Milestone Inc.'s Sega Naomi-powered vertical shoot 'em up, Karous, is getting a rerelease on Steam next year, courtesy of the developer and publisher RS34. It will be released on January 22nd, 2026, and will reportedly include a full English localization.
Karous was originally released for arcades back in 2006, and also holds the distinction of being the very last officially released game for the Sega Dreamcast, being ported to the console in 2007, right as production of Sega and Yamaha's GD-ROM technology came to an end.
It was later released on the Nintendo Wii in 2008 as part of the MileStone Shooting Collection: Karous Wii / Ultimate Shooting Collection, which was a compilation that also featured two other MileStone titles: Radirgy and Chaos Field, and also appeared in the Japan-exclusive MileStone Shooting Collection 2 (Nintendo Wii) in 2010, as well as the Sakura Flamingo Archives in 2014 (Xbox 360).
Last year, RS34 launched a crowdfunding campaign, called THE CLEAN ROOMS PROJECT on campfire.jp, to relaunch the game across PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Steam, with the promise of also putting together an official sequel, called Karous 2: The Diffused Sanguis.
The PS4, PS5, and Switch versions were released earlier this year in Japan, on November 27th, but were exclusive to those based in Japan. This makes the Steam release the only official way to get your hands on the new game, short of importing/downloading the Japanese releases.
In the past, Karous's gameplay has often been compared to Radirgy, with both games featuring a similar weapon system that sees the player's ship equipped with a sword, shot, and shield.
The major difference here, though, is that Karous features an experience system that allows you to level up their weapons, as well as a bomb system that can be utilized when the SP gauge is full.
You can wishlist the game here.