After 2 years of legal drama, this indie RPG is back on sale and even has a new Pokemon-like sequel on the way

Screenshot from The Outbound Ghost: Reborn, showing two ghosts made out of paper floating through a grassy field.
(Image credit: Conradical Games)

The Outbound Ghost, a turn-based RPG riffing on Paper Mario, has been haunted by a strange legal drama that left it delisted for almost two whole years. That curse has now been lifted, its legal troubles sorted, and there's even an all-new sequel on the way.

The Outbound Ghost's removal from Steam and the Nintendo Switch eShop was so odd because its own indie developer Conradical Games is the party that issued a copyright strike. The developer's beef was against the game's publisher, Digerati, however. At the time, Conradical Games claimed that it had not "received a single dollar in royalties from the publisher," which was also allegedly "underreporting revenues" and refusing to fix unresolved issues in the console port - claims that Digerati refuted. The whole debacle left The Outbound Ghost in limbo, until now, that is.

"The lawsuit is over," Conradical Games announced on social media. "The Outbound Ghost is back!" Alongside the original game's return to Steam and Switch - plus "new platforms coming soon" - the developer revealed that a sequel has quietly been in development, too.

The Outbound Ghost: Reborn runs with the first game's lovely paper art style and turn-based, timing-oriented combat, but also adds a Pokemon-ish twist to the formula "where the monsters you use are ghostly figments of your imagination." Best of all, the sequel will be "100% free for all Kickstarter backers and Steam players." And if you've been a fan of the cutesy 'n' spooky world, there's a "new game in the same universe called Soul Stalker" that's in Steam early access now, and is coming to all consoles on October 24.

 Want more? Check out some other cool upcoming indie games on the horizon. 

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.