Keytamine is a fascinating game as it is an action roguelike that never feels or plays like one. Instead, its unique selling point is meant to be that the game’s aesthetic evokes an ASMR oddly satisfying click-clack of noises and visual ripples to keep you calm and zoned into the moment-to-moment gameplay. Whilst yes, the visuals and audio cues make Keytamine stand out, this is anything but relaxing… and that’s a good thing. Welcome to a genuine oddity in game releases in 2025!
There are 10 stages of difficulty to Keytamine, each with its own visual effect that unlocks when you reach it to mix and match with the difficulties you’ve unlocked as you see fit. The level begins with a collection of clicky-clacky keyboard keys (or a similar object) that must be pressed to eliminate them. The goal is to remove all the keys from the playing area before they kill you. How can keys kill you? Different types of keys cause damage every four in-game beats (not tied to the actual soundtrack – there is a metronome in the bottom right corner of the screen). At this point, the cumulative existence of keys in the level calculates a damage score that cuts into your health bar. Keys multiply and breed new keys, and Kings cause extra damage and raise more keys around them. A Priest can cast a protective shield around a King and must be killed off first before you can attack the King they protect. Then there are other anomalies like hidden bombs, fog of war machines, poisonous germs, and other types of keys that can help or hinder your progress.
Despite setting itself up to be a clicker game, Keytamine is not a clicker game either. Your attacks happen automatically but you need to know where to place your cursor to cause the most impactful attack damage. As you kill keys and remove them, you’ll earn XP to level up during your battle, and this lets you unlock new abilities. Instead of just clicking one key, you’ll impact either side vertically, horizontally, then as a ripple, or like a lightning fork strike. The more you play, the more coins you collect over time to unlock more abilities to take into battle. Players have some element of choice in how to upgrade their attacks, but once you’ve upgraded an attack once, it’s locked for the next 3 or 4 upgrades to stop you from spamming a specific attack to become overpowered. I’m on the fence about this design decision because sometimes it creates artificial skill cliff edges that require extra grinding in levels to earn coins for your overworld upgrades when Keytamine feels like it could be more skill-dependent.
Your overworld currency is used to unlock those basic attacks, but as you start off in each level from zero, the overworld permanent upgrades do not include making those attacks more powerful. Instead, they focus on giving more health or defence stats, and adding in more friendly support keys that can help you out. Shop keys add boost items, bombs can clear large areas quickly and also chain up for extra chaos, and you can also reduce the health of certain key types, too. Everything is helpful, but I found some support items more helpful than others. Go offensive is my advice.
I had a great time getting to grips with such a uniquely structured game. There really is nothing else quite like it, especially in the action roguelike genre. By design, there are a few minor niggles. Firstly, those difficulty cliff edges seem to needlessly force the player to grind for a bit to get beyond level 7. I felt like the difficulty curve jumps hugely as soon as a buffed mage appears that can spawn multiple standard mages, who in turn spawn multiple kings. It’s a situation that escalates a manageable battle into something that slides out of control in a few moments without warning, and the only way to beat them is to grind, grind, grind. Knowing how much to grind is another issue because there is no visual feedback on just how much damage you are doing per attack. I ended up counting and guesstimating how dead something was. My last very minor niggle is that once you’ve survived the last wave of enemies, there is a bit of a job to clean up all the remaining toot on the level. It’s a bit like waiting to clear the last brick on a Breakout-style game, meaning the levels and your victory end on a come down.
I’m delighted Keytamine exists because it’s unique. The visuals and audio could evoke some light ASMR for those who enjoy keyboard sounds and visual ripples, but the game is too intense to keep you relaxed for long. Despite its hands-off approach for trigger attacks, you are fully in control of each attack’s placement, and that keeps you in the game and active. Odd, in the best way.
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