The one Vampire Survivors rival that's got its near-perfect Steam score beat is "actively working" on a major new update

There are no shortage of games that have adopted the autobattling wave-survival format popularized by Vampire Survivors, and we've seen some real winners such as Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Megabonk in recent years. Yet among all the best roguelikes in this mold, only one has topped Poncle's nigh-unbeatable 98% Steam review average. Holocure - Save the Fans sits at an almost-perfect 99% across just shy of 40,000 user ratings, and with good reason. Whether you're familiar with the Hololive Vtuber agency that it's based on or are simply a fan of the genre, Holocure is definitely a must-try, and its developer says its next update will be a big one.

Lead developer Kay Yu's creation has transcended its origins as a simple fan project to earn a rightful reputation as a shining example of the auto-attacking horde-survival genre. Plus, it's a free Steam game, so there's really no reason not to try it. As they look towards 2026, the Holocure creator acknowledges that it's been "quite a while since the last update," and reassures players that the team at KayAnimate is "still very actively working on the next update, albeit slower than before."

"Update 0.8 is taking much longer than I planned," they write, explaining that "game development is only a personal hobby for me." They note their free time to invest in Holocure has been limited, saying: "Over the past three to four years of working on this game, my work obligations in my career as an animator in the anime industry have grown exponentially. That's both a good thing and bad, of course. Good for my overall career, but bad for anything else in my life that isn't work."

"This also applies to some of the other people on the team that regularly help out," Kay Yu continues. "The other programmers and other creatives have more things going on in their own lives too since we started this project, which is great for them of course." They note that in building the Holocure 0.8 update, "I brought on a significant number of new helpers for some big features," but add, "I really did not want to rush things. I want update 0.8 to be a memorable one, so I want to make sure we take our time and create something special - or at least we strive to."

As for what we can expect, Kay Yu reveals, "There is a bigger focus on making the main game experience better, as opposed to update 0.7 where there was a large focus on side content. Update 0.8 will bring a number of new mechanics, new types of content, and some other changes to the main game overall." You can also expect an achievement rework, and "a lot of balance updates" as well - although Kay Yu promises that "there are no plans of nerfing any character," so don't worry about your fave falling off.

"Lately I've been watching older streams or videos of people playing Holocure," Kay Yu writes. "It's both super reinvigorating to continue working on the game, and also very educational as it helps me find any pain points of the game where the experience could be better. So while we've taken a long time working on update 0.8, I thought we might as well take the time to finally address a bunch of pretty old issues that we've pushed off in the past. Again, I want update 0.8 to be an important one."

I'm more than willing to wait, especially given that the team at KayAnimate doesn't ask for any money for what is one of the most enjoyable games of its type on Steam. Kay Yu closes by saying they're aiming to balance their schedule better in 2026 to allow more time to work on Holocure. "I'm already backing out of a lot of projects I didn't really need to be involved with in the anime industry," they say. "There's so much I still want to do not just for Holocure, but my other game projects - and I absolutely plan to."