GetsuFumaDen Is Back, Somehow

Nintendo presented a slew of indie games during today’s Indie World Showcase, the kinds of presentations that have increased in frequency since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. That’s no surprise. Indie game developments haven’t seen the interruptions that AAA game developments have in a little over the last year, with indie developers previously being adjusted to the social distancing format and having smaller teams to maintain. Switch ports for a bunch of games were announced, like FEZ, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and The House of the Dead: Remake (relegated to an end montage, at that), while others like Aztech: Forgotten Gods and Oxenfree II were revealed.

One title in particular was among the more interesting revealed: GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon. It stood out for a couple of reasons.

For one: What the hell was it doing here at all? This is a new roguelite action platformer title from Konami, a company that doesn’t come close to qualifying as an indie developer. They’ve downgraded their game development sector into near irrelevance following Hideo Kojima’s departure and the closure of the original Kojima Productions in 2015, but they still don’t count as indie. It’s possible this game is being developed by a smaller outside studio like other Konami efforts in the last few years; but even if that’s the case, the indie glove still doesn’t fit with one of Japan’s biggest corporations providing funding. Nintendo apparently included it because, hey, it looks the part.

I’m aware this isn’t the first or second time a title like this has been revealed in an Indie World Showcase. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes appeared on a previous presentation, but that game took inspiration and featured small nods to several indie games like Hotline Miami and Hyper Light Drifter. There was also Cadence of Hyrule, game handled by an indie developer but published by Nintendo. It’s clear they’re willing to bend this rule occasionally.

The second interesting point is how this is seriously a new GetsuFumaDen game after decades. The original title released for the Famicom in Japan in 1987, and never received an official localization outside the country. The only westerners who familiarized themselves with the game were those who followed Japan-only titles, and others exposed to the features and references in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. Now, everyone around the world will have a chance to experience the series through a new title.

There’s a notable genre adjustment with Undying Moon. The original GetsuFumaDen was a side-scrolling action adventure with a protagonist that traveled from one level to another through an overworld. It combined elements from older Castlevania games with the original ungodly difficult Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game on NES, both also developed by Konami. This newest game, however, will include roguelite elements. The map layouts will be rearranged for multiple playthroughs and level requirements upgraded to maintain a challenge as the player dies and is revived a number of times. Since it’s a roguelite, it will have permanent upgrades to make progression easier for subsequent adventures.

The current details and first trailer show its other features. It has a semi-unique ukiyo-e-inspired visual style that channels classic Japanese paintings, fitting its classic Japanese demon-fighting samurai adventure theme. There will also be unlockable and customizable weapons, but it’s unlikely that your samurai will be allowed to keep all of them for subsequent playthroughs.

The action itself looks like it will flow well enough from the look in the trailer, so it’s already providing a better first impression than other recent and unfortunate Konami efforts like Contra: Rogue Corps and Metal Gear Survive. The cel-shading style is a good one to have for a lower-budget game, with the ability to hide any graphical blemishes that could otherwise be exposed with a “normal” polygonal art style.

There’s no way to tell whether the action feels good enough from the trailer, or if it comes off as sluggish and unpolished. The actual developer has also not been revealed (I have no idea who the “Guru Guru” is listed on the Steam page), but Konami has a recent history of pinching their pennies for internally-developed and outsourced gaming projects despite the company overall being in fine shape. There’s also the concern of whether the roguelite elements will segue well with the action and other game design elements, and not feel like the features were added to capitalize on the popularity of other recent roguelites like Dead Cells and Hades.

There’s no need for anything close to panic yet. Before its full release in 2022, it will first arrive through Steam Early Access on May 13th. We’ll know how it feels very soon. If there are issues, the developers should be able to adjust them through player feedback.

I’d heard of GetsuFumaDen before this, but outside Harmony of Despair, that was thanks to PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya (of Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101) alluding to how he’d like to handle a revival last year. My hope was that this would be how the franchise would return, unlikely as that always was. But there’s a good possibility that Undying Moon could turn out well on its own, and I won’t hold what could have been against it.