NO-SKIN

About NO-SKIN

NO-SKIN is a horror roguelike by the small studio NoEye-Soft, made in GameMaker and first released on Steam and itch.io for Windows in February 2025. Feardemic published it on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on 19 March 2026, and on Nintendo Switch a day later.

The set-up is short and strange: what started as a normal night with your friends has become something far more twisted, and you have to face the horrors lurking around the house and discover who the No-Skin Man truly is. You play as Noire. At each stage you pick one of three rooms, with a hint of what is inside and the chance of a fight, and go deeper into the house. There you meet monsters, killers and your own friends, who grow stranger and more ghastly the further you go. You can fight them in turn-based combat with weapons such as a knife or a gun that each have their own accuracy and damage, talk to them, trade with a shopkeeper for strange pills, nightshade, cigarettes and ammunition, or try to escape when the odds look bad.

Blood shards are both the money you spend and what you wager, while moon shards buy permanent upgrades. When you die, the Moon brings you back for another try. Moon shards can also unlock an easier version of the game and new characters, and pieces of the story are hidden in the conversations with your friends.

The look is what most players remember: hand-drawn pixel art characters and items placed over grainy, dim photographs of real rooms, with blood-red text and sparse, unsettling lines of dialogue. The maker warns of disturbing images, violence, gore, themes of suicide and the use of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, and the console rating adds strong language and suggestive themes. A session takes about half an hour, and the game keeps going well past the point where it first seems to end.

It suits players who like dark roguelikes and turn-based horror RPGs such as WORLD OF HORROR or Look Outside, and who do not mind losing runs. Some reviewers found the loop grindy, while most praise its atmosphere and its mystery.

How to play NO-SKIN

1. Buy NO-SKIN on Steam, itch.io, the PlayStation Store, the Xbox store or the Nintendo eShop. The itch.io version includes a Steam key, and there is a demo.
2. Start a run as Noire and go through the house stage by stage.
3. At each stage pick one of three rooms, using the hint of what is inside and the chance of a fight.
4. In a room, decide how to deal with what is there: fight, talk, trade or try to escape.
5. In fights, pick a weapon and attack in turns, watching each weapon's accuracy, damage and ammunition. Using items from your inventory does not cost a turn.
6. Spend blood shards at the shop on pills and supplies to keep your health up.
7. When you die, the Moon brings you back. Spend moon shards on permanent upgrades and try again.

Tips

• Do not trust a high hit chance; players warn that even a 90% attack can miss.
• Items from your inventory can be used without losing a turn, so heal before you attack when health is low.
• Ammunition is scarce, and the gun does double damage, so save it for threats the knife cannot handle.
• Running away is down to chance; cigarettes raise your odds of escaping.
• Check the fight chance shown for each room before you pick one.
• Do not stop at the first credits; the game carries on after them.

Questions