Nearly 20 years ago, prominent video game studio SNK was forced to abandon development on Navinosuke: The Yo-Kai Buster — a creature collector RPG that combines the addictive gameplay mechanics of Pokémon with the historical Japanese atmosphere of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. However, a passionate indie developer is officially reviving this forgotten project for the current generation.
Recently, Kohachi Studio Director and CEO Ryota Seki teamed up with Japanese game publisher Happinet for the Navinosuke: The Yokai Buster Revival Project. In cooperation with the original dev team, Seki is utilizing decades-old pixel artwork and design documents to construct a game that preserves the original vision while creating an experience that is accessible to modern-day players. Per Automaton West, Seki has addressed many questions related to Navinosuke and what players can expect when the game launches in 2027.
Navinosuke’s story has players step into the role of the titular character — a mechanical exorcist who travels across ancient Japan resolving incidents involving troublesome spirits, or yokai. After putting a stop to their schemes, he also gets opportunities to face them in combat and befriend them. Throughout the story, players will encounter over 200 different yokai spirits, each with their own unique powers and abilities.
In Japanese mythology, yokai are supernatural spirits or entities that cause mysterious phenomena in the human world. The aforementioned Demon Slayer multimedia franchise also draws heavily from yokai tradition for several major characters, including Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji and upper-rank demons Hantengu and Daki, among others.
Navinosuke was originally conceived by the same dev team behind the popular run-and-gun franchise Metal Slug. While employed at SNK in the early 2000s, Seki was presented with the scenario and many of the design assets, which greatly impressed him at the time. “It was an incredibly compelling pitch, and it only made us want to try out the game for ourselves,” Seki recounted. “Unfortunately, our senior colleagues no longer had a playable build, so we never got a chance … I spent the next 20 years looking for an opportunity to somehow bring Navinosuke to life.”
Like the early Pokémon titles, Navinosuke primarily involves exploration of 2D environments interspersed with turn-based combat scenarios. However, there are a few twists. During battles, the player has a team of three supporting yokai in addition to their main fighters. These support yokai have special abilities that can be activated at any given time, and aptly timed activations are the key to developing winning strategies.
Due to Navinosuke’s roots in the early 2000s era of gaming, the original concept lacked many of the explanatory elements that modern gamers are accustomed to. Seki acknowledged this as a potential problem and is working to address it. “Considering current trends, we’ve been very careful to add guidance wherever necessary to prevent players from getting stuck for frustratingly unclear reasons … we decided to introduce several new characters specifically to serve as guides.”
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Creating new “guiding” characters is one aspect of development that has been challenging for Seki, as he is committed to retaining the original script’s tone and spirit as much as possible. He was also careful to preserve all the original art assets for integration into the finished game. “Ultimately, I believe Navinosuke’s greatest strength lies in its distinctive world and characters. In previous games by the Metal Slug team, the characters didn’t speak, but for Navinosuke, the team has prepared an enormous amount of dialogue,” Seki explained.
According to Seki, roughly “90% of the original content” has been finalized. However, Seki’s team is also incorporating “additional scenarios and a range of improvements” to help modern players. For those with limited knowledge of yokai, the game also includes a “yokai encyclopedia” containing details about all the creatures that appear in the game. “It’s a cute, eccentric, surreal but also cool and nostalgic worldview coming straight from the minds of the Metal Slug team … and I really want players everywhere to experience it,” Seki said.
Navinosuke: The Yo-kai Buster is scheduled to launch on the Nintendo Switch and PC in 2027. A demo is currently in development.
