Did you ever start playing an indie game and immediately think: “Yep, this is my kind of game”? That’s the feeling I got with Slayblade, although I’m not completely sold on it just yet.

The potential is absolutely there, and as someone who loves roguelites and games built around replayability, Slayblade hits a lot of the right notes. Whether it can fully deliver on that promise will depend on how much polish and content the developers add before release.

Slayblade takes the idea of classic Beyblade battles and turns it into a roguelite adventure packed with customization, progression, and plenty of early 2000s nostalgia. You explore a miniature city, collect parts for your Slayblade, challenge rival competitors, and gradually build stronger combinations as you prepare for larger tournaments.

The game embraces lo-fi aesthetic inspired by the PS1 era, complete with hand-drawn character portraits, colorful environments, and a soundtrack that feels ripped straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon.

Each run revolves around improving your Slayblade, earning money, collecting parts, and experimenting with different builds. There are over 60 parts available, allowing you to customize the top, body, and bottom sections of your blade. Each component provides unique bonuses and abilities, creating plenty of opportunities for experimentation and different playstyles.

The gameplay itself is easy to understand. Everything can be controlled using only a mouse, making it immediately accessible. During battles, movement speed determines who gains the advantage in collisions. If you’re moving faster than your opponent, you’ll deal damage. If they’re moving faster, you’ll take the hit instead.

Throughout matches, boxes spawn around the arena that grant additional abilities or passive effects, allowing you to modify your strategy on the fly. Some abilities slow opponents, others increase damage, and certain combinations can create surprisingly powerful synergies.

What impressed me most is how naturally the roguelite systems fit into the Beyblade-inspired formula. Outside of battles, you can earn money and experience through various activities, including a surprisingly amusing lawn-mowing minigame. There are different battle types available as well, ranging from safer matches to illegal battles that offer greater rewards but come with more unpredictable opponents.

Replayability is easily Slayblade’s biggest strength. Even though the demo can be completed in under 15 minutes, it remains enjoyable to replay because you’re constantly unlocking new parts and discovering different combinations. Every run feels like an opportunity to test a new build or approach, and that’s exactly the kind of design that works well for a roguelite.

That said, the demo leaves me wanting more, and not entirely in a good way. The content simply ends too soon. The demo only offers a handful of opponents, a limited selection of arenas, and a relatively small slice of the progression systems. Just as things start becoming interesting, the experience comes to an abrupt stop.

The biggest disappointment is the tournament structure. Throughout the demo, you’re encouraged to earn money and prepare for the upcoming tournament, only for the demo to end before you can properly participate.

I think letting players experience at least one or two tournament matches would have made a huge difference. It would provide a better showcase of the progression systems and leave a stronger final impression.

There are also areas where the game needs additional polish. The tutorialization is fairly weak, and many mechanics aren’t explained particularly well. While the core gameplay is simple enough to understand through experimentation, several systems could benefit from clearer explanations.

The camera is another issue. It follows the action by panning across the map, which is an interesting idea in theory, but in practice it often feels clunky and awkward.

Despite these problems, I came away genuinely excited about Slayblade. The combination of Beyblade-inspired battles and roguelite progression is a surprisingly natural fit, and the nostalgic Y2K aesthetic gives the game a unique identity. It isn’t quite the instant day-one purchase I hoped it would be, but it’s very close.

Right now, Slayblade feels like a game with an excellent foundation that simply needs more content, better explanations, and additional refinement. If the developers can build on what’s already here, they may end up creating something special.