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In the seedy underbelly of Kowloon, a spirit stirs to consciousness before it jumps into and possess the body of a stray dog. It travels through the narrow backstreets, eventually upgrading to a human body, yet still lost on its name and purpose. A woman calls out to him, but in a gruesome display, her head splits open to reveal the monstrous, parasitic creature that had devoured the brains of its original host. This time, it's got its sight set on you. Thus opens up Slitterhead, the debut title from Bokeh Game Studio, which had been founded by the creatives behind Siren, Silent Hill, and Gravity Rush.

Similar to Siren, the Slitterhead plot can be inscrutable at times. It follows Night Owl, a Hyoki that is an otherworldly spirit that can possess sentient beings. Though Night Owl doesn't all the details about his past, he does know that he has to eliminate the Slitterheads wandering around Kowloon. Like Night Owl, Slitterheads can possess people and take over their bodies. However, their method of doing so is to literally consume their brains and essentially wear their bodies as a shell. In Night Owl's pursuit of the Slitterheads, he encounters a dying girl named Julee. After possessing her, he not only restores her back to full health, but they're incredibly in sync.

Julee is a Rarity, or a human who boasts high affinity with Hyoki. She's not the only one. As Night Owl and Julee continue their mission to slaughter all of the Slitterheads within Kowloon, they encounter and save other individuals with the potential to host Night Owl. As they work together to rid Kowloon of the Slitterheads plaguing the streets and terrorizing the populace, Night Owl discovers the ability to turn back time and restructure the timeline. With this power, as well as the help of the Rarities, they fight to save Kowloon from its doomed future.

In of genre, Slitterhead wears a lot of hats. It's predominantly an action-RPG, though it does feature stealth elements as well. You technically control Night Owl, the Hyoki that can teleport itself between bodies. So for stealth portions, you’re able to travel from body to body to avoid detection as you sneak around facilities. Because there are some limitations in how far the Hyoki can leave a body, as well as it needing open access to one, it’s not as easy as it sounds. These stealth missions were quite fun since they were a deviation from the norm, but there weren’t that many in the game. You can use Sightjack when it comes to hunting down a Slitterhead hiding in a crowd, but the Siren fangirl in me wished that Sightjack had a place in these stealth sequences as well.

This body-hopping mechanic can make battle very fun, which is great because that’s the majority of the game. You can switch bodies while your first one is in the middle of a combo to keep up the pressure or if you need to target another enemy. Barring fights where you want to stay in your Rarity or you don’t have any other random people milling about, you can also use this mechanic to get out from corners when enemies trap you there. The combat is fast-paced, but it remains challenging with the number of enemies the game can throw at you.

Chase sequences are the final type of gameplay in Slitterhead. Frankly, it didn't take long for these to become tedious. While it’s fairly easy to catch up to the Slitterhead you’re pursuing using the body-hopping mechanic, they feel like they go on for a very long time. Usually, they’re scripted to end after the Slitterhead reaches a destination or you whittle down their HP enough. But it gets rather dull after the first time and unfortunately, the game throws these at you quite often. Aside from using the body-hopping mechanic to possess an NPC in the direction the Slitterhead is running towards so that you can cut them off and get in some hits, you can also use blood to parkour after it.

While the main meat of the game is the combat, it felt lacking in some ways. Everyone feels good to use, and it takes a bit of practice to rein yourself in when doing combos. It can be hard to block or dodge on the fly while you’re in the middle of an animation. All of the characters have their pros and cons. For example, Betty boasts amazing strength, but her inability to move unless you’re possessing her means she can’t help civilians if they’re dying. Meanwhile, Edo can revive civilians and he’s a powerhouse of a character, but he has a short reach and lacks ranged options. Choosing who you bring depends on personal preference until the latter stages, where you really want to have Julee with you.

