Uncut
Curated by taste and lineage

The wall won't open for a dash or a double jump. It opens for the spell you just learned.

A 2D Metroidvania starring the magical girl Lily, made by Turkey Games, the work of the Japanese solo developer Turkey, and published by the one-person Tokyo doujin label Waku Waku Games. Lily learns elemental magic of fire, ice, wind, and thunder, each in three escalating tiers, and equips three spells at once across four loadout sets she can flip between mid-fight, so combat is about composing a kit rather than repeating one attack. What sets it apart from most Metroidvanias is its gate structure: the map opens not through movement abilities like a double jump or a dash, but through the magic and tools you gain. Equipment and levels give it RPG growth, and a companion mini-dragon fights alongside you and helps you move. The praised heart of it is exhilarating combat. In the lineage of Castlevania. It already supports English, yet the Steam English-speaking world has barely found it.

Published 2026-07-01

01First, the one feeling

02Who this is for (and who it is not)

For you

  • You love Castlevania and gothic Metroidvanias, the castle-like world that opens as your powers grow, here handed to a magical girl and rebuilt around elemental magic instead of a whip
  • You want combat you compose: fire, ice, wind, and thunder in three tiers each, three spells equipped at once across four loadout sets you flip between mid-fight, with RPG growth and a companion mini-dragon, all pointed at the exhilarating battles reviewers single out
  • You want a Japanese solo-made gem the Steam West has barely found, Very Positive at 92 percent over 83 reviews, already supporting English, the work of one developer under Turkey Games and the one-person doujin label Waku Waku Games

Not for you

  • You want progression gated by movement skills, the classic double jump or dash that opens the map; here the gates are magic and tools instead, so the exploration is keyed to your spell and item list rather than to new ways of moving
  • You expect a big-studio, already-popular Western title or a fully proven hit; this is a paid solo doujin work (developer Turkey Games and publisher Waku Waku Games are each one-person operations), not free and not in Early Access, and with only about 30 percent of its 83 reviews in English and no Korean or European languages, it is still a small gem the West has barely reached in absolute numbers

03The roots of this taste

92% positiveonly 83 reviews — yet almost no one has found it

Witchroid Vania: A Magical Girl's Fantastical Adventures Buried gem

A 2D Metroidvania starring the magical girl Lily, made by Turkey Games, the work of the Japanese solo developer Turkey (who built everything but the soundtrack alone) and published by the one-person Tokyo doujin label Waku Waku Games. Lily learns elemental magic of fire, ice, wind, and thunder, each in three escalating tiers, and equips three spells at once across four loadout sets she can flip between in the middle of a fight, so combat is about composing a kit and switching it on the fly rather than mashing one attack. What sets it apart from most Metroidvanias is its gate structure: exploration opens up not through movement abilities like a double jump or a dash, but through the magic and tools you gain, so the spell or item that finally lets you cross a barrier is the key that widens the map. Equipment and levels give it RPG-style growth, and a companion mini-dragon fights alongside you and helps you move, threading through both battle and traversal, and the praised heart of it is exhilarating, satisfying combat. Released March 2025, it is Very Positive at 92 percent over 83 reviews (76 positive), a paid title at 1,800 yen, not free, and fully launched rather than in Early Access, with no AI-generated assets and, by Steam's own content descriptors, nothing sexual. Turkey Games is the solo label of the individual developer Turkey, and Waku Waku Games is a one-person Tokyo doujin and indie publisher. It already supports English alongside Japanese and Simplified and Traditional Chinese, yet with only 25 of its 83 reviews in English (about 30 percent, though 24 of those 25 are positive) and no Korean or European languages at all, the Steam English-speaking world has barely found it in absolute numbers; the audience is still largely Japanese.

Give it your first pass

Castlevania The origin

The origin of this taste: Castlevania, developed and published by Konami, first released for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan in 1986. As the vampire hunter Simon Belmont advancing through Dracula's castle with a whip and an arsenal of sub-weapons, you climb a gothic gauntlet of stages and classic monster bosses, a template that defined a whole strain of gothic action; and as the series evolved and fused that gothic action with a single interconnected, ability-gated castle to explore, it gave the later genre name Metroidvania its vania half. Witchroid Vania wears that lineage in its very name (Witch + [Met]roid + [Castle]vania): a gothic-flavored Metroidvania whose castle-like world opens up as you gain new powers. But it hands the hunt to a magical girl, Lily, swaps movement-gated progress for magic-and-tool gates, and layers on a four-set elemental spell-loadout system, RPG growth, and a companion mini-dragon, making it its own creature rather than a copy. There is no official standalone Steam release of the original 1986 game, so its origin is anchored to its Wikidata entry.

Give it your first pass

04Make 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.

See it on Steam

05The bloodline of this taste