Catechesis is the upcoming new game from Baroque Decay, the developer of Count Lucanor and Yuppie Psycho. Although I haven’t played their past games, they’ve always interested me, so I was intrigued when I saw their newest project included as part of LudoNarraCon 2026.
The demo for Catechesis presents a curious blend of ideas. After a beautiful opening cutscene, you start by playing as a small, bug-like demon that must navigate a dangerous landscape to find a host. When you reach Daniel, a church altar boy who isn’t protected by the light, you latch onto him. Then control switches to Daniel himself. His initial gameplay is a series of simple tasks, where you gather up items and extinguish the candles after Mass. Despite the Catholic aesthetic, the church is for a god called Tabal, and this religion seems likely to play an important role in the game.
After completing these tasks, you find Daniel’s best friend Sophie trying to steal bottles of wine from the church, and the game introduces stealth mechanics as you evade his grandfather to avoid being caught. However, the next part was the most unexpected for me. Daniel passes out and opens his eyes in a strange facility where he’s being trained to use guns by his father. Before long, he decides to escape. This section plays like a survival horror game, as you search for key items to unlock the path forward and use ranged and melee combat against pursuing monsters. I enjoyed this section, and the stark contrast with everything that came before had me asking questions immediately.
Daniel awakens at home, where he lives with his grandfather, the events in the facility seemingly just a nightmare, and goes to school. School, meanwhile, introduces another piece of gameplay: a match-3 mini-game while you’re studying. Details like that left me curious about just how many small activities Catechesis might contain. However, the school day is cut short when Daniel’s grandfather ends up in the hospital in critical condition.
After a series of strange incidents, you find yourself exploring catacombs beneath the church. Up until this point, I was curious why the Steam page describes Catechesis as an RPG, but this final section of the demo offers a glimpse of an upgrade system. You gain blood by defeating enemies, and you drop it upon death and must return to that spot to regain it. Although I didn’t actually get a chance to upgrade anything during the demo, I’m curious about how deep that system will go. This area also includes solid puzzle-solving, along with several notes that expand the lore.
Overall, Catechesis has a memorable demo. The pixel-art cutscenes are gorgeous, the music does an incredible job setting the tone, and the demo’s story raises numerous questions about what’s going on and what will happen next. On top of that, the inclusion of mini-games with the horror RPG gameplay makes it feel like this one could be quite special. Although there is no release date yet, I’m looking forward to learning more about Catechesis in the future.