But the main issue with the game is its repetitive nature. I already mentioned that the chase sequences are, but the combat can be, too. There aren't a lot of variations in combos or enemy types. While there are different Slitterhead forms, the optimal strategy really stays the same, no matter who you’re using. Most of the game is parrying attacks and then getting your licks in. You may need to jump to a new body or stop and heal if you’re HP is low, and then you repeat the above procedure. That’s it. Even if you use long-ranged characters like Doni, you’ll have to do the usual parry-attack-dodge dance because of how quickly Slitterheads can close the distance and the long cooldown time of active skills.

Differences between Slitterheads are pretty minor. Mantis Slitterheads are faster and more difficult to parry, for example. Later bosses have moves you can’t parry and must dodge. They can down civilians too, so you might scramble a bit getting everyone up. But as a whole, what you have to do remains the same no matter who you're facing. So it can start to get monotonous. Yes, the game does throw you new challenges like needing to keep a certain amount of people alive per stage, but it’s not hard to work around this limitation by either luring enemies away from the injured or with Julee. The game takes about twenty hours to complete if you take the time to look for collectibles or need to restart levels. So a little bit of variety to the enemies would’ve been nice.

Slitterhead was a bit of a mixed bag for me. After rewatching the gameplay trailer, I can say that what you see there is really accurate to what you’re doing in the game proper. I also understand that Bokeh Game Studio encountered problems during development thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. When it came to this game in particular, I was more intrigued to see the story than the gameplay. After Silent Hill, Gravity Rush, and, yes, Siren, I had pretty high expectations for what kind of narrative Slitterhead would have. The story starts to become generic around the halfway point, and the ending felt like another fake-out. It almost feels incomplete, though I do it that I'm still missing a few Hyoki Memories that might be key to fully comprehending it.

As someone who relies a lot of visuals to a story, I struggled at times to retain the finer details of Slitterhead. I understand the broad strokes of it and could give someone a synopsis of what it's about. However, I definitely need to sit and either sift through my collectibles or hunt more down to fully grasp stuff about characters like Night Owl and Yin Yue. The amount of text-only conversations would be fine on their own, but Slitterhead’s time loop mechanic, as well as symbols to denote the alien language the Slitterheads and Night Owl use, became a little hard to follow. I do wonder if Bokeh Game Studio wanted a more visual archive like what was in Siren, but constraints during development prevented them from doing so.

If there’s one thing I love about Slitterhead with no ifs or buts, it’s Betty. Oh my goodness, do I love her. There’s something about this put-together British lady who looks like Queen Elizabeth II, except she’s also a tattooed berserker who laughs maniacally as she swings her bloody cane around. She is my queen. Other characters really can’t compare. She especially stands out when next to Blake, who’s the other Caucasian Rarity you can play as. Blake is a clown of a man, literally, and plays like a worse version of Alex. Doni, too, is a delight and I enjoyed both teasing him and spamming his Fatal Lance active skill. The characters are all fun, and I loved the very few times we got to see them interact with each other without Night Owl acting as some sort of proxy.

The thing about Slitterhead is that the main conceit of the possession mechanic is innovative. However, the story and one-note nature bog it down. Siren had a similar method of storytelling, in that it presented a comprehensible plot yet left enough things ambiguous that to this day, fans still discuss and debate on the finer details. The problem with Slitterhead, in my opinion, is that the story isn't so gripping that it would have that kind of impact on the playerbase. I do really enjoy how the game feels and I’m still excited for future projects from Bokeh Game Studio though. This was a really cool debut from the studio. Despite its cult classic status and ionate fanbase, Siren got pretty middling reviews from critics at launch, so time will tell if Slitterhead is exonerated in the same way. 

Slitterhead will come out on November 8, 2024 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC.

The post Review: Slitterhead Feels Innovative, but Rough appeared first on Siliconera.

Bokeh Game Studio has released a new trailer for Slitterhead, its horror action game. This time, the trailer gives more information on what the story will be like.

You can watch the Slitterhead trailer here:

The story seems to be set in Hong Kong, or a similar location. Enemies are monstrous parasitic monsters that attach themselves onto people. We can also see some of the key characters who have appeared in previous trailers. This includes a character with white hair, a character wearing a hood, and a character with a helmet. They may be the same character, considering part of the mechanic of Sliterrhead revolves around entering other people’s bodies and controlling them.

