Heaven's Vault (NSW)

Deciphering a dead language on the bus might sound like homework, but Heaven's Vault makes it feel like treasure hunting. The Heaven's Vault Limited Edition for Nintendo Switch is a Strictly Limited Games exclusive, individually numbered and capped at 1,900 copies worldwide. It comes with a colorful game manual and the game on cartridge.

This is Inkle Studios at their most ambitious. They built a fictional hieroglyphic language of around 3,000 words, then designed a narrative adventure where translating it drives the entire story. Playing as archaeologist Aliya Elasra in the Nebula, a strange network of space-connected moons, we explore ancient ruins, interact with a memorable cast of characters, and piece together a forgotten history one inscription at a time. The branching narrative tracks every single decision, creating genuinely different experiences across multiple playthroughs.

The blend of hand-drawn 2D art and 3D environments gives the game an immediately recognizable visual identity. Sailing the Nightingale through space rivers, wandering desert moons and ruined palaces, it all looks like a graphic novel come to life. Each run takes 18 to 20 hours, and the translation puzzles actually expand with subsequent playthroughs, uncovering new secrets.

On Switch, portability turns the game into a perfect travel companion. This is the sort of experience that rewards long, uninterrupted sessions, and having it available on a handheld console feels ideal. With 1,900 copies for a game that earned praise from Game Informer, Wired, and USGamer, the limited edition gives us a clean physical copy of something genuinely unique in the medium.