This gem surfaces soon
We have it ready, but it is not unsealed yet. Come back when it opens.
Opens on 2026-08-10 (JST)
Flick the right stick and the slash covers the screen. Rotate it and carve through a crowd, time it right and bounce attacks back.
The store page opens with a warning before anything else: a controller with two analog sticks is required to play. There is no keyboard-and-mouse slash input at all. What follows is the whole pitch in three lines: flick the stick and cut; rotate the stick and carve through enemies; flick it well and bounce their attacks back. The right stick isn't pointing a weapon, it's the slash itself, screen-covering and directional, and turning it into a full circle sweeps through a crowd rather than one target. Progression comes from exploring linear stages, defeating enemies to grow a skill tree, and unlocking new slash techniques. Made and self-published by the solo developer Eh, whose only Steam listing is this game. Priced at ¥718, it is Very Positive at 93 percent across 120 reviews (112 positive, 8 negative), a paid title, not free, fully launched and not in Early Access, with no AI-generated-content disclosure and Steam's content descriptors completely empty. English and Japanese are both supported, so nothing is stopping you, apart from needing that second stick. One honest note: of its 120 reviews, 71 are in Japanese and 39 are in English, a real minority but not a small one. The game has exactly one AUTOMATON WEST mention, buried in a 2021 Steam Winter Sale roundup listing dozens of discounted titles with only a link and price, not a dedicated feature, and Metacritic shows no critic reviews at all.
Published 2026-08-10
01First, the one feeling
- Most action games treat a stick as a pointer, aim here, move there. This one treats the flick itself as the weapon, so the physical gesture of snapping the stick in a direction is what determines the cut, not a button press that happens to be aimed correctly.
- Rotating the stick to sweep through a crowd changes what 'reading the room' means mid-fight: the shape you trace with your thumb is the shape the slash takes, so crowd control is a drawing problem as much as a combat one.
- Turning that same flick into a deflect, timed against an incoming attack, means offense and defense are the same physical motion at different moments, not two separate systems you switch between.
02Who this is for (and who it is not)
For you
- You want Metal Gear Rising's Blade Mode, the idea that a stick's motion is a cutting gesture, stretched across an entire game instead of one mode within a larger one
- You own a controller with two full analog sticks and want a game built entirely around what that specific hardware can do, not adapted from keyboard and mouse
- You want small and self-published: solo developer Eh's only Steam listing is this game, content descriptors completely empty
Not for you
- You want to play with keyboard and mouse; the store page states up front that a twin-stick controller is required
- You want a game already found in the West; of 120 reviews 39 are in English, and the only AUTOMATON WEST mention is a buried sale-roundup link, not a feature
03The roots of this taste
93% positiveonly 120 reviews — yet almost no one has found it
LIBLADE Buried gem
The store page opens with a warning before anything else: a controller with two analog sticks is required to play. There is no keyboard-and-mouse slash input at all. What follows is the whole pitch in three lines: flick the stick and cut; rotate the stick and carve through enemies; flick it well and bounce their attacks back. The right stick isn't pointing a weapon, it's the slash itself, screen-covering and directional, and turning it into a full circle sweeps through a crowd rather than one target. Progression comes from exploring linear stages, defeating enemies to grow a skill tree, and unlocking new slash techniques. Made and self-published by the solo developer Eh, whose only Steam listing is this game. Priced at ¥718, it is Very Positive at 93 percent across 120 reviews (112 positive, 8 negative per Steam's own review API), a paid title, not free, fully launched and not in Early Access, with no AI-generated-content disclosure and Steam's content descriptors completely empty. English and Japanese are both supported, so nothing is stopping you, apart from needing that second stick. Of its 120 reviews, 71 are in Japanese and 39 are in English, a real minority but not a small one, worth disclosing plainly; the game has one AUTOMATON WEST mention, in a 2021 Steam Winter Sale roundup that lists it among dozens of discounted titles with only a link and price, not a dedicated feature, and Metacritic shows no critic reviews at all.
Give it your first passMetal Gear Rising: Revengeance The critical echo
The origin of this taste: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the PlatinumGames game that established Blade Mode, a slowed-time state where the stick draws the actual line of a cut rather than just pointing a weapon. LIBLADE is not an official Metal Gear Rising work, and this lineage is a comparison this site draws from what its own English-language Steam reviewers independently say, several describing it as Blade Mode turned into an entire game; the shared idea is a stick's motion read as a cutting gesture, stretched here across every fight rather than one mode within a larger one.
Give it your first pass04Make this gem shine
If it speaks to you, check it on Steam and give it your first pass. Your push is what makes a buried gem shine.
You gave it your pass. The gem just caught the light.
05The bloodline of this taste
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Root
- LIBLADE You are here
- Read-and-build games another taste