Slitterhead is the first game from Bokeh Game Studio, and it will be an action-adventure game with horror elements. Though it’s Bokeh Game Studio’s first, the executives and founders of Bokeh Game Studio aren’t new to the craft. Keiichiro Toyama, Junya Okura, and Kazunobu Sato worked together on the Siren series, Silent Hill series, and Gravity Rush series. According to interviews from them, they stated that they used seinen manga like Tokyo Ghoul as inspiration for the game.

Slitterhead is in development for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC. It’ll come out on November 8, 2024.

The post Slitterhead Story Trailer Shows Action in Gritty Streets appeared first on Siliconera.

The Bokeh Game Studio developers revealed they drew inspiration from seinen manga like Tokyo Ghoul when working on Slitterhead. This information comes from an interview with Game Watch. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

The three Bokeh Game Studio who participated in the interview are Keiichiro Toyama (CEO and founder), Akira Yamaoka (composer, sound director, and game designer), and Tatsuya Yoshikawa (character designer). During the interview, they reveal that they used seinen manga to try and bridge the gap between horror fans and players who avoid a game because of its horror elements. Some seinen manga series show the characters facing off against a powerful foe, which has the same entertainment value as an action series. However, seinen manga also tend not to shy away from killing off its characters, which raises the tensions and stakes.

Toyama noted that shonen manga is more popular in foreign countries, so a seinen-inspired work may feel novel. Like our coverage of the SGF 2024 trailer, the Game Watch interviewer noted that the character designs feel like they’re from Parasyte. Toyama acknowledges that Parasyte was an inspiration, but Slitterhead actually takes more cues from Tokyo Ghoul. To be more specific, he drew reference from the uncertainty of when characters would die—calling it a “thrilling” survival horror experience—and the charm of battles in which the characters use superpowers.

Slitterhead will come out on November 8, 2024 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC.

The post Slitterhead Inspired by Seinen Manga appeared first on Siliconera.

During the Summer Game Fest in 2024, we saw a new trailer for Slitterhead, showing off the gameplay and release date. It will be an action-focused horror game.

The trailer shows off a few influences from Bokeh Studio founder’s previous horror games like Silent Hill and Siren. You’ll be able to jump from body to body, with a little glow on the character you jump to that looks similar to the glow from Siren when you sightjack someone. Dogs are also something you can control and jump into. The focus on action draws inspiration from Gravity Rush, which is another game Toyama worked on.

You can watch the Summer Game Fest trailer for Slitterhead here:

Slitterhead will also have you face off against enemies with strange weapons fused to your body, which resemble the weapons from Parasyte. We can see how you can parry attacks and reattach limbs even when enemies cut them off. It’s unclear what the story is. However, it seems like you’ll be investigating a case of some kind while jumping from body to body.

Slitterhead will come out on the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC, and its release date is November 8, 2024.

The post Slitterhead Gameplay and Release Date Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka sat down with Keiichiro Toyama at Bokeh Game Studios to talk about his development process. The interview was recorded as part of Bokeh’s regular "Golden Hour" series, where Toyama talks with developers across the industry. During their chat, Kodaka discussed his inspirations, his experience working with voice actors and the challenges of setting up his own company.

When discussing the inspirations behind the Danganronpa series, Kodaka talked about how he was heavily inspired by the manga Dragon Head and The Drifting Classroom. He also cited the original Battle Royale novel as a major inspiration too. He talked about how he meticulously plans out his storylines and likes to hear when players get so hooked on his stories that they play in one sitting.

The interview also touched on the development of Kodaka’s latest title, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. He explained that the process of recording voice actors for the new game was different from doing the same for Danganronpa. He talked about how there were a lot of retakes, due to frequent changes to the script over the game’s six-year development.

