Code provided thanks to CrowdNight.
Just Grow – An Orphanage Full of Nightmares and Arcade Cabinets
One of the quickest ways to get my attention with a roguelite these days is to give me a mechanic I haven’t seen before. The genre is packed with fantastic games, but it is also a genre where familiar ideas get reused a lot. After playing the demo for Just Grow, I came away feeling that the game sits somewhere between familiar and refreshingly different.
At first glance, it looks like a fairly traditional top-down action roguelite. It even gives off a little bit of that Binding of Isaac energy visually, although it quickly starts carving out its own identity. The big difference here is how progression works, and that ended up being the part of the demo I enjoyed the most.
The game places you in a creepy orphanage where things have clearly gone very wrong. You wake up with very little explanation and are quickly introduced to a strange ant-like mentor who gives you a brief rundown before sending you on your way. Storytelling isn’t pushed particularly hard during the demo, and that’s fine. The focus is very much on getting you into the action as quickly as possible. From there, you step through a mirror and begin exploring the orphanage itself, fighting your way through room after room of unsettling enemies.
A Creepy Setting With Some Fun Enemy Designs
While the narrative takes a back seat, I did quite like the atmosphere the demo creates. The orphanage setting works well, and the enemy designs are easily one of the more memorable aspects of what I’ve played so far. The game leans into a toy-themed horror style. You’ll find oversized teddy bears carrying enormous knives, unsettling rabbits that look far less cuddly than they should, wandering ghosts, aggressive toy robots firing rockets, and even a rather unpleasant-looking pile of toy parts serving as a boss encounter.
What I appreciated most is that the game manages to feel spooky without relying on gore or shock tactics. It sits comfortably in that creepy fairytale space rather than trying to gross the player out. That gave it an identity that I found quite appealing.
Combat That Gets the Job Done
The actual gameplay follows a structure that most roguelite fans will recognise immediately. You explore a series of small procedurally generated floors, defeat enemies, collect souls, find keys, and eventually locate the stairs that allow you to progress. Combat is built around a simple moveset. Your character primarily attacks with punches, supported by a dodge mechanic and a charged ground slam attack that damages enemies around you.
The controls work well enough, and I never felt like I was fighting against the game itself. However, this was probably the area that left me feeling the most uncertain. The combat isn’t bad. It functions perfectly well. The problem is that it feels very familiar. After a while, I found myself wishing there was something extra to make encounters stand out a little more. Punching enemies repeatedly simply didn’t provide the same excitement as the game’s more unique ideas elsewhere.
I also found certain enemies surprisingly unforgiving. Some charging attacks felt difficult to avoid consistently, even when the game clearly indicated where enemies were heading. It occasionally crossed the line from challenging into frustrating. That said, this is a demo, and balancing is exactly the kind of thing developers often continue adjusting before release.
The Arcade Machines Steal the Show
Where Just Grow really started to win me over was its progression system. After completing a floor and gathering souls from defeated enemies, you return to a central hub area. Rather than immediately spending those resources on stat upgrades or perk trees, you instead feed your collected souls into arcade cabinets.
Each arcade machine contains its own little minigame. Some are clearly inspired by classic arcade experiences. I played versions inspired by games such as Snake, Asteroids, and Galaxian, alongside a reaction-based whack-a-mole style game. There was even a Flappy Bird-inspired challenge, although I have to admit I was just as terrible at that one as I always have been. The better you perform in these minigames, the more tickets you earn. Those tickets then become your currency for unlocking new abilities and strengthening future runs.
It’s a really clever idea. Instead of simply collecting resources and clicking an upgrade menu, you’re actively earning your progression through short skill-based challenges. It gives the downtime between runs a lot more personality. I probably had more fun with the arcade cabinets than I did with the actual combat sections.
Potential With Some Rough Edges
The demo left me in an unusual position. There are parts of Just Grow that I genuinely enjoyed quite a lot, particularly the arcade-based progression and the creepy toy-themed presentation.
At the same time, the core combat hasn’t fully won me over yet. That isn’t necessarily a disaster. Roguelites often live or die by how compelling their progression systems are, and Just Grow definitely has an interesting hook there. The arcade concept gives it something memorable in a crowded genre. I just hope the combat evolves further as development continues. Whether that’s through additional abilities, more interesting enemy interactions, or greater variety in encounters, I feel like it needs one more ingredient to truly stand out.
Final Thoughts
After spending time with the demo, I think Just Grow is a game worth keeping an eye on. The top-down action feels familiar, perhaps a little too familiar in places, but the arcade-machine progression system is genuinely clever and gives the game a distinctive identity. I found myself looking forward to earning more souls simply so I could spend time chasing high scores in the minigames.
The combat currently feels like the weakest part of the package, and a little balancing work wouldn’t go amiss either, but there’s enough potential here to make me curious about the full release. For now, I’m cautiously optimistic. The demo didn’t completely win me over, but it absolutely did enough to make me want to see what the finished version looks like later this year. That’s a pretty good place for a demo to leave someone.
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