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Press release:
Istanbul, Türkiye – Tuesday 14th July, 2026 – Metaphor Games and Shoreline Games have launched dice-based narrative RPG Celestial Return on PC via Steam.

With dice acting as players’ bullets, bribes, and their last breath, they will step into the well-worn loafers of the disgraced Detective Howard as they take to the bloody neon streets of Netherveil City, where survival is optional, and death is an inevitability.

And the story is only just beginning. We can also reveal Shoreline Games and Metaphor Games are already planning to bring Celestial Return to PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles by Q1 2027, alongside support for at least three additional languages, opening the streets of Netherveil City to a much wider audience.

With a pocket full of stolen dice and a loudmouthed sentient Rose in tow, players will dig deep into the seedy underbelly of the city – unearthing long-forgotten secrets and exposing corruption that runs deeper than anybody could imagine. Each roll of the dice offers a chance at salvation or a shortcut to more suffering, and the most valuable resource is also the easiest to lose, so players will need to be strategic in their engagements and exploration, filling their pockets for the best chance at success.

Each decision made in Celestial Return will have consequences; ghosts of past choices catch up to players when they least expect it. Inner monologues will guide players down certain paths as they make dialogue decisions, with Foolishness, Intelligence, and Virtue all vying for the top spot, but if players lean too far into one vice whilst ignoring the wisdom of the others, certain paths may become unreachable later down the line.

Celestial Return Key Features:

Doomed Gameplay Loop: Earn and spend your dice while leveling up your own personality to gain the edge needed to survive conversational combat. It’s sometimes violent, but always desperate.

Simple Currency: Dice aren’t just tools. They’re oxygen. Earn ’em, spend ’em, lose ’em. Hoard them too long, and opportunities vanish. Roll recklessly, and resources burn.

Welcome to the Crossroads: Discover a vast sci-fi story, rich with twists, turns, mind-bending crossroads, and a branching narrative fully shaped by your decisions.

Sounds & Visuals to Bleed For: Immerse yourself in a completely hand-drawn world where manga’s precision meets the raw nerve of American comics

Choices Matter: Your choices are the weapons, and your mind the battlefield. Decide the outcome with each small step. Just remember: Intelligence picks locks in silence. Virtue pleads for mercy. Foolishness laughs at the abyss.

To follow along for news and updates for Celestial Return, join the community on X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and subscribe on YouTube.

About Shoreline Games

Shoreline Games is an independent publisher, focusing on unique, eye-catching narrative-driven games developed by talented studios worldwide. Their catalog of indie titles ranges from the academia-inspired Sanatorium: A Mental Asylum Simulator to early 2000s-inspired action-adventure Onirism. For more information, please visit www.shorelinegames.com.

About Metaphor Games

Metaphor Games is the digital gaming partner of Metis Creative. While Metis continues its work in the TTRPG space, Metaphor Games is a dedicated studio for channeling that same expertise in narrative and world-building to digital experiences. Metaphor Games sees games as a unified art form, where visuals, writing, and music fuse into one living whole. This philosophy is at the heart of Celestial Return, their first digital title and a true passion project. Learn more at https://www.metaphorgames.com