Kodaka also discussed the challenges of setting up Too Kyo Games, the development studio he founded with fellow Danganronpa team Rui Komatsuzaki and Masafumi Takada, along with Zero Escape director Kotaro Uchikoshi. He also joked about working with Uchikoshi, who he claims sleeps all day and works through the night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nzd6ZESIkE

This talk is the latest in Bokeh Game Studio’s "Golden Hour" collection. In each one, founder Keiichiro Toyama talks with developers such as Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami or the directors of Nioh and Fatal Frame.

Kodaka's latest project, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, is available now for the Nintendo Switch.

The post Danganronpa Creator Kazutaka Kodaka Appears in Bokeh Interview appeared first on Siliconera.

Bokeh Game Studios released the latest episode of its "Golden Hour" show. In this series, Founder Keiichiro Toyama talks with other Japanese developers about the development of their games. In the latest episode, the guests are Makoto Shibata and Fumihiko Yasuda of Koei Tecmo, developers behind Fatal Frame and Nioh. Their interview revealed some insights into the development of both series.

One of the more interesting anecdotes from the developer interview is a reveal that, for less than a year, Makoto Shibata was the director of Nioh. Development of Nioh was a ten-year project that was struggling to gain traction, and for a brief time, Shibata was brought on board before being replaced by Fumihiko Yasuda.

Shibata’s vision for Nioh was vastly different from the final game. He had a slower pace in mind, inspired by Japanese period dramas, and not far from the slow pace of the Fatal Frame series. However, when Yasuda was brought into the director role, he spent four years turning it into the faster Soulslike the final game turned out to be.

Elsewhere in the interview, Shibata and Toyama compared their approaches to horror in Fatal Frame and Siren respectively. The three developers also talked about how games set in Japan can have an international appeal.

Here’s the full interview with Shibata and Yasuda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVt_YW6t08s

Makoto Shibata is the creator of the Fatal Frame series of games, while Fumihiko Yasuda is the director of the Nioh games. Keiichiro Toyama was director on the original Silent Hill before moving to Sony where he created the Siren and Gravity Rush games. Previously, Bokeh Game Studios’ Golden Hour has featured chats with Shuhei Yoshida, Hideaki Itsuno and Shinji Mikami.

Bokeh Game Studio are currently working on their first game, Slitterhead.

The post Nioh and Fatal Frame Developers Appear in Bokeh Interview appeared first on Siliconera.

Bokeh Game Studios kicked off a new video series. In each installment, Founder Keiichiro Toyama will talk with a guest. In the first entry, Resident Evil Creator and Director Shinji Mikami appeared to discuss the game, how the earlier Capcom game Sweet Home influenced it, and zombies.

After talking about their pasts, Mikami began talking about Resident Evil zombies. He discussed the challenge and means of making them intimidating and scary, as well as providing ambiance. For example, he mentioned how they can suddenly rush up and attack. He also discussed the limited resources in the original. For example, he referenced the limited amount of ammunition.

From there, Mikami talked about how Sweet Home, a Famicom horror game from Capcom and fellow Resident Evil creator Tokuro Fujiwara, helped shape the Resident Evil series as a whole. He explained how the way it handled resources carried over. In Sweet Home, players’ five characters each have one item and can pick up and use others along the way. To escape the mansion and its ghost, you have to use each of the items they arrived with and ones found in the house.

Here’s everything Mikami had to say about his feelings for Sweet Home and its effect on Resident Evil.

That’s right, I really loved Sweet Home. One of the first creators I had worked with at Capcom was Sweet Home’s Director He was very talented and had this sensitivity to him. I could tell even if I was still a rookie. He would answer my questions.

Then, I [Tokuro] Fujiwara calling me for a meeting a few years later. He told me how Sweet Home’s system was good, but that the game didn’t perform well. We wanted to try again to push that game system onto a horror game. I truly enjoyed Sweet Home, so I completely agreed with him. I was honored I could work on that.

…It was a system that wouldn’t make you think of the human. In that system, the various items you held allowed you to progress in the game. It assigned each item to a specific character. A lighter would go to one character, another could have a vacuum, and so on. So you needed your friends, who had your items, in order to clear the game so you had to take good care of them. The point was how to survive in an environment with limitations.

