’s the most interesting action RPG on Steam this week.
Lunarium is available now on Steam. Supported languages at launch: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese. No console release has been announced.
