Image: PHOSEPO, Thermite Games & Smilegate

There's been a whole barrage of anime murder mysteries rolling onto Steam ever since the Danganronpa series escaped containment and got localized, but few feel as committed to their weird concept as Psycho-Sleuth, which launched this morning. At the behest of the Cult of Logic, thirteen candidates for godhood are thrown into a game of Werewolf with real murder stakes, but the promise of the winner becoming god. And just to spice things up, each contestant has the psychic power to project their cognitive disorder onto the world around them. Chaos and high anime drama ensue.

Just conceptually, it's a lot. And yes, I was immediately nervous about whether they'd be ham-fisted tackling the subject of mental illness as both an affliction and super-power. So far I've not played enough to be able to know if they stick the landing on the concept, but they do get some interesting mileage out of it already. Protagonist Lyle has extreme synesthesia and needs to wear sense-dulling gear to function, but can also project his senses as illusions into the world, which lets him live as a conman.

His doting sister, on the other hand, has a strain of obsessive-compulsive disorder that prevents her from lying, and her power is to force those around her to tell the truth. Obviously useful in a scenario like this as you scramble to gather evidence and interview suspects. And of course, getting to the truth of each murder case (with the chosen killer following Danganronpa rules - kill and evade detection to win) gets increasingly convoluted when each participant has their own means to bend reality and accepted logic.

And of course, as this is building on the foundations that Danganronpa built, there's a mini-game aspect to confronting suspects - a timed challenge asking you to pick out the evidence or statement that contradicts them and push them closer towards cracking and revealing the truth. While I've always liked these (and they don't seem too difficult here if you're paying attention, although they will likely get tougher later), there are difficulty settings at least, so those just wanting a more visual novel experience can get that too.

Psycho-Sleuth is the third game on Steam from Taiwanese studio Phosepo, previously of branching visual novel Rail of Möbius and tactical roguelike Project: AHNO's Ark, both of which were well-regarded, and so far Psycho-Sleuth is generating plenty of praise too. They've certainly built up some experience over the past few years, and from what I've played so far, Psycho-Sleuth has some impressively slick UI work and decent character designs, if not quite as outlandish and distinct as in some other death game mysteries.

Of course, as this is 2026, there's Live2D-style motion sprites used wherever possible, which means that the gel-chested android adjudicator for the games (who displays her emotions through a holographic projection in her cleavage, because OF COURSE) is appropriately bouncy. Not worth more than a slight eye-roll, but this stuff is so ubiquitous as to be amusingly daft at this point. Not really a critique, either, but if you've zero tolerance for benign anime horny and tropes, you might want to skip this. But if you're a Danganronpa fan, you're probably salivating already. Weirdo.

(Don't worry, you're among friends)

Psycho-Sleuth is out now for £16/$20, with a 10% launch discount until November 19th, and further savings with... a lot of games, actually. At the time of writing, it has launched straight up to 97% positive user reviews, so it might be a good pick to tide people over until Danganronpa 2x2 lands next year.