In the end, that’s probably the main thing I took. The player has to make a series of choices with limited resources in order to survive. I kept that, then I made something completely different.

Here’s the first Bokeh Game Studio Golden Hour episode.

Bokeh Game Studio is currently working on Slitterhead.

The post Shinji Mikami Explained How Sweet Home Influenced Resident Evil appeared first on Siliconera.

Keiichiro Toyama revealed that Gravity Rush influenced the combat in Slitterhead. The subject came up during a Q&A session with the founders of Bokeh Game Studio. Additionally, the three studio founders talked about the game's ongoing development and future plans. Notably, Kazunobu Sato confirmed that the game will get a physical release as well as a collector's edition.

"This game is, in a way, a compilation of all of my past experiences," Toyama said in a response to a question asking whether there were any aspects from Gravity Rush that inspired Slitterhead. Specifically, the development team used knowledge gained from Gravity Rush's height-based action sequences to design the combat in Slitterhead.

Game Director Junya Okura said that the game will prioritize entertainment over horror. While the game will focus on action elements, Okura also revealed that there will be slower-paced areas that will have stronger horror elements. Toyama added that, rather than relying on the difficulty to instill fear into players, he wants to create it through the internal conflict of "whether one should or shouldn't do an action."

A few of the questions revolved around the future of the studio, and whether Slitterhead would become a series. The creators also commented on the differences between working for a big publisher and going indie. The interview also discusses the inspiration of the game's enemies and location.

You can watch the full Q&A session in the video below.

https://youtu.be/K4-xz2KEdKA

Slitterhead is in development. There is no confirmed release date or platform.

The post Slitterhead Combat is Action-Focused, Influenced by Gravity Rush appeared first on Siliconera.

Silent Hill and Siren creator Keiichiro Toyama announced Bokeh Game Studio's first game will be the horror title Slitterhead. The first trailer for it appeared during The Game Awards 2021. It also revealed that Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka will appear to do its music.

A few of the monsters in Slitterhead appeared during the trailer, and people could hear Akira Yamaoka compositions while they played. During the game, ordinary people will reveal themselves to be monsters. Their faces will split open to reveal their true nature. They can also have segmented bodies.

Another horror game veteran is a part of the game's development team. Siren Character Designer Mika Takahashi is working on its designs.

A message from our Creator/CEO, Keiichiro Toyama.#野狗子 #Yakushi #Slitterhead pic.twitter.com/78JAr4fdps

— Bokeh Game Studio (@BokehGameStudio) December 10, 2021

Slitterhead is in development. There is no release window for it yet. Bokeh Game Studio also didn't mention platforms for it.

The post Bokeh Game Studio’s Slitterhead Features Akira Yamaoka Music appeared first on Siliconera.

Bokeh Game Studio posted a nearly 10-minute video highlighting creator Mika Takahashi, the concept artist behind the company's horror title. Takahashi is known for her work deg characters for the Siren game series of survival horror titles on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lpMnZHWF4

In the video, Takahashi mentioned her childhood love for video games while expounding on how she entered the game industry after college. She said that her artwork has been dark since she was young, making her a good fit for the horror genre. After the Siren game series came to an end, Takahashi expressed interest in working on another Keiichiro Toyama title. Soon after Toyama left SIE to found Bokeh Game Studio, he invited Takahashi to the team. Towards the end of the video, the artist gave more detail on the mysterious title, explaining that she is working more on enemy designs.

Bokeh Game Studio was founded by Keiichiro Toyama in August 2020 and will focus on developing titles for both consoles and PC. In February 2021, the company announced that they were working on an action-adventure horror title. Very little information regarding this game has been revealed, and the studio's Producer Kazunobu Sato has only warned players that the title will "mess with your mind."

The post Bokeh Game Studios Hires Siren Game Series Concept Artist appeared first on Siliconera.

