Space Defender: Frontier Squadron

Details
- Release date: September 25, 2026
- Genre: Role-Playing, Action, Indie
- Developer: Petit Vaisseau
- Publisher: Petit Vaisseau
- Metacritic: tbd tbd
- Platforms: Steam
Current prices
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|
Steam
Digital
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$9.99
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Price history
| All time low | |
| $2.99 | (-70%) |
Description
The frontier is falling. Hold the line.
Twin-stick arcade combat, a squadron to lead, a front that moves without you and a story you play in flight. Made by a solo French developer.
A real story, in four acts
Fly for Admiral Voss and Ilse Marin, with ARIA at your side. Scripted dialogue and events, voiced in six languages, played over the radio in the middle of the fight. Escort the Armada and face a choice at the Threshold, then go on to Kepler, the abandoned mining world of Act IV: gravity wells that pull everything in, descents into dark shafts, the port of Ferrum and four heavy ships from its yards. Several endings wait at the end of the war, and one of them only opens to pilots who dealt with the pirate captains in a certain way.
Play together
Local co-op: a friend plugs in a second controller and flies a wingman at your side
Works on one machine, or over the internet with Steam Remote Play Together
You keep the command, they keep the guns
Hours of depth, not just a shooter
17 ships and over 60 pieces of equipment: lasers, railguns, flak, guided missiles, turrets, shields, generators
Manage your energy: every item you fit changes how your ship flies and fights
A research tree, plus mining, salvage, trade, refining and recycling
15 kinds of contracts with modifiers, and a signature mission in each galaxy
Four difficulty levels, a Veteran mode and 3 save slots
A directional dodge to slip past the attacks you see coming
Pirates and their captains
One den per galaxy, raids on stations, ambushed freighters, kidnapped pilots and bounties on named lieutenants
Four captains with their own story: Kessa Varn, Dorn Halvek, the Mask and Ilka Brann
Spare them, enlist them or shoot them down: your choices follow you to the end
Step inside the spaceports
Dock at Horizon, Hephaistos, Sekhmet or Ferrum and walk into the bar, Command and the shipyard. Talk to the locals, buy rumors, take small jobs and earn their trust. Every pilot you lose for good joins the memorial.
Expeditions to the planets
Scan a planet, then send your crew down: 12 illustrated expeditions where your pilots' traits set the odds. Rewards, wounds, archives from before the war... and losses that are for real.
Lead your squadron
Recruit pilots with 20 different traits that change how your ships fight
Up to three wingmen: order them to attack, cover you, hold or break, and they answer on the radio
Assign a crew to each ship and talk to every member: their bonuses fly with them
A downed wingman ejects: recover the rescue pod before it is lost
A front that moves
In Perseus and Orionis the Drones push back: stations come under threat, then under siege, then fall if nobody defends them. Take them back.
Enemies you can read
Snipers keep their distance, minelayers leave traps, carriers launch fighters, jammers scramble your missiles. Every attack is announced: read it and dodge.
Play your way
Full controller support, or mouse and keyboard
English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Simplified Chinese
Story and radio voiced in all six languages