Global hits like KPop Demon Hunters don’t come along often, but when they do, they really make a splash. An unexpected breakout hit can leave its creators scrambling to take advantage of the moment. Eager fans want more of what they already love, and the wait feels unbearable.
KPop Demon Hunters is one such property. The extremely popular Netflix movie stars a K-pop girl group, Huntr/x. Three women named Rumi, Mira, and Zoey battle demons and work to strengthen a magical seal that will permanently banish their enemies. But the demons have a band of their own, the Saja Boys, who will fight with everything they have to destroy the women working to seal them away.
The premise sounds like the perfect setup for a video game but, aside from the official KPop Demon Hunters title in Roblox, we’ve yet to see an official adaptation. Fortunately, other games are on their way to fill in the gap, including Kemuri.
Kemuri will fill in the stylish gap left by KPop Demon Hunters
Kemuri is an upcoming game from a Tokyo-based studio called Unseen, about demons (in this case known as yokai) and the people who hunt them. The State of Play presentation boasted some very catchy music, so KPop Demon Hunters fans should feel right at home.
As with KPop Demon Hunters, a lot of the fun in Kemuri appears to come from working together. The game supports three-player cooperative play, and smart collaboration will prove necessary to survive battles with some of the epic monsters the heroes face.
The real test will be how it all comes together, and Polygon’s Patricia Hernandez outlines what to expect from Kemuri’s gameplay:
It’s got the sort of thrilling cityscape platforming you’d expect from games like Marvel’s Spider-Man or Gravity Rush, but with the sensibility of a Splatoon game aimed at teenage hypebeasts.
Once yokai are defeated, players form contracts with them to utilize their powers. Such unions also impact player appearance. A blend of style and performance is just what players expect from Ikumi Nakamura, who has previously worked on games including the Bayonetta series and GhostWire: Tokyo. Nakamura rose to fame after her infectiously enthusiastic appearance on The Game Awards in 2019, when she presented the team at Remedy Entertainment the award for Best Art Direction for Control.
Kemuri doesn’t have a definite release date lined up quite yet, but it should hit PlayStation 5 sometime in 2027 — and give KPop Demon Hunters fans something new to sing about.
The original KPop Demon Hunters was ‘dark, adult, and very violent,’ according to creator
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