To look at Bandit Knight, it’d be easy to mistake it for one of Square Enix’s recent HD-2D games, such as Octopath Traveler or the upcoming The Adventures of Elliot. The Square Enix inspiration doesn’t stop there; the character sprites in Bandit Knight gesture and spin around to convey joy or frustration in much the same way as the cast of Final Fantasy VI, in a similarly developed steampunk fantasy world. Where Bandit Knight sets itself apart, then, is in its gameplay’s thieving premise.
Made by Japanese developer Game Float and published by Spiral Up Games, Bandit Knight took a confident position on the main floor of Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026. The demo begins with a meek husband and wife at dinner, serenaded by the songs of their magical living violin. The quiet moment is lost when armed thugs storm in and kidnap the violin for the sake of their boss, “Goldo von Bling.”
The distraught couple sends a letter to a young thief named Ain, a sort of Robin Hood-like figure in their city. Together with his floating shadowy-eye companion Var, Ain goes to retrieve the violin from von Bling’s mansion—hoping to clean up a few other belongings along the way.
With the press of the “Pickpocket” button, Ain slashes at and swipes whatever’s directly in front of him, be it an expensive-looking sword, vase, or painting. I moved through von Bling’s mansion like some covetous blend of the Grinch and the Prince from Katamari Damacy, smashing and looting every little item to see its name and value in gold added to my inventory. Of course, when I drew the ire of some of von Bling’s patrolling guards, I auto-locked on and threw five reloadable, throwable knives to knock them out (these are, ostensibly, sleeping knives…).
At first, I was able to steal everything. By the end of the mansion, however, I realized that the items carried weight, and my pockets were nearing full, so I became more choosy with my loot.
There are platforming elements, such as hopping over laser tripwires a la Catherine Zeta-Jones, and elements in the environment that need to be smashed with throwing knives, though there wasn’t much challenge in von Bling’s mansion. Instead, the silly dialogue and energetic music gave the impression that Bandit Knight is about having a frantic, merry time. When I relieved von Bling of the talking violin (and a few hundred other things), Ain returned to his hideout to spend the collective spoils of his loot on a sizable skill tree, beefing up RPG stats like HP, ATK, DEF, Stealth, and, most importantly, carriable Weight. While unavailable in the demo, there are also a forge and equipable weapons and armour.
At this point, the run-based, roguelite elements of Bandit Knight came into play. Selecting a level from the world map, I was put into an idyllic beachy marketplace, where a fellow thief named Mint challenged me to pickpocket unsuspecting merchants and to collect certain items. A timer counted down as I progressed farther into the objective list, unlocking moves and items to help me get further in that specific environment/level. Within a couple of runs, ended first by the clock and later by an angry boar, I was able to get pretty far into impressing Mint and leveling Ain up to boot.
The permanent roguelite progression I made in the story and in each “exploration” mission really encouraged me, normally a roguelike naysayer, to jump back in for a few more runs. Leveling Ain, I saw a wider variety of moves and gameplay elements unlock, hopefully pointing towards a deeper gameplay experience.
I really enjoyed my time with Bandit Knight. Its fast-paced gameplay satiated my kleptomania, and its aesthetic called back to the lighter moments of the greats of 16-bit era RPGs. There are no official plans for release on platforms beyond Steam, though with how the game ran on a controller, it’s hard to imagine it not coming to all consoles. No release date is set either, though I’ll be keeping an eye out for Bandit Knight (and keeping a close hand on my wallet).
More Bandit Knight Screenshots
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