Sometimes you go to a preview event to play multiple titles from a company, wondering if you’d like one more than the others. But sometimes you come away loving everything, even if the games you played were totally different from one another. That’s what I ended up feeling after checking out the NIS America booth at PAX West 2026. Dom Ashtear and I got our hands dirty with two lovely adventures: Gobble and The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster.
Holy Visual Sound Effects, Batman
Gobble is immediately captivating to any onlookers or players. It has sound effects written out like a comic or manga (how else are you going to convey the heat of a flame without a giant FWOOOSH?). All the animations look super cartoony, which begs the question: is all of this hand-drawn? Gamers control the main character Root, who wields a wisecracking scythe named Scythariel.
Gameplay-wise, the adventure is smooth and responsive. You have to whack enemies until they are stunned. Once downed, this is your cue to use Scythariel to gobble them up. This gives you additional HP and the opportunity to say “Gobble!” out loud, which I did every time. There are also abilities called Gimmicks that buff your attacks. I managed to nab a fire one that burned special blocks and summoned pillars of flame.
Players with OCD like myself will be in for a treat. Grabbing 100 monster cores from defeated enemies will power Root up and grant them invincibility. In addition, there are three special meats you can find and devour per stage. These unlock every writer’s greatest treasure while gaming: WORLD LORE.
Am I….Am I in a Painting?!
The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster is a different beast altogether from Gobble, but its art design is similarly entrancing. It is like a storybook come to life, with visuals inspired by the author Edward Gorey. You control both the human Mono and the little monster Mär by making use of the dual joysticks. Mono is on a mission to save her sister from the disease Paper Mortis, which turns people into paper monsters. Meanwhile, Mär is trying to regain his power, so it is a mutually beneficial partnership. Each chapter will feature a different girl to save from Paper Mortis.
The title is heavy on puzzles. Mär can eat almost anything in black and white, which leads to a lot of clicking around the background for impatient folks like myself. If you are strategic and perceptive, though, you’ll be cracking riddles in no time (for example, speech bubbles are in black and white…). When Mär eats enough, he’ll transform into a bigger monster, though eating excessively will cause him to stop listening to your commands.
My demo ended with a boss encounter. The baddie, named The Sheepish Wolfess, was literally a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It was a little awkward to disrobe the enemy to show its true form, as well as hide behind paper flaps to avoid damage. This was probably due to using a controller, as point-and-click games lend themselves better to a mouse and keyboard. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience, with fun little details to spot (the boss’s name at the top of the screen got torn up the more it took damage).
NIS America is publishing some truly unique games in the future. Developer Nippon Ichi Software has crafted two distinctly beautiful games: Gobble and The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster. Both are due in 2027 for Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 5 (Gobble is also coming to PC). There will be a demo for Gobble in the future, but only in Japan. I hope this changes because everyone needs to shout “Gobble!” at their screen while laughing maniacally.
