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Indie Roundup: The Sequel Season Comes Good

This month we revisit two of the most anticipated indie sequels ever made, and ask what their long roads did to the games — plus three November arrivals worth your attention.

Indie sequels used to be rare — small teams moved on, or burned out. The last couple of years changed that, and this month we have been replaying two of the most anticipated follow-ups in the scene's history to ask a simple question: was the wait worth it?

Hollow Knight: Silksong — the wait became the legend

Few games have been “about to release” for as long as Silksong was. When Team Cherry finally launched it in September 2025, storefronts buckled under the demand — a remarkable sight for a three-person studio from Adelaide. A year on, the dust has settled and the verdict is kind: Hornet's adventure is bigger, faster and crueller than the original, and its world rewards the patience it demanded from fans. If you bounced off its difficulty spikes at launch, the post-release patches have sanded the worst of them down. It is safe to go back in.

Hades II — early access done right, again

Supergiant repeated their early-access playbook with Hades II, and the full release showed why the model works in the right hands: a game that was already excellent in 2024 arrived at 1.0 with its story complete, its systems deepened and its community's feedback visibly baked in. Melinoë's war against Chronos is a different rhythm from Zagreus's escapes — more deliberate, more magical — and the sequel earns its independence rather than trading on the original's charm.

The pattern worth watching

Both studios share a trait the wider industry keeps relearning: they shipped when it was ready, communicated rarely but honestly, and treated early access as a collaboration instead of a pre-order with extra steps. Small teams cannot outspend the giants. These two showed, again, that they can out-wait and out-craft them.

November's new arrivals

The month is not all sequels. Loftia enters Early Access on 3 November 2026 on Steam and the Epic Games Store, a cosy multiplayer life sim that has been quietly building a following. On 5 November, two very different games land on the same day: CRYMELIGHT, which arrived with a Metacritic score of 69 at listing time, and Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School, the co-op puzzle sequel, at 73. Scores at launch are a snapshot, not a verdict — but as a first signal, the escape rooms are the safer bet this week.

What to play first

Why November matters for indies

November is a hard month to be a small game. The calendar is dominated by blockbusters, the storefronts are crowded, and a release can vanish in a week. That is why the month's indie arrivals are worth a deliberate look: Loftia, CRYMELIGHT and Escape Academy 2 are all releasing into the shadow of the year's biggest launch, and each of them is betting that players will make room. In our view, that bet is getting easier to win — players are more willing than ever to split their time between one giant game and several small ones, and the small ones are often the ones they remember.

It is also a month that shows how the indie scene has changed. A decade ago, an indie sequel was a rarity and a risk. Now the scene's biggest stories are second chapters — Silksong, Hades II — made by teams that grew up in public and learned to take their time. The long wait, once a sign of trouble, has become a mark of craft.

The long tail of a sequel

There is one more thing worth saying about Silksong and Hades II, a year and more on from their launches: they are still being played, still being discussed, and still being recommended to new players. That long tail is the real measure of a sequel. Launch-week sales are a headline; a game that people are still discovering a year later is a legacy. Both of these games have one. The November arrivals have a long way to go to earn the same — but the month is young, and the escape rooms are waiting.

If you own one of the two sequels and have not finished it, that is your November. Silksong if you want a game to fight you; Hades II if you want one to seduce you. If you have finished both, Escape Academy 2 is the best evening out of the new arrivals — bring a friend, argue about the puzzles, and enjoy being wrong together.

Sources

• Metacritic — November 2026

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