Tokihiro Naito's Retro Shmup XeGrader Plus Hits Steam on July 6
The release marks a new original work from a veteran Japanese PC game designer, bringing a deliberate retro design philosophy to Steam with modern quality-of-life features.
Reporting from 1 sources: 4Gamer.net.
Tokihiro Naito, creator of the Hydlide series, announced his new retro-style action shooting game XeGrader plus will launch on Steam on July 6, 2026, at 16:00 JST for 2,600 yen. The game features 18 stages, three difficulty levels, and DLC recreating earlier series entries.
Tokihiro Naito, the game designer behind the Hydlide series, announced on June 29 that his new action shooting game XeGrader plus will launch on Steam on July 6 at 16:00 JST. Priced at 2,600 yen with a 10% launch discount for one week, the game is a top-down retro-style shooter set in a dark high-fantasy world. Players choose between a male human warrior or a female elf warrior and fight slimes, kobolds, zombies, and vampires across 18 short stages that take about 2-3 minutes each. Total clear time is around 40-60 minutes, with the game designed for repeated play and score attacks.
New features include playable character selection, a redesigned scrolling Sanctuary stage, and a Practice difficulty that lets players restart from any already reached stage after a game over. Three difficulty levels are planned: Average, Expert, and Practice. Steam launch options allow adjusting game speed or switching BGM to PSG-style sound. At launch, two DLC packs-XeGrader for MSX2 mode and XeGrader for Origin (PC-8001mk2) mode-will be sold for 655 yen each, recreating earlier series entries. The development team includes pixel artist SKIPMORE, composer Tadahiro Nitta, and manga artist Bomann.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.