Time-loop mystery Curse of Resthaven hits Nintendo Switch

Hilltop Studios and publisher Digital Bandidos launched their gothic mystery roguelite Curse of Resthaven on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 today for $19.99. The portable release arrives two weeks after the game's October 29 debut on PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, following its initial reveal during Indie Fan Fest in February.

Hilltop called the game a "spooky, timey-wimey puzzle box" on social media, and the description isn't an exaggeration. You play as Ambrose, the newly appointed governor of a decaying 18th-century island colony who only took the job to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Amalia. Local bureaucracy turns out to be the least of his worries. Six days after Ambrose steps off the boat, ancient forces rise from the ocean and wipe the settlement off the map, sending him right back to his arrival day with his memories intact.

Six days to interrogate the neighbors

Surviving that repeating week requires juggling a surprising pile of genres at once. During the day, the game plays out through 2D hand-drawn exploration, merchant trading, town upgrades, and dialogue interrogations across a cast of more than 25 fully voiced residents. Step outside the town walls and it turns into a survival deckbuilder, where you assemble resource and companion cards to push through monsters in the island's wilderness.

When the inevitable cataclysm hits on day six, the island's fading goddess resets the clock and hands out Boon Cards that carry permanent advantages and drawbacks into the next run. Reaching the fourth, true ending requires clearing three initial endings first, with a New Game+ mode built in to speed up repeat loops so you aren't stuck re-reading the same merchant small talk forever. Mixing colony management, detective work, and card battles sounds like a recipe for a bloated mess on paper, yet it's sitting at a 98% positive rating across its early user reviews on Steam. What I can't tell without holding it is how readable all that card text and town-ledger UI stays on a standard handheld screen, though small-font fatigue is practically a rite of passage for portable strategy hybrids.

From castle gatekeeping to cosmic dread

If the heavy focus on voice acting and character timing feels deliberate, that comes directly from the five-person Toronto team's background. Game director Scott Christian spent roughly 15 years working as a theatre composer and conductor before founding Hilltop Studios in 2021 alongside writer Matt Bernard.

Their 2024 debut, Lil' Guardsman, put a 12-year-old in charge of a fantasy castle gate in a comedic deduction game inspired by Papers, Please. Pivoting straight from slapstick fantasy into eldritch horror is a sharp left turn, even if interrogating suspicious weirdos remains the studio's bread and butter.

In a press statement today, Christian noted that the team tested Curse of Resthaven on Steam Deck from its earliest builds to make sure the pacing worked on a portable screen. Loop-based mysteries with heavy reading tend to fit handheld play better than television sessions anyway, since knocking out a single doomed six-day cycle before bed is much easier when you don't have to monopolize a living room TV. PlayStation 4 was also part of the studio's earlier console plans, though today's launch only covers Nintendo's hardware alongside the existing PC, PS5, and Xbox versions.