In development
Kage-Metsuke
Illustrated combat RPG · Supernatural Sengoku Japan
An illustrated supernatural Sengoku RPG focused on combat, equipment collection, yokai hunting, and authored quests.
Store page
Not open yet. There is nothing to wishlist for Kage-Metsuke today, and we are not announcing a date. A free prologue is planned alongside the one-time purchase for the complete game.
Premise
Sent where soldiers cannot go
You control a single Kage-Metsuke: a covert agent dispatched to resolve threats that normal soldiers, magistrates and shrine officials cannot handle.
On the human side: bandits, samurai, ronin, shinobi, deserters, corrupt guards, mercenaries and cultists. On the supernatural side: yokai, spirits, possessed humans, corrupted animals, cursed constructs, shrine guardians and undead warriors.
You should feel like a capable but vulnerable supernatural agent. Capable enough to be sent alone. Vulnerable enough that being sent alone is the problem.
Design pillars
Three commitments
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Illustrated combat
Combat is presented through character illustrations, effects, combat logs and UI animation: not 3D environments or real-time movement.
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Frequent progression
Equipment, set pieces, Ryo, dojo rank and permanent character changes arrive regularly, not at the end of a long drought.
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Supernatural Sengoku fantasy
Historical Japanese visual inspiration combined with yokai, spirits, curses, corrupted provinces and occult threats.
Combat paths
Specialise, or hybridise
Three paths. You can commit to one or mix them, and the equipment sets are built to reward either choice.
Bushido
Direct martial ability. The straight answer to a straight fight.
- Emphasises
- Weapon damage, accuracy, health
Kage
Speed, concealment and indirect combat. Win before the enemy lands anything.
- Emphasises
- Critical strikes, evasion, multi-hit attacks
Ki
Spiritual control and supernatural combat. The path that answers yokai in kind.
- Emphasises
- Spirit damage, spirit resistance
Core combat properties
- Health
- Physical Damage
- Defence
- Spirit Damage
- Spirit Resistance
- Accuracy
- Evasion
- Critical Chance
- Critical Damage
How illustrated combat works
Round-based and automatic
The swings resolve themselves. Your decisions are preparation, supplies, stance and knowing when to walk away.
Initiative
Determine who acts first this round.
Action resolves
An automatic action plays out.
Effects apply
Damage, defence and status effects are applied.
Triggers check
Automatic ability triggers are checked.
Outcome check
Victory, defeat or retreat is checked.
You still manually use supplies, change stance, and decide when to retreat. That is where the fight is actually won.
| Encounter | Target duration |
|---|---|
| Standard enemy | 10–15 seconds |
| Elite | 15–30 seconds |
| Boss | 30–180 seconds |
| Dojo PvP | 30–180 seconds |
Primarily one character against one enemy. Multiple enemies are represented through sequential encounters and waves, which keeps the presentation readable and the production cost controlled.
Activities
What there is to do
- Kaidan
- The authored main quests. Briefing, narrative scenes, dialogue choices, combat encounters, elite enemies, a final confrontation, boss combat, rewards and persistent consequences, on the standard combat rules.
- Bounties
- Short combat against human enemies. Ryo, experience, equipment.
- Yokai Hunts
- Short combat against supernatural enemies. Adds entries to the yokai journal.
- Province Events
- Temporary activities caused by corruption: a village under attack, a shrine becoming corrupted, a bandit group exploiting supernatural unrest, a yokai migration, a possessed patrol, a regional boss appearing.
- Regional Bosses
- Appear as corruption rises. High difficulty, unique abilities, rare equipment, set pieces, titles, marks, and major corruption reduction.
- Dojo
- Training, build testing, equipment-restricted and survival challenges, boss rematches, plus asynchronous PvP against saved versions of other players' characters, ranked duels, daily opponents, seasonal rankings.
Kaidan choices can affect narrative outcomes, survival, rewards, province state, and the wounds, curses, marks and titles the agent carries out with them.
Kaidan ranks
The danger is stated before you commit
Ranks are not strict level gates. You may attempt a higher rank, and the game clearly displays the danger and the recommended preparation.
| Rank | Name | What it means | Typical structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| E | Errand | Safe introductory work and minor duties | One short objective, little or no combat |
| D | Disturbance | A small local problem with limited risk | One or two standard encounters |
| C | Incident | A confirmed threat with moderate danger | Several encounters, a possible elite |
| B | Threat | Serious danger with meaningful consequences | Multiple encounters, stronger enemies, an elite or boss |
| A | Crisis | A province-level problem needing real preparation | Longer Kaidan, difficult encounters, a boss, major rewards or consequences |
| S | Forbidden | A secret, lethal or politically dangerous operation | Campaign-defining, unique enemies, a major boss, highest risk and reward |
Equipment
Six slots, and one of them can be cursed
Slots
- Weapon
- Armour
- Cloak
- Mask
- Charm
- Talisman
Quality
- Common
- Uncommon
- Rare
- Exceptional
- Legendary
- Cursed
Cursed is not a worse tier. It is strong benefits with meaningful costs, and it is a decision rather than a drop you are disappointed by.
Set bonuses arrive in three steps
Two pieces
A basic bonus.