In a recent video interview, Kazunobu Sato, founder and Producer of Bokeh Game Studio, revealed details about the horror game currently in development at the studio. He discusses very briefly the concept that was pitched to him by Keiichiro Toyama, another founder and creator of the Silent Hill and Siren series, and what the studio hopes to achieve with this new horror title. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

In the interview Sato states that the first impression he had of the concept that Toyama had pitched to him would make for a terrible game. However, he follows this up by saying that he means that in a good way.

He also mentions that the game will "mess with the player's mind." Another aspect of the game will require some element of sacrifice, and that "the scale of these sacrifices will be quite nasty." There will also be an aspect of player choice regarding the paths that they will be able to take. The title is also described as an "action-adventure" game in the interview.

You can watch the full interview from below.

[embed]https://youtu.be/tKKRB1qVOVM[/embed]

In February 2021 it was revealed that Bokeh Game Studio would be working on a horror game. Little information regarding the title has been revealed thus far. Additionally, a piece of key art was shared through the official Twitter of the studio. Other video interviews are currently available to watch through the official Bokeh Game Studio YouTube .

The post Bokeh Game Studio Horror Game Will Mess With the Player’s Mind appeared first on Siliconera.

We now know what Keiichiro Toyama, who worked on games like the original Silent Hill, Siren, and Gravity Rush, and his new studio are working on. The latest Bokeh Game Studio announcement featured Creative Director Toyama and revealed the team's new horror game. The video even showed some of the concept art for the project.

The Bokeh Game Studios new trailer began with Toyama talking about how much he enjoyed playing games. However, he didn’t consider game development as a career until after 3D games were more common and he went to art school. He then explained Bokeh will let him continue to make games in his style. He also mentioned, “I aspire to make IPs that fans can enjoy even ten, twenty years after they’re released.”

After that, Toyama revealed that Bokeh Game Studio’s first title will be a horror game. He described it as “quite dark, far from my more recent titles.” He also expressed it as a means of returning to his roots.

Here’s the full video. It also goes over how important photography is to Toyama and his creative process.

Keiichiro Toyama left Sony to found this new studio back in December 2020. Its first game is in development.

The post Keiichiro Toyama’s Bokeh Game Studio Is Working on a Horror Game appeared first on Siliconera.

Keiichiro Toyama revealed that he founded his own company named Bokeh Game Studio on August 13, 2020. He left Sony Interactive Entertainment's Japan Studio at the end of September 2020. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

At his own Twitter , Toyama expressed his strong desire to make the new studio one that will last long. He hopes fans will continue to him as the studio works on its first title.

この度独立いたしまして、「Bokeh Game Studio（ボーカゲームスタジオ）」を設立いたしました。長く続けていきたいと強く思っておりますので、今後とも暖かい目で見守っていただけると幸いです！ https://t.co/HZNweiWWwd

— 外山圭一郎 (@K_Toyama) December 3, 2020

Toyama is not alone in establishing Bokeh Game Studio as its CEO. He is accompanied by producer Kazunobu Sato, who is the studio's COO, and game director Junya Okura as its CTO. Sato was also known for deg characters in Siren and producing the 2016 PlayStation 4 game The Last Guardian, while Okura helped Toyama design both the Siren and Gravity Rush series.

The Japanese press release added that Bokeh Game Studio will focus on planning and developing software for consoles and PCs. Although the three core had only worked on PlayStation platforms to date, they have expressed their aspirations to undertake "various kinds of challenges, regardless of the platform".

[tnm_video layout="mnmd-post-media-wide"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSkdD6S-YRE[/tnm_video]

Born in 1970, Keiichiro Toyama began his career in the gaming industry by ing Konami as a graphic designer in 1994. He had his first experience as a director when he created the first Silent Hill game in 1999. However, he left Konami soon after Silent Hill was released to Sony Computer Entertainment.

With the latter's Japan Studio, Toyama created Siren and Gravity Rush in 2003 and 2012, respectively. He also made sequels for both titles. His latest game to date, Gravity Rush 2, was released for PlayStation 4 in January 2017. SIE shut down the game's online services in July 2018.

The post Keiichiro Toyama Left SIE and Founded Bokeh Game Studio appeared first on Siliconera.