An upcoming tactical RPG known as Mewgenics guarantees so as to add some grit and deliberately disturbing aptitude to the tactical RPG scene, and there is motive to imagine it would ship. The sport, which comes from Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen, in collaboration with Tyler Glaiel, is slated for a February 2026 release, and is about what one would count on from this irreverent and subversive duo.
McMillen and Glaiel beforehand co-developed 2017’s The Finish Is Nigh.
As one may count on from a McMillen sport (and as indicated by its deliberately weird title), Mewgenics is kind of an odd, unapologetically darkish undertaking. It is a sport cut up into two essential sections: fight encounters and cat-breeding. The previous of those two gameplay pillars purports to be akin to video games like Last Fantasy Techniques and Into the Breach, being turn-based and on an isometric grid, whereas the latter is way extra unsettling and on-brand for McMillen. So, what precisely can Steam audiences count on from the crude and off-putting Mewgenics, which McMillen himself as soon as described because the strangest sport he has ever labored on?
What’s Mewgenics All About, Anyway?
Construct the final word cat military by way of tactical breeding and ship them into deep, difficult turn-based adventures. Draft skills, acquire gadgets, and manipulate genetics throughout generations…
Should you check out Mewgenics‘ turn-based gameplay, and attempt to ignore the cute-and-terrifying design of the sport’s characters, you may discover a TRPG pretty according to its contemporaries. Grid-based isometric battles reward sensible positioning, social gathering composition, and forethought; like so many different TRPGs, manipulation of participant and NPC location is paramount for achievement—it is about far more than choosing the proper assault and help strikes.
The place Mewgenics departs from different TRPGs is thru its long-term development and RPG parts. Constructing upon the frequent style trope of persistent social gathering member dying (seen in every thing from Baldur’s Gate 3 to Fights in Tight Places), Mewgenics introduces long-term character results reminiscent of mind harm and mutations, the latter of which could be handed all the way down to a personality’s offspring. That is the place the second portion of the Mewgenics equation comes into play.
Mewgenics’ Cat-Breeding Methods Defined
The cat-breeding mechanics are the place Mewgenics is its most unique, and arguably its most McMillenesque. Between runs, gamers’ cats will return to a home hub that comprises all of the cats they’ve collected (solely 4 cats can embark on a run without delay). Inserting two cats in the identical room of this home will permit them to mate, and finally produce offspring that inherit the traits of the mother and father. As beforehand talked about, these traits are knowledgeable by how cats change throughout runs, by way of mutations and upgrades.
Cat-breeding is the spine of Mewgenics‘ base-building and favor-based development, each of which unfold between runs. As a participant’s cat inhabitants will increase, it would require extra meals to maintain itself, leading to a resource-management state of affairs. Since newly bred cats will inherit traits from each mother and father, it is typically useful to breed cats aggressively and procure rarer or strategic cat sorts. From there, undesirable cats could be despatched to NPCs within the hub space in trade for sure advantages, like a rise in stock measurement or housing capability. The best way this favor system is described, it sounds a bit like a Persona-style bond system, developed by way of cat-trading.
However as you might need anticipated, issues get extra difficult than that. In numerous Steam weblog posts, McMillen outlines among the extra avant-garde and sophisticated dimensions of cat-breeding, reminiscent of the varied issues that may be handed all the way down to offspring, in addition to the implications of inbreeding. One fascinating little bit of trivia is that McMillen derived the inbreeding techniques from a analysis paper within the Journal of Heredity about calculating the Coefficient of Inbreeding. This due diligence could be a superb indication of how sturdy and multilayered Mewgenics‘ cat-breeding mechanics shall be within the remaining product.
You may Be Capable of Sink North of 200 Hours into Mewgenics
The unimaginable selection that Mewgenics will reportedly supply by way of cat-breeding is sufficient to present substantial replay worth, however McMillen and Glaiel declare that the sport shall be much more content-rich than that. Certainly, the Mewgenics Steam web page boasts that it’s going to have a essential campaign spanning over 200 hours, alongside another tantalizing quick-figures:
- 10+ character lessons with 75 distinctive skills every
- 900+ wild gadgets
- 200+ enemies and executives
- Roguelite development: by no means expertise the identical sport twice.
- Decisions at each flip. Cash! Gadgets!! And genes!! All issues.
Like The Binding of Isaac earlier than it, Mewgenics appears to be leaning closely right into a premise of immeasurable build variety, however with extra persistent, cross-run development. The abundance of various gadgets, enemies, and character skills, coupled with procedural era and randomized roguelike techniques, definitely paint an image of a deep, beefy gaming expertise. And with the off-beat appeal and endlessly shocking narrative and gameplay design that McMillen and Glaiel have grow to be identified for, there’s each motive to be optimistic about Mewgenics‘ probabilities within the busy panorama of 2026 gaming.