Four pieces
A specialised combat bonus.
Complete set
A build-defining effect.
Set themes
- Samurai
- Shinobi
- Onmyoji
- Shrine Guardian
- Yokai Hunter
- Executioner
- Wandering Ronin
- Cursed Spirit
Supplies
Limited carrying capacity, so what you bring is a plan.
- Medicine
- Healing
- Smoke Bomb
- Escape, evasion
- Ofuda
- Cleansing, spirit damage
- Offering
- Protection, status removal
Currency and trade
Everything is priced in Ryo. The Market buys and sells equipment and supplies from rotating stock.
The Safehouse handles rest, wound treatment, cleansing and training. It is not a base-builder; it is where you repair the damage before going out again.
Persistence
Every condition is visible on the character
A scar across the face. A curse-sigil creeping up an arm. Eyes changing colour as Taint rises. A missing finger. A cracked mask.
By hour ten no two players' agents look alike, and every screenshot is a status update on what happened to this character.
- Wounds
- Negative physical conditions from combat. They reduce stats, need treatment, and can develop into scars.
- Scars
- Permanent changes, positive or negative. Also character history.
- Curses
- Supernatural conditions. They raise Taint, need cleansing, and cut both ways.
- Marks
- Persistent supernatural or narrative effects: yokai influence, spiritual protection, important Kaidan outcomes, rare combat bonuses.
Pressure systems
Three meters you cannot ignore for long
-
Body
Physical condition and accumulated injury. The reason you eventually have to go home instead of taking one more contract.
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Exposure
How visible the agent has become to authorities and criminals. Affects bounty availability, enemy activity, prices and province events.
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Taint
Supernatural corruption. Raises curse risk, lowers supernatural resistance, improves selected cursed and Ki abilities, and unlocks dangerous equipment.
Taint is the clearest example of the design: the thing damaging you is also the thing making a Ki build work.
Death and Succession
The agent dies. The save does not.
Permanent death does not end the campaign. It triggers Succession: a new agent, framed as the next Kage-Metsuke sent by the order, takes over.
What the successor inherits
The Journal
Everything recorded so far carries over.
Yokai knowledge
Discovered yokai and enemy information stay known.
Province progress
The state of the map is not reset.
A clean body
They do not inherit the predecessor's scars.
Recovering what was lost
The successor can recover the previous agent's equipment and level, and that recovery is itself a dangerous mission. The new agent must travel to the fallen agent's body, collect the equipment, and absorb the departed spirit.
The fallen agent gets a permanent memorial entry in the Journal. Portrait preserved, cause of death recorded.
Which means the graveyard in your Journal is also a map of your worst decisions.
Province corruption
The map answers back
Each province carries a corruption level. It is not a difficulty slider you set; it is a consequence you accumulate.
Corruption rises from
Unresolved supernatural threats, failed Kaidan, ignored hunts, province events, and regional boss activity.
Corruption falls from
Completing Kaidan and hunts, resolving events, and defeating regional bosses.
Higher corruption means
- Stronger enemies
- More frequent hunts
- Elite yokai
- Better rewards
- Dangerous events
- Regional bosses
- Visible change to the province
Neglect is playable. It is just expensive, and you can see it in the landscape.
Art and audio direction
Ink, parchment, and things that should not be there
2D illustrated characters and environments. Sengoku-inspired clothing, armour, weapons, architecture and objects. Japanese ink, parchment, painted textures and calligraphic elements, with dark supernatural imagery layered over them.
Layered illustrations with limited animation and strong silhouettes, a presentation chosen because it holds up at the scale we can actually produce.
Audio combines traditional Japanese instruments, dark ambient, and percussive combat music, with distinct yokai vocalisations, strong impact effects, clear reward feedback, and unique boss themes.
The emotions we are aiming for, in order: tension, danger, mystery, power, and relief after victory.
Explicitly not in this game
- Mobile-style energy or monetisation interfaces
- Freely controlled 3D camera
- Open-world traversal
- Real-time action combat
- Party management
- Real-time multiplayer
Listed because scope decisions are easier to trust when the exclusions are written down too.
Content targets
What we are planning to build
These are planning targets, not shipped content and not promises. They are here because a scope this specific is the most useful thing we can tell you.
- 4Province regions
- 12Major Kaidan
- 20Bounties
- 20Yokai hunts
- 40Standard enemies
- 12Major bosses
- 60Equipment items
- 10Equipment sets
- 10Dojo challenges
- 1Free prologue
Status and audience
| Status | In development. Design locked in GDD v2. Combat prototype and vertical slice are the near-term milestones. |
|---|---|
| Platform | Windows PC via Steam. Other platforms may be evaluated after the PC release. |
| Engine | Unity 6, C# |
| Input | Mouse primary, controller where practical |
| Business model | Free prologue, plus a one-time purchase for the complete game |
| Release date | Not announced |
For players who like RPG progression and equipment collection, dark fantasy, Sengoku Japan and Japanese folklore, and short combat sessions.
Positioned as a premium alternative to browser-style combat RPGs: the accessibility and reward cadence of that lineage, with authored quests, persistent consequences and no monetisation hooks. The preparation-and-consequence sensibility is in the vein of Darkest Dungeon.
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