A common indie game trend has been the use of culturally Japanese aesthetics and settings, such as Seina: A Tale of Spirits, set in rural Japan and centred on Shinto culture, or Denshattack, with its wacky anime take on Japanese train culture. It's important to note that those examples are from devs who aren't from Japan. However, it's ironic that Twin Soul, a game inspired by ancient Japanese mythology, subverts many expectations of what we might consider a Japanese aesthetic.
Twin Soul, however, comes from Core 8 CEO Noboru Hotta, whose work as a graphics artist and designer on games like Rez and Lumines defies easy categorisation, and which has defined his artistic approach. "When we talk about [Rez and Lumines], they're kind of iconic," he tells me. "But back in the day, people would say, ' What is this? It's a pretty brand new kind of concept, and when I was at Sega, we all had to make original games, games you had never seen before. Nowadays, gaming companies in Japan as well as all over the world follow trends, but I’m still trying to push new and original ideas."
Nonetheless, there are certainly aspects to Twin Soul that will be familiar if you've played Rez, as this is also a kind of rhythm-based game where you can attack enemies with lock-on shooting, though there's also a melee element too. But rather than that game's sci-fi hacker setting, you play as Jin and Shin, two beast-riding characters with opposing ideals whose paths and stories eventually clash. It's partly why the game has a primarily side-scrolling perspective: you'll play as one character facing one direction and eventually switch to the other character's perspective facing the other direction.
Drawing from Prehistoric Japan
While an original story, Twin Soul's inspirations come from ancient Japanese myth, such as the Kojiki (also known as Records of Ancient Matters), Japan's oldest existing text chronicling the nation's creation myths, akin to the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. When thinking of how these myths are represented visually, you're likely to think of traditional Japanese paintings, or even woodblock printing. However, that's also a bit narrow, in the same way we might associate the art of biblical stories with the Renaissance rather than any earlier era.
In Hotta's case, he drew inspiration from even further back, deep into prehistoric Japan's Jomon and Yayoi cultures, though even then he still tries to subvert them. "I got so much inspiration from authentic Japanese mythology, but I don't lean in that direction heavily," he explains. "I just intentionally run away from typical perspectives. Over time, I even tried to put in a modern style of music, so you’re told the story through rap!"
Another point of inspiration comes from Hotta's pre-game career as a silkscreen artist, a discipline that, incidentally, descends from woodblock printing. But the irony is that when Twin Soul has been pitched to publishers, a frequent response he receives is that the game's art looks like it was created overseas.
"I take that as a compliment when they say, 'this is art like we have never seen before', but then over time people just say that is my own style," says Hotta. "I'm also inspired by Western culture, so my own art