Mightreya is a crunchy, meaty, complicated anime-superhero fusion of Devil May Cry and Gravity Rush

I’ve had my eye on Mightreya since long before it had its name, when it was just clips of a somewhat generic anime girl doing sick tricks and beatdowns in levels without assets. But now it looks like a genuine (the -uine pronounced like wine, so you’ve got the right intonation) action video game, with a slightly less generic looking anime girl continuing to do sick tricks and beatdowns, albeit with a bit more context. And you can even try it out for yourself now with a new demo! Which I did and will tell you about thusly.

When I first saw Mightreya (which I oh so desperately wish was called Mightyreya because I keep accidentally typing it that way), I thought it was something in the vein of Gravity Rush. This is an instant boon for me as a lover of the PlayStation’s most underrated series with the most juice around, and while you won’t be shifting any gravity in Mightreya, there are still qualities to be found there, it’s more just that you fly around the place.

The character in question doing the flying around is the titular Reya, a highschooler who is essentially a superhero livestreamer, with her pink haired, camera toting manager Nio following her around filming everything she (or more accurately, you) get up to. Said livestream is even punctuated by showing up in the top right hand corner, which is perhaps a little distracting, but still a cute touch.

This is a world filled with kaiju, that you have to beat up in bombastic and flashy ways. Here is where you’ll find some strong Devil May Cry elements, complete with a combo ranking system that encourages you to mix up your moves to better entertain your audience. Everything feels nice and crunchy, the hits are impactful, the dodge windows are precise but approachable, you certainly get some of that superhero flair while fighting.

It is also a lot to get used to. Pretty much every button in your controller (it recommends a controller upon booting it up, sorry) is utilised and it took me a while to memorise what everything did. Not a Sisyphean task by any means, you might just need to prepare yourself for an adjustment period. The combo sickos will certainly find something to click with here at the very least.

I obviously can’t speak to how the story will shake out, this is just a demo after all, and honestly the vague anime-inspired vibe may be understandably offputting for some. Still, worth a shake if you’re in need of something to tide you over until Capcom figures out how to make another DmC! You can check it out on Steam right here.