Indie racing games have seen a massive boom in the 2020s, and one of the most popular types of automotive culture in the world no doubt, comes from Japan. Asuka x Redline Reverie is an indie racer about Japanese auto culture, taking you through the scenery of winding mountain roads while you're a student, off to learn about the ways of the road.
A demo for the game is available via October 2026's Steam Next Fest, occurring between 10/19 and 10/26. Play the demo (and thousands more) while you have the chance!
Is Asuka x Redline Reverie Worth Playing?
If Forza Horizon 6 hasn't been scratching your itch for Japanese automotive culture (and given their ban on "itasha" car liveries, that would make sense), then I would say that Asuka x Redline Reverie is worth a look through.
Asuka x Redline Reverie has a lot of what you'd expect from a typical Japanese-based racing game, which is an emphasis on togue racing and drifting. Of course, I had to pick the Toyota Sprinter Trueno as my starter car because of Initial D (your other two choices in the demo are a Mazda MX-5 or a Peugeot 106). Asuka x Redline Reverie however, is much more story-driven (no pun intended) than you might expect, which makes it stand out quite a bit.
Drifting in this game however is very difficult to get right. In a typical drifting mode, you'll get points just as long as you're able to slide your car sideways. That's not the case with this game. You need to actually get a good, fast drift before the game will actually count it, meaning the age-old strategy of "snaking" down a straight road to milk out some extra points won't work here. The game is incredibly strict about what your drift has to actually be like for it to count as a drift. I'm sure this becomes less of an issue once you actually get a faster car or install some new parts, but in the early game, you're not getting very many points.
This is exacerbated by the fact that restarting a run will NOT undo any damage dealt to your car on your previous attempt, so grinding out a run until you finally reach the required score may end up breaking your car too much. Quite punishing when it's something that's quite important for actually playing the game. If you want my advice, even if you're good at drifting games, play on the easiest difficulty for your first time.
There are quite a few weird things about this game that I didn't particularly like so much. One of them is the fact that there is a boost start system in this game, but it's really hard to time because there's no countdown timer before you start driving. I also found that the game sometimes nerfed the power of the cars to make them even with other cars instead of simply finding different cars. One such example is that the Subaru Impreza in this game has only 140 horsepower, whereas the real life Impreza have... double that amount. You look at that, and compare it to the stats of other cars, which are otherwise accurate, and I just have to ask why they felt the need to break my immersion that much. Just find a different car instead.
The gameplay loop will also feel quite repetitive. Since a lot of is based on Tokyo Xtreme Racer (both the main series and the Drift series), this makes sense. Fans of that series will absolutely thrive on the gameplay loop, but it's also a very niche type of racing game. If you're a more casual racing game fan, then this game will unfortunately not be for you.
I do really like the way the game is presented though. You're in the hands of not a random, faceless no one, but as a student driver living a double life a racing school at the day time and being a mountain racer at night. Because of this, there is a huge emphasis on being able to organize each day, needing to use your money to repair your car and buy parts. It can get really difficult, to the point where it's very real that you might end up getting seriously stuck.
I however am quite interested in seeing how the game will improve before final release, so I'm keeping an eye on it.
Asuka x Redline Reverie currently has no release date, but you can find the demo during the Steam Next Fest here. There's even an in-game contest where you can have a chance to win a free copy of the game.
Are you interested in Asuka x Redline Reverie? Did you play any other cool demos during October's Next Fest? Let us know in the comments below!
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