Indika review for Nintendo Switch

System: Switch
Release date: November 17, 2025
Developer: Odd Meter
Publisher: 11 Bit Studios

Indika on Nintendo Switch is an interesting title. It’s one of those rare games that I can only say feels like the moment you go to open the door of a cleaning closet, not sure what you’ll find – like it’s your first day on a new job. Developed by Odd Meter, this short, narrative-focused adventure blends dark humor, surrealism, and religious introspection into a package that constantly shifts between the sacred and the absurd. On Nintendo Switch, that experience becomes rather intimate, and sometimes uncomfortably so, as you guide a young nun through a world that is half bleak fairy tale and half spiritual fever dream.

The story’s narrative follows the journey of a socially awkward nun who hears the voice of the devil. And not metaphorically, but as a literal, smirking conversational partner. A real, actual guy you can interact with. Indika seeks to rid herself of the devil haunting her mind, so when she’s forced to leave the cloister and travel across a cold, indifferent Russia, her internal conflict becomes externalized in a way that’s both heartbreaking and still strangely funny. The narrative is dense with metaphors, but it doesn’t overwhelm the mind at all – instead, it plays like a spiritual road trip where the destination is less important than the uncomfortable truths uncovered along the way. As in life, the journey is the most important part.

The story’s greatest strength is how brutally honest it is about faith, isolation, and the consequences of believing yourself fundamentally unworthy. Indika is not portrayed as a saintly archetype but as a painfully human young woman trying to reconcile her desire for goodness with a world eager to twist that goodness into shame. The surreal vignettes she experiences – some humorous, some deeply disturbing—highlight the tension between doctrine and selfhood. It’s a short game, but it leaves emotional marks like a much heavier narrative.

Gameplay in Indika blends light puzzle-solving, environmental storytelling, and choice-driven interactions, but it intentionally avoids deep mechanics. Instead, it creates a constant rhythm of walking, observing, and participating in strange, symbolic sequences that mirror Indika’s mental and spiritual turmoil. The gameplay feels almost theatrical: you’re not meant to master systems so much as inhabit her perspective. On Nintendo Switch, the controls hold up well – simple, responsive, and designed to keep your focus squarely on the emotional beats rather than mechanical complexity. As a smaller game, performance didn’t seem to be impacted at all, but I will note that I played the entirety of this six-hour or so story in handheld mode.

The game does flop between 3D modern graphics and an 8-bit style pixel presentation that it uses for flashback sequences. I found this shift to be pretty artfully done, and the overall tone and feel of the game are lifted because of it. 

What ultimately makes Indika stand out is how boldly it leans into religious imagery without slipping into cheap provocation or preachiness. Its tone is irreverent but never unserious, deeply spiritual but suspicious of institutions, funny in the exact way that bleak situations sometimes are. For a game as short as it is, Indika hits with startling impact; it leaves you thinking long after the credits roll, not because it demands interpretation, but because it sits with ideas that most games are too afraid to touch.

The religious theming: guilt, sin, redemption, self-acceptance? All of this lands with unexpected tenderness. Even when the game dips into the surreal or grotesque, there’s an underlying and deep compassion in how it treats Indika’s struggle. It’s not interested in mocking faith, but in interrogating the systems that warp it. And on Switch, with the small screen drawing you close, that experience becomes even more self aware. Indika may be brief, but it’s the kind of title that lingers long after you finish it, like a whispered question you can’t quite shake.

Indika is racked with hard questions and tough themes, following a woman battling mental illness and trying her best to cling to her faith. The ending left me reeling – feeling the battle of my own inner demons taking its toll. As much as games can be a place to unwind and relax Indika is an art piece designed to engage and make one think.

Indika copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.