Skip to main content

Celestial Return

Celestial Return takes the best elements of the Disco-likes, then adds a couple of clever mechanics to carve out an identity of its own.
Celestial Return Game Cover
78%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:story, gameplay
Most mentioned negative aspects:stability
87% User Score Based on 134 reviews
Critic Score 65%Based on 7 reviews

Platforms

PCTabletPhoneWindows
Buy Nowfrom €7.31
Buy NowGet on Steam €7.31
Celestial Return Game Cover

About Celestial Return

Celestial Return is a single player role playing game. It was developed by Metaphor Games and was released on July 14, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and positive reviews from players.

BACK US ON KICKSTARTER About the Game A dying city. A string of suicides. A detective with nothing left to lose. Netherveil City eats the weak. Its streets bleed neon, its corpses crawl back to life, and its secrets? They'll gnaw through your sanity.  Step into the worn boots of Detective Howard. Armed with a rusted badge, a sentient rose that won't shut up, and a pocketful of stolen dice…

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
Celestial Return screenshot
+10
Skip Games Like Celestial Return

Games Like Celestial Return

Looking for games like Celestial Return? Here are top role playing recommendations, selected from player-similarity data — start with Citizen Sleeper, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut or Esoteric Ebb.

Citizen Sleeper Image
89%4.3kreviews

Citizen Sleeper

2022Role Playing
Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPC+9
Games like Citizen Sleeper
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut Image
93%58.3kreviews

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

2019Open World Role Playing
PCEpic GamesTablet+9
Games like Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
Esoteric Ebb Image
90%5kreviews

Esoteric Ebb

2026Role Playing
PCSteam DeckWindows
Games like Esoteric Ebb
The Pale Beyond Image
85%2.6kreviews

The Pale Beyond

2023Survival Role Playing
Nintendo SwitchPCMac OS+2
Games like The Pale Beyond
懊悔谷 Image
63%766reviews

懊悔谷

2025Casual Role Playing
Xbox Series X|SPCXbox One+3
Games like 懊悔谷
Disco Elysium ImageDisco Elysium ImageDisco Elysium Image
95%35.4kreviews

Disco Elysium

2019Role Playing
Gog ComAndroidPlaystation 5+13
Games like Disco Elysium
Minds Beneath Us Image
92%832reviews

Minds Beneath Us

2024Role Playing
PCSteam DeckWindows
Games like Minds Beneath Us
Tails Noir Image
68%2.7kreviews

Tails Noir

2021Casual Role Playing
Nintendo SwitchPlaystation 5Playstation 4+10
Games like Tails Noir
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector Image
86%2kreviews

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

2025Role Playing
Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPC+7
Games like Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
The Thaumaturge Image
81%2.2kreviews

The Thaumaturge

2024Tactical Role Playing
Epic GamesPlaystation 5Xbox Cloud Gaming+10
Games like The Thaumaturge
More games like Celestial Return
Skip User Reviews

Reviews

87%Audience ScoreBased on 134 reviews
story21 positive mentions
stability2 negative mentions
  • The game has a distinctive and captivating art style, with stunning visuals reminiscent of graphic novels and cyberpunk comics that enhance the atmosphere.
  • The writing and narrative are immersive and thought-provoking, delivering a dark, noir cyberpunk story that encourages exploration of themes like reality, existence, and morality.
  • The unique dice-based mechanics add meaningful tension and strategic depth to choices, making gameplay engaging and encouraging multiple playthroughs.
  • The dice economy can be frustrating and unbalanced, sometimes resulting in softlocks that require replaying sections; limited dice regeneration and unclear management add to this issue.
  • Some players experience technical issues including bugs, graphical errors, save/load system problems, and occasional crashes, which detract from the overall experience.
  • The story pacing and character development are uneven, with some feeling the narrative lacks closure, certain characters are underdeveloped or tropey, and some endings are unsatisfying or locked behind obscure requirements.

  • story

    92 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    23% positive mentions, 74% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions

    The story of the game is a dark, gritty cyberpunk noir detective narrative that many find compelling, atmospheric, and thoughtfully written, with multiple endings and meaningful choices enhancing engagement. However, some players note moments of awkward or confusing storytelling, occasional linearity, and mechanical constraints like dice management that can hinder narrative flow or lead to frustrating soft locks. Overall, it is praised for its immersive worldbuilding and thematic depth, though it sometimes feels secondary to the art and atmosphere.

