Neon White is a speedrunning FPS, an anime visual novel, and a Steam Next Fest must-play demo

rockpapershotgun.com:

Neon White is a singleplayer speedrunning FPS about honing movement and violence to shave seconds off times while slicing heads off demons. It's also a visual novel about a goofy good-time gang of anime doofuses who've ended up competing for a chance to enter Heaven. It is extremely good and stylish. A demo is available in the Steam Next Fest, and I suggest you have a go.

So, you're dead, and here you are now in a land of mirror water and marble spires. Drafted by the powers of Heaven to fight demons as a 'Neon', maybe you'll manage to win redemption and a place in The Good Place. This challenge plays out as a series of levels, many of which, done right, take less than 20 seconds. Neon White is a speedrunning FPS, see, a game with medals, leaderboards, wild amounts of air control, and a key binding to restart the level. Enemies are more obstacles than threats, with each level a dash to hit the endpoint while killing every demon.

You'll have noticed that Neon White has cards, but it isn't a deck-building game. Found at preset points and dropped by colour-coded enemies, these cards are weapon pick-ups. They're standard FPS archetypes like an auto rifle, SMG, and rocket launcher. Left-click and murder comes out the end pointing away from you. But right-click and it'll 'discard' the card, consuming it for a weapon-specific special effect. The five weapons in the demo alternately offer a double-jump, an air dash, a timed explosion (yes, of course you can grenade-jump), a ground-pounding dive, and a hookshot.

You'll need these movement abilties to complete levels, and soon you'll realise it's possible—preferable—to use them offensively. This can be extremely pleasing; one favourite level let me use the semi-auto rifle's