Use an inclined railway to purge demons in this Dreamcast-ish Meiji-set action oddity
No weapons, just a very slow elevator
"Who will rid me of these tiresome overfamiliar combat systems!" I bellow from my balcony over the castle square. From far away across the sea comes the response: "in our game, your primary 'weapon' is a sloping railway". The game in question is Incline ～Railway of devil's valley～ and yes, it has an incredibly irritating English-language title, but how about that red-hot funicular action in the trailer? And is it me, or does this look like a long-lost Dreamcast game?
Incline ～Railway of devil's valley～ (Steam page here) takes place in late Meiji Japan, and casts you as a chibi-limbed demon slayer who is trying to cleanse a village of wandering yōkai. Said demon slayer has lost his fancy exorcising spear, but you can still purge those invading demons if you can lure them past the sacred boundary at the top of the village - which is where the inclined railway comes in.
Combat consists of scooping up prancing spirits, lobbing them into the train cargo bed, and dodging their attacks while the vehicle creeps toward the summit. Purge demons and you'll harvest soul energy you can use to rejuvenate locals driven mad by the paranormal infestation. The more villagers you restore, the more conversations you can have, and the more there is to do in the village besides ducking under or rolling away from the swipes of mischievous goblins. It looks like there are proper sidequests, such as retrieving Buddha statues, and some platforming challenges tethered to waterwheels and such. How deep does this rabbit hole go? Hopefully not too deep, because that funicular railway is slow.
The village-purging aspect reminds me a bit of the opening area of Okami, before you bring back the sun. The Dreamcasty visuals and 'combat', however, put me more in mind of Capcom's sadly forgotten Power Stone fighting games, with their ability to throw props and mid-match changes of scene. Incline ～Railway of devil's valley～ has a co-op mode, and troll that I am, I see potential for ruining friendships in the ability to lob devils at each other while scurrying about the train. It doesn't look like there are any direct competitive mechanics though.
Developers Gudouan are also the creators of the well-received 'old but new' survival horror action-adventure Kwaidan ～Azuma manor story～. The latter was marketed for its "severe 3D action that requires precise operation and accurate judgment". By contrast, Incline (no release date yet) feels like the developers letting their hair down. All I ask is that somebody sneak into the office overnight and prise the wiggly-dash button off their keyboards.
Update 8th April 2024: Here's some useful commentary on punctuation from RPS supporter Leukippe. "I know that it can look a bit funny to us, but the "wave dash" (sometimes misformatted in Western script as the similar looking tilde) is a standard Japanese bit of punctuation denoting a subtitle — I find it quite endearing when it makes its way across into the English language names of games, rather than being switched for a singular colon or hyphen."