Upcoming indie Cafe management and Roguelike game Hips N Noses has revealed a major combat overhaul ahead of its appearance at the Tokyo Game Show 2026. South Korean developer PepperStones is behind the update, and an updated playable demo will be on the show floor at the KOCCA Korea Pavilion in Makuhari Messe, Hall 3 / Booth 03-C03, for games in attendance between September 17 and September 21 in Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.
In Hips N Noses, players take the role of a Witch named Mela, the only person in this world capable of sleeping, since she is the only person capable of dreaming. After opening up a cafe dedicated to helping customers recover lost memories, she will spend her days getting to know customers and learning their particular tastes when it comes to her brews. The game then switches up at night.
In the nighttime, Mela falls asleep, ending up in a constantly changing dreamworld filled with monsters. In this dungeon, the player is tasked with collecting memory flowers, which are in turn brought back and serve as ingredients at the cafe. In this way, the title has a very similar loop to that of the Moonlighter series, in which you manage your business in the day, then battle to supply your business at night.
In particular, the TGS demo will showcase the overhauls made to combat, such as how players can build and develop their party. The key element in this update is a tag system, allowing the player to tag party members’ weapons and skills, “customize their combat builds, and strategically shape their progression path”. The cafe segment of the game will also get improvements, with this demo introducing a part-time staff feature to minimize the growing workload, managing orders while giving more focus to special customers.
Key features of Hips N Noses include:
- Run a Café in a World That Never Sleeps – Meet a colourful cast of customers, listen to their stories, and learn what they need before crafting drinks specifically for them.
- Enter a World of Dreams – When the café closes, explore Mela’s dreams and battle monsters in action roguelike combat.
- Master Card-Based Combat – Build and adapt your approach as you make your way through the dream world, with a major overhaul to the combat system debuting at Tokyo Game Show.
- Gather Memory Flowers – Collect special ingredients within dreams and bring them back to the café to help restore customers’ lost memories.
- Two Worlds, One Gameplay Loop – What happens in the café informs your journeys into dreams, while what you discover at night gives you new possibilities during the day.
- Get to Know Your Customers – Build relationships with the people who visit Mela’s café and uncover their stories as you progress.
Hips N Noses has no release date as of yet, but is planned for an early access release on Steam sometime soon. A playable demo is currently available on Steam.
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