Transiruby is a pixelated Metroidvania game developed by Skipmore and Esquadra, two Japanese indie game developers with lengthy development track records, and published by Flyhigh Works to Steam for PS4, Switch, and PC. Now it’s coming to Xbox as well, and will be available from January 25.
Transiruby is the story of Siruby and Ne-com, a cyborg, and her plucky, secondary AI companion. Together they adventure through a stumbled-upon landmass of unknown, quantum origins. It isn’t all smooth sailing and frolicking through fields, however! Beyond your usual melee hack-and-slashing and ranged combat – as you’d find in any other Metroidvania – you’re also tasked with solving various riddles and puzzles in each game stage. Additionally, you need to strategically utilise Siruby’s cyborg abilities to transform into a plane or motorbike to further traverse the area.
It’s a charming concept and one of those very indie things that indie players like to see. Additionally, Transiruby’s pixelated visuals, which are similar to other indie-developed titles like Hyper Light Drifter or Celeste give it the official ‘+10 charm points’ certification!
Unfortunately, the game has suffered the fate of two many other indie games; it was buried on arrival with almost no media coverage. The PlayStation 4 and PC versions of the game have absolutely no reviews listed on Metacritic. The PC release from 2021 had one (a very positive 86, no less). Sadly, we weren’t any help ourselves at DDNet, as we weren’t able to find the time to cover it either. One year after its release on PC, the game only has 154 user reviews, too, though they are very positive overall.
So hopefully the Xbox version can finally get this hidden gem some attention!