    • “The story progression and its endings are engaging and kept me hooked throughout.”
    • “• Phenomenal writing: Detective Howard and his talking sentient rose offer some of the best, most immersive storytelling in recent RPGs.”
    • “The story is an investigative gem that progresses like real life in that you do not know everything or see every aspect of an event and your choices really do matter.”
    • “Yeah, from the start to the beginning this game doesn't make sense. Maybe it is some kind of Evangelion Genesis type of plot where people must interpret the story, but this is not for me. Also, I find Citizen Sleeper better than this game.”
    • “It's really not structured around dice or luck or divergent paths where success should lead to something interesting and cool so much as just having to use dice to succeed on one of the choices that leads to the same end result, that you have to do for story purposes.”
    • “The game is so unbalanced that buying most items feels like a loss. The storyline is extremely linear, and there's no closure.”

  • gameplay

    54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    30% positive mentions, 64% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions

    Gameplay in this game blends a choose-your-own-adventure visual novel with dice-based resource management, creating engaging and tense decision-making moments that reinforce its cyberpunk atmosphere. While the dice mechanics add strategic depth and novelty, some find them occasionally unbalanced, clunky, or potentially leading to softlocks, detracting from flow. Overall, the gameplay is considered distinctive and immersive, well-integrated with the narrative and world, though occasionally imperfect in its execution.

    • “Celestial Return is a phenomenal indie game that successfully captures the gritty vibes of Cyberpunk 2077, the clever dice-management mechanics of Citizen Sleeper, and the deep internal dialogue of Disco Elysium.”
    • “Every part of the gameplay feels connected to the universe and its lore, which gives the entire experience much more depth.”
    • “The gameplay with collecting the dice and using them for various rolls is a cool design that really keeps the gameplay fresh.”
    • “The game is essentially an extremely linear visual novel with dice mechanics that add absolutely nothing of value; instead, they actively make the game worse by making it theoretically possible to softlock yourself, which is not good game design.”
    • “Even if it doesn't happen to you or if you feel that "well, if you just spend your dice wisely, it won't be an issue, duh," it doesn't justify the existence of that mechanic in that form and in this story.”
    • “It's not the worst game I have played or a terrible story but it feels like the gameplay is trying to be Disco Elysium with dice, but the story is too linear to fit that game style and they didn't really know how to do gains or losses of dice in a way that made sense with the world and story, so you mostly just get them shoved in your pockets by looking at secondary locations before you go to the important one.”

  • graphics

    48 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    48% positive mentions, 46% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions

    The game's graphics feature a unique, hand-drawn art style blending gritty American comics with dark manga influences, reminiscent of Mike Mignola's work, which many find captivating and atmospheric. Despite frequent praise for its outstanding and memorable visuals that strongly complement the cyberpunk and noir themes, users also report graphical bugs and performance issues that sometimes hinder the experience. Overall, the art style is considered a standout aspect that significantly enhances the game's immersive and gritty atmosphere.

    • “The artwork is truly fantastic and highly unique.”
    • “• Incredible art style: the hand-drawn visuals are a gorgeous mix of gritty American comics and classic dark manga vibes.”
    • “All of this is wrapped in a gorgeous art style reminiscent of Mike Mignola’s work and paired with an incredible, atmospheric soundtrack.”
    • “Unfortunately, the game is riddled with graphical bugs and errors (including one where the game simply doesn't render in full-screen).”
    • “Yes, it needs patches, fixing the graphical loading errors that are infrequent but correctable, stopping the dialogue tree from advancing when you click 'x' in the archive or inventory, for example.”
    • “Couple gamers accused them of AI-placeholding on artworks due to mistakes in drawings.”

  • music

    38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    47% positive mentions, 45% neutral mentions, 8% negative mentions

    The game's soundtrack is widely praised for its captivating blend of noir jazz, cyberpunk techno, and metal, effectively enhancing the dark, moody atmosphere and complementing the unique art style. While some users noted minor technical issues and occasional mismatches with mood, the music is generally regarded as an essential, immersive element that significantly enriches the overall experience.

