New "What is Kemuri?" video reveals much more and yet nothing about the cool co-op action game

21.02.2024 - 14:17 / rockpapershotgun.com

Kemuri was first revealed at The Game Awards last December, a co-op parkour action game where you fight yokai and look cool from the creative and art director for Ghostwire: Tokyo, Ikumi Nakamura. The team at Unseen have done a seven minute video where talk a little bit about the content and vibes of the game, basically by just listing cool stuff. Think of something cool, and it's probably in Kemuri somehow. The video both excited and frustrated me, as it seems like an exciting game, but I very much feel the video does not answer the question posed by its own title.

In the video, many team members, including Ikumi Nakamura but also concept artist Nass, level designer Shane Canning, technical artist Omar Espinosa, game designer Idris Grey Macchruiteir, and others, go for little backlit city walks and talk about cool things to do with designing the game, with occasional bits of early concept art and prototype footage mixed in.

I will pick out some bits. Influences include dark fantasy and anime, as well as nostalgia. In common with Ghostwire: Tokyo, in Kemuri you fight yokai, in a world that's "a blend of old and new". As a yokai hunter you're "hunting the unknown" and "clad in mystery" (much like me, watching this video and trying to pin some of the flighty butterflies of cold hard fact to my display board of news). Yokai aren't inherently good or evil, and have "profound backstories". There is talk of choices to be made, and the consequences thereof.

Some palpable factoids: players see yokai by looking through their hands held in a shape called The Fox Window, but using it will alert nearby enemies, so you have to be careful. In a system that sounds sort of similar to collecting personas in the Persona series, you can collect yokai to use their powers yourself, which changes how you look - "using fashion to take action beyond human knowledge". The coolest part to me was a section on the animation, which shows how the character movements are inspired by music and rhythm.

That's a slightly chaotic summary. The video (which I suggest you watch) groups topics by vibe, rather than gameplay, music, and replayability like a 90s magazine review. And the vibes are good! I just get so frustrated when developers show more of the game when they don't have more of the game to show, you know? Kemuri isn't the worst or only offender by a long show, but unfortunately it's the one happening to me right now. It's nice to see the devs excited by the warm reception for the gameplay trailer, though, and I know the hype train has to be fed more coal. The video was briquette to throw in, but, as I stretch this metaphor alarmingly, I feel it's more smoke than heat. Which is perhaps ironic, considering the definition of