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Press release:
The Tokyo-based (Japan) indie games publisher PLAYISM and indie games developer Team Ladybug, are today super excited and happy to announce that their 2D side-scrolling shoot-em-up “Drainus”, is now available for the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo Eshop.

Special Giveaway Campaign –
Follow & RT to Win an Acrylic Keychain

Simply follow @playismEN on Twitter and retweet our campaign tweet for a chance to be one of five lucky winners of an original DRAINUS keychain!

The campaign ends on March 1st so don’t forget to follow and retweet!
About the Game

A Modern Evolution of 2D Shooters Made for All Gamers

DRAINUS is the first original IP created by Team Ladybug, the developers behind Touhou Luna Nights (the Touhou Project derivative work with over 300,000 copies sold) and Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (Derivative work of highly popular Record of Lodoss War franchise).

Players take control of “DRAINUS”, a fighter jet with a unique ability to absorb energy. Any energy-based enemy fire can be absorbed and unleashed back the other way. Alternatively, stored energy can also be used to customize and enhance features of the DRAINUS. Team Ladybug’s aim with DRAINUS was to create a shooting game that can be enjoyed by players of all levels.

The game comes with three difficulty settings, “Easy” and “Normal” for beginners and casual players, as well as “Hard” for the seasoned veterans of the genre. Upon completing the first playthrough, players will also unlock two additional modes geared towards competitive play.

In May 2022, the PC version released on Steam without any prior announcements to highly positive feedback from the gaming community for its overall excellence and quality. It is our absolute pleasure to now be able to bring that experience to the Nintendo Switch community on February 2, 2023.

Game Details

Take control of the “DRAINUS”, a ship that can absorb energy attacks, to take down countless enemy ships zipping through space. Energy absorbed can be used to enhance the ship’s functions, such as adding new weapons.

■ Story

The Planet Halpax ,located in the far reaches of space, is suffering from the oppressive rule of the Kharlal Empire. One of the slaves residing there is battling an illness known as “Planetary Compatibility Disorder”, he must return home to the far-away planet of Earth to be cured. His daughter Irina, also a slave, is both devastated by her father’s illness and helpless to do anything about it.

At that moment, a humanoid named Ghenie, who looks strangely like a frog, appears before Irina and says “I have come from 30 years in the future. A galactic war is about to break out, in which more than 5,000 planets will be annihilated by the Kharlal Empire. I have come to this time period to stop that war and the oppressive rule of the Kharlal Empire. I need your help.”.

“Why me? What can I do?”, Irina had no idea what was going on, but her father’s illness was worsening by the minute. With no time to hesitate and nowhere else to turn, she takes Gehnie’s green hand and sets off, beginning her journey to reach her distant home planet while taking the Kharlal Empire down once and for all.

■ Game Features

The most distinctive feature of this game is the “reflector”, a function of DRAINUS that allows the ship to absorb energy-based enemy fire over a period of time while activated, before letting you unleash it all back in a devastating counterattack.

Absorbed energy is also stored in a tank, which can be used to customize and enhance various functions of DRAINUS.

■ Newly Supported Languages for Steam Ver.

The Steam version of DRAINUS now supports these languages:

Traditional Chinese
Korean
French
Spanish
Portuguese
German
Italian
Thai
Turkish

DRAINUS
■ Developers: Team Ladybug, WSS Playground
■ Publishers: WSS Playground, PLAYISM
■ Switch Release Date: February 2, 2023
■ Genre: 2D side-scrolling shooter
■ Supported Languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean
■ Platform: Nintendo Switch *Currently available on Steam
■ MSRP (Switch): 19.99 USD
■ Rating: IARC 7+

About Strictly Limited Games
Strictly Limited Games is a German publisher based near Stuttgart, specialized in releasing a curated selection of digital download-only games in exclusive collectible physical editions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch. The company was founded in 2017 by Dennis Mendel, a former scholar for game studies and advisor at Fraunhofer Institute, and Benedict Braitsch. Both passionate collectors with a combined collection of over 7.000 digital and physical games for all console generations, their intention is to form an opposite pole to the current trend of digital-only releases. All collectors’ editions are available exclusively at Strictly Limited Games online store www.strictlylimitedgames.com.

Team Ladybug
A very small game development team that worked on 2D pixel art action games such as, “Touhou Luna Nights”, “Fate Stay Night: RUN! RUN! Lancer!”, Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue”, “KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Revival of Beldia”, and “Record of Lodoss War – Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth”.

WSS Playground
An indie game label that produces games made by individuals and small teams under the theme of “Making games is all about ‘fun’, but as humans, we take ‘fun’ very seriously”.

WSS Playground is headed by Daichi Saito and is a producer that worked on “Angels of Death”, “Touhou Luna Nights”, and “NEEDY GIRL OVERDOSE”.

PLAYISM
Japan’s oldest indie publisher, PLAYISM, is known in the West for supporting popular indie games such as Gnosia, The Good Life, Idol Manager, Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight, Touhou Luna Nights, Fight Crab, Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-, the La-Mulana series, Bright Memory, and DEEEER Simulator among other titles.

PLAYISM’s motto is “Bringing a Different Breed of Indie Games to the World”.