Pull Stay (v1.0)

A cramped home becomes the front line in this offbeat action brawler about protecting an isolated shut-in from a parade of intrusive visitors. Pull Stay balances slapstick violence with an unusually personal premise: Susumu stays locked in his room while strangers, gawkers, and would-be helpers force their way toward him. The mood is deliberately ridiculous, full of household chaos and absurd weapons, yet its portrayal of social withdrawal gives the defense of the house a more uneasy edge than a standard arcade beat ’em up. Every invasion feels like a messy siege fought with fists, furniture, and whatever bizarre contraption happens to be available.

Combat revolves around physically repelling enemies before they reach Susumu’s room, with different enemy types teaching new attacks when handled in the right way. Rather than relying solely on a fixed move list, players expand their brawling options by experimenting with how they smack, throw, and counter each threat. Raiding and wrecking neighboring homes supplies materials for new rooms and defensive setups, while unlockable gadgets include intentionally silly tools such as fish-launching missiles, toothpaste turrets, and watermelon artillery. Susumu can also craft temporary power-up items, although his tendency to slack off means players sometimes have to keep him focused through comic “discipline.”

Its strongest hook is the combination of beat ’em-up immediacy and home-defense planning. Trap placement, resource gathering, room construction, and enemy-specific move learning add a scrappy layer of strategy to the button-mashing, while eccentric bosses demand more than simply clearing a crowd. The hand-drawn, exaggerated humor keeps the game approachable even when the underlying subject matter becomes uncomfortable, and the solo-developer perspective gives its odd premise genuine specificity. Players who enjoy the chaotic DIY defenses of tower-defense games but want direct arcade combat should find plenty to like, especially if they appreciate strange Japanese indie humor and experimentation over polished genre convention.