Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening
Release Date	Gameplay & Story	Pre-Order & DLC	Review

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening is a deck builder visual novel with heavy dating sim elements. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the early access, and more.

Everything We Know About Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening Plot

Set in the dystopian year 20X1, Dream City is dominated by powerful corporations that monopolize AI and the internet, gradually eroding the freedoms of everyday citizens. As society falls under increasing control, a group of rebellious youth begins to Awaken—wielding the mysterious power of God Soul to challenge the oppressive system. Players step into the role of a high school otaku with a passion for AI, joining forces with a team of resistance girls to uncover the truth behind God Soul, forge unbreakable bonds, and fight to reclaim their future.

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening Gameplay

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening is a JRPG visual novel that combines dungeon-crawling with a team-based RPG card battle system, where players strategically build decks to navigate the Abyss. Central to the game are Linkers—resonant beings manifested as powerful girls—of which there are over 30 to collect and customize for various tactical approaches. Players can also deepen their experience through a relationship system, engaging with each Resonant Rebel Girl's unique story and CGs, with central characters like Kami, Lincy, Hoshimu, and Moonshadow driving the core narrative.

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening Release Date

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening launched in Steam Early Access on May 1, 2025. Players can purchase the game via the Steam Store either as a standalone title or bundled with its cosmetic DLCs.

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening Review (Early Access)

A Prematurely Presented Passion Project

In this episode of “buying anything on Steam that catches my eye purely based on its thumbnail,” we have U-Secret Studio’s latest project: Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening.

If you, dear reader, haven’t heard of them before, I don’t blame you. As far as Steam releases go, they only had one prior title to their name—Mysteria Occult Shadows, a rather, uh, saucy hack-and-slash that, in my opinion, focused way too much on its visuals to deliver any meaningful gameplay.

That said, I did enjoy Mysteria for what it was, so I was eager to check out the devs’ next project as soon as I could. Which brings us to today: the early access release of Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening on Steam.

Don’t worry—this one isn’t nearly as spicy.

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening is a romantic card battler that tosses you into the clueless, unwashed shoes of an otaku with a grudge against society. That society, however, isn’t quite ours—rather, it’s a dystopian knock-off of the real thing with a few extra decades slapped onto the calendar. How many? No clue. And apparently, the devs don’t know either, considering they just went with “20X1.”

In this world, corporations, conglomerates, and even your average power-tripping middle manager work to strip away freedoms and enforce conformity. Basically, your standard dystopia.

So, do you rise up and fight the system? You’re just a kid obsessed with chatbots and video games, after all. What can you do?

Well, Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening offers a solution:

Card games in another world.

The Story Is Weird…ly Charming

Look, I can’t fault anyone for approaching games like this expecting the story to raise a few eyebrows—and drop a few jaws. Not always in a good way, either. And yes, at its core, Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening’s story is basically Persona 5—idealistic teens with no real power get a magical workaround to fight injustice without having to deal with real-world consequences.

Okay, that’s a serious oversimplification of Persona 5, but it fits.

Unlike its spiritual inspiration, though, Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening lacks the twists, the intrigue, and the shockingly grounded take on social issues. What it does offer instead is a much simpler narrative supported by straightforward character backstories that differ mostly in tone.

Is that a bad thing? Not really. These kinds of games don’t need a story that rivals a Nitroplus classic. All they need to do is entertain you just enough to bridge the gap between gameplay segments—and this one does exactly that. Romantic comedy will always have its place, and the writing here does a solid job of keeping your attention just long enough to keep clicking forward.

Unlocking Cards Needs Optimization

Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening plays like your standard deck-building RPG—think Chrono Ark, Theseus Protocol, or Card-en-Ciel. By that, I mean you just play cards every turn until you run out of energy, rinse and repeat. The twist? This one comes with a frustrating quirk that makes the early-to-mid game a bit of a slog: it tries to sell you the cards before letting you actually use them.

And no, I don’t mean real money microtransactions. I’m talking about an in-game shop that locks most cards behind currency you have to grind for.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. Roguelikes like Theseus Protocol do this all the time. The issue here is that deck-building becomes a chore once additional characters enter the field. See, in Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening, decks are shared between party members, meaning each character’s turn pulls from the same pool. Synergy isn’t just encouraged—it’s mandatory.

Unfortunately, the game makes that synergy hard to achieve. You have to grind for cards, sure, but that’s not the only obstacle. Enter: Linkers.

Linkers are basically spirit girl passives with active skills—think Personas but… waifus. Decks are affected by which Linker a character equips, and the card pool is dictated by the unit herself. Trouble is, the synergies aren’t very intuitive, which makes experimenting more frustrating than it should be unless you have hours of free time, all to yourself.

A simple fix? Just tie card unlocks to Linker unlocks. Players already want more Linkers anyway, so why not streamline the process? In exchange, Linker battles could be scaled up in difficulty to make players fight hard to earn those cards.

This Could Use Three More Months of Development

Early access games shouldn’t be judged the same way as full releases. More often than not, they hit the store in rough shape, with the intent of growing alongside player feedback.

…But there has to be a baseline of quality, right? Seriously—untranslated text in dialogue bubbles even though the log is localized? Typos in the scripts? Unequalized audio? Tutorial text so tiny I had to use Windows Magnifier just to read it?

The only thing this game doesn’t have is a crash bug. Yet.

Beyond that, the audiovisual presentation feels like a patchwork of placeholder assets and rushed decisions. For example: during visual novel scenes, attack effects seem to be ripped straight from the battle engine—making them hilariously out of place. Sound effects are often out of sync or oddly delayed, dulling any impact they were supposed to have.

To be honest, I still enjoy the game. The story does its job, and the gameplay, while flawed, has the potential to become genuinely fun. But the devs really need to polish things up. Nobody likes a buggy, janky mess—and right now, Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening isn’t even at “barely presentable.”

It’s just… grating.

I do have to admit, though, the artist for this game is clearly pouring a lot of love into the illustrations. For that alone, I do hope the developers push on and end up with a good product.

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Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening Product Information

Title	REBELLION GODSOUL: AWAKENING
Release Date	May 1, 2025
Developer	U-Secret Studio
Publisher	U-Secret Studio
Supported Platforms	PC
Genre	Visual Novel, JRPG, Card Battler
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	TBD
Official Website	Rebellion GODSOUL: Awakening Official Website