Kusan: City of Wolves review: A mechanical arm and very little interest in de-escalation

The big picture

Jin is an ex-soldier with a mechanical arm, a girl to protect and a former employer who appears determined to make leaving the job insufficiently final. Haru carries an atomic weapon, placing the rescue mission well beyond the scope of an awkward reunion. Kusan: City of Wolves turns that urgency into compact top-down combat problems, with guns, melee tools and preparation all seeking a useful place in the solution.

CIRCLEfromDOT developed the PQube-published full release for Windows PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. Its regional midnight console rollout began July 29, 2026, UTC, with July 30 the advertised local launch date and Steam release. This is a completed release, not Early Access, and its fifty-four handcrafted stages favor players who enjoy improving an execution rather than only seeing the next room.

The knife has a reason to be here

The Quantum Knife overview describes a tool intended to link attacks and create openings alongside gunplay. That is more useful than an extra weapon that spends the campaign patiently waiting for you to remember its button.

Combining close-range tools and firearms makes position part of the choice. Aggression can create control, but moving closer also commits you to where the danger is. The interesting decision is which tool should follow another, rather than which single weapon eventually replaces all the rest.

That is an attractive premise for players who treat action as a sequence of decisions. It is busier than uncomplicated shooting, though. An overhead perspective can make a character look small while doing nothing to reduce the number of things the person controlling him needs to consider.

Prepare the loadout before the room objects

The Techtrix lets you arrange upgrades and skills into a selected configuration. Bolts and Cores pay for progression, giving preparation a role alongside split-second execution. The launch FAQ also explains that purchased upgrades remain unlocked for the playthrough, without refund-style respec.

That makes spending worth considering. You can continue earning resources and opening options, but an earlier purchase cannot simply be undone because a new idea looks more attractive. Experimentation therefore has a different shape from freely rebuilding everything whenever a room becomes inconvenient.

There is value in considering the plan before committing, provided you enjoy that responsibility. Players who want every decision immediately reversible should note the limitation. A mechanical arm offers many possibilities, but apparently one of them is not returning an upgrade with the receipt.

Aiming assistance isn't a ceasefire

Stylish and Free Aim can be changed within the campaign. Stylish provides the strongest assistance, while Free Aim offers an aim-assist slider. That separates wanting tactical choices from wanting every aiming demand at its most exacting.

The publisher still describes an unforgiving shooter. Assistance reduces one requirement while leaving movement, timing and recognizing threats in place. Choosing a suitable setting can support learning without turning the rest of the room into well-behaved spectators.

Treat the option as a preference rather than a referendum on bravery. There is little value in insisting on an uncomfortable aiming setup and then discovering that your proudest achievement is having made every other decision harder to evaluate.

Finished can mean ready to improve

Rankings and stage challenges give a successful attempt a second life. A messy result can move the campaign forward, while chasing a better rank encourages reconsidering familiar material. The stage and combat description makes refinement part of the invitation.

Bosses bring distinct attack patterns to that learning. The worthwhile prospect is adapting a familiar set of tools to a different problem, not simply meeting a larger health bar with increased enthusiasm.

That structure has a clear preference divide. Repeating an encounter can be satisfying when you see a cleaner route through it. If novelty is your primary motivation, another attempt may feel like the game has mistaken your departure for unfinished business.

Let the city be loud without losing the information

Loptimist leads a soundtrack with guest contributors and hip-hop, electronic and cinematic influences. The official soundtrack announcement links the complete stream, a useful way to investigate its personality before committing.

Visual clarity matters too. September's public playtest examined readability improvements on a separate branch; those experiments aren't guaranteed stable-release features. Difficult action should challenge choices rather than hide the information needed to make them.

Kusan suits players who want focused combat, loadout decisions and a reason to chase cleaner results. Its tools and musical identity give it more than generic neon attitude. Come for Jin's mechanical arm, but stay only if learning to use the rest of him more deliberately sounds like the entertaining part.