Finji is looking to continue its track record of releasing stellar indies with Usual June

Finji, a studio founded by Adam and Rebekah Saltsman, has quietly built itself a reputation as one of the best indie game publishers out there. since Night in The Woods in 2017. The studio has gone on to oversee the releases of Wilmot’s Warehouse, Chicory: A Colourful Tale, Tunic, and I Was A Teenage Exocolonist. Even if the team’s last internally developed game, Overland, had somewhat of a muted response when it was finally released in 2019 that was less down to that game being bad and more a side effect of its experimental early access on itch.io. Now over five years later the team is back with what looks to be its most ambitious project yet.

Developed in collaboration with Sweet Baby Inc., Usual June follows the titular June during a summer break when she and her friends stumble into a world-ending conspiracy. June, however, has supernatural powers and can talk to the dead. The catch is (at least during the demo we played) that June really doesn’t want her friends to know that she’s capable of Sixth Sense-ing with dead people.

The demo I played at Gamescom, saw June and one of her friends exploring a supposedly haunted observatory until they met a friendly Ghost haunting the premises… Well… June did. June's friends can't see these lost souls which led to a few fun interactions where June had to find ways to ask him questions aloud without raising the suspicion of her less paranormally-gifted friend.

The trio quickly got separated and June was whisked into another dimension full of angry spirits for her to fight at which point the game pivoted into being a slightly simplified hack-and-slash. That isn’t to say there isn’t depth in combat with plenty of combos for light and heavy strings and special abilities on a cooldown, but this isn’t a big team so don’t go in excepting the near-endless depth of a Devil May Cry game.

The most striking thing about Usual June though is its killer style. From its vivid purples and deep blues that permeate the game’s color palette, to characters speaking in jumbled non-language like Animal Crossing or the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon, and all the main characters animating on twos (à la Across The Spiderverse), Usual June has excellent vibes to match its story of friendship and the afterlife.

While it still doesn’t have a release date beyond a vague 2025 window. I can’t wait to see what June gets up to in this life and the next.

Lexi Luddy

Contributing Editor

Lex Luddy is a freelance writer and journalism student. She has written for Vice, Fanbyte, PLAY Magazine, Gayming Magazine, Push Square, startmenu and more. She can be found on X (Twitter) @BasicalliLexi talking about Yakuza, Kirby, and queer representation in media.