Resident Evil, Dead Space, Elfen Lied, and Akira — The Creator of Horror Game Psycho Dead Reveals His Inspirations
Hennadiy Chemеris
At gamescom asia 2025, the VGTimes editorial team sat down with Moon Catalyst’s creative director, AJ, to talk about Psycho Dead. This dark survival horror draws inspiration from Resident Evil, Control, Dead Space, and Parasite Eve, but with a unique twist—psychic abilities used to fight off lab-born nightmares.
We're focusing on psychic abilities. The heroine has several key skills — telekinesis, shockwave, barrier, and object destruction.
The main character of Psycho Dead is a young woman with telepathic and telekinetic powers who wakes up in a 90s-era underground lab, the site of horrific experiments. Players must survive the cold, concrete corridors using not just weapons, but their mind—quite literally.
You can lift an enemy into the air and throw them with force, or create an invisible shield in front of you that deflects attacks. These powers can be combined with firearms, creating different tactical scenarios, which makes the gameplay dynamic and unique.
AJ emphasizes that Psycho Dead is an attempt to recapture the atmosphere of classic horror games, where every bullet counts and fear lurks in the details.
We're trying to bring back old-school horror — limited resources, tense atmosphere, key searching, puzzles, and a constant sense of threat. But at the same time, we give the player a powerful tool — psychic powers. The combination of vulnerability and strength makes the game emotionally intense.
The team’s inspirations go beyond iconic games, drawing from Japanese anime like Akira, Elfen Lied, and Deadman Wonderland.
We like how they show the boundary between human and monster, when power becomes a curse.
A demo version of Psycho Dead is now available on Steam, with a full release planned for next year.
You can read the full interview with AJ here.
VGTimes is a leading publication that’s been covering the industry for over 14 years. In that time, we’ve attended numerous events, including gamescom 2019, ChinaJoy, Tokyo Game Show 2024, and more. Most recently, we visited gamescom asia 2025, where we gathered tons of exclusive details on upcoming games.
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