    • “The artwork is outstanding, the music is awesome, I think it nails the vibe.”
    • “• Superb soundtrack: the shift between noir jazz, cyberpunk techno, and death metal perfectly captures the decaying vibe of Netherveil city.”
    • “The art and soundtrack are worth the price of admission alone, dragging you into the slick and moody atmosphere of Netherveil city.”
    • “Sometimes interesting, sometimes tropey, sometimes annoying (especially in the soundtrack department - it doesn't match the mood of the moment), sometimes just plain weird, and sometimes too artsy-fartsy for its own good.”
    • “I feel like the author is going for some sort of dreamcore/surrealist vibes or some occult type vibes (which is quite strange as the story itself is not that surrealist), but the cutscenes feel like a gigantic waste of time to sit through - just some odd music to vibe to while you watch a gas mask guy breakdancing in an abandoned factory.”
    • “When I launched the game the first time, I could hear the music and the sound of menu options being hovered over with my cursor without a visual (minor error).”

  • atmosphere

    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    43% positive mentions, 36% neutral mentions, 21% negative mentions

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its gritty, noir-inspired style, complemented by striking artwork and a moody, immersive soundtrack that together create a compelling and unique world. While some aspects like the storytelling and mechanics have minor flaws, the overall ambiance effectively captures a tense, rich, and stylish setting that deeply engages players.

    • “Its not perfect, there's some issue but honestly for this price this is a great title with real ambition, style, incredible atmosphere supported by good mechanics with a few issues and a world I'd like to know more about.”
    • “The atmosphere and aesthetics are spot on: the game serves you up a gritty, world-weary noir detective story with shadowrun-esque science-fantasy dressing, the characters are compelling, and all of them are hostile, a product of their hostile world.”
    • “The art and soundtrack are worth the price of admission alone, dragging you into the slick and moody atmosphere of netherveil city.”
    • “So far, the game's atmosphere and vibes are a trip, and they've nailed that point down in spades; that being said, I can relate to some of the story text not being on some next level, and some things could be more straightforward with how much I've played so far.”
    • “"Celestial Return" drips with atmosphere but struggles with depth.”
    • “The art and soundtrack are worth the price of admission alone, dragging you into the slick and moody atmosphere of Netherveil City.”

  • character development

    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    Character development is noted for its strong, intentional art direction and distinctive character designs that add personality despite some rough aesthetic choices. The game's slow, exploration-driven progression allows subtle, minor actions to contribute meaningfully to overall character growth, appealing to players who enjoy gradual development within immersive worlds.

    • “The art direction, especially the character designs, is excellent.”
    • “Even when something isn't perfect, it has enough personality that I didn't really care - like the character design seems so intentional but there are some color choices in their aesthetic and design that feel rough like the world it's in.”
    • “That said if you like the slow progression of character development as you yourself explore this world, and the minor seeming inconsequential actions that play into the bigger picture type games, then this could fit the bill.”

  • replayability

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    50% positive mentions, 50% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    Users find the game offers solid replayability, enhanced by engaging visuals and music, with strategic options that encourage multiple playthroughs. However, some players remain cautiously hopeful about its long-term replay value.

    • “Genuinely had an absolute blast playing this and was pleasantly surprised at the price point of the game. The visuals and music alone made it worthwhile, and the replayability felt solid after figuring out which options provided more die for the end phase.”

  • stability

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent bugs and glitches that hinder progression, such as an unresponsive "continue" button on older saves, making it difficult to recommend.

    • “In its current state, it's a pile of buggy mess that I can't recommend in good conscience, especially when the underlying game is not even that exceptional.”
    • “Since I was stuck there I went to load an older save, but it glitches and doesn't offer the 'continue' button so that save is unplayable.”

  • humor

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor is well-crafted, with funny and likable characters who also feel fully developed.

  • emotional

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game offers a deeply emotional experience through its supernatural, detective-noir story featuring a mentally unstable protagonist and engaging side characters, delivering a morality-driven narrative that explores existential themes.

    • “A supernatural, detective-noir experience with a mentally unstable protagonist, amusing side characters, and a morality-driven narrative touching on the meaning of (or lack thereof) existence.”
Skip Critic Reviews

Critic Reviews

65%Critics’ scoreBased on 7 critic reviews
Skip Game Offers

Buy Celestial Return

Skip Videos

Videos

Skip Game News

Game News

Celestial Return Released

July 15 on bluesnews.com
Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Celestial Return is a role playing game. Common tags for Celestial Return include indie, surreal, exploration, narrative, cyberpunk and others.

Celestial Return is available on PC, Phone, Windows and Tablet.

Celestial Return was released on July 14, 2026.

Celestial Return was developed by Metaphor Games.

Celestial Return has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked Celestial Return for its story but disliked it for its stability.

Celestial Return is a single player game.

Similar games include Citizen Sleeper, Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, Esoteric Ebb, The Pale Beyond, 懊悔谷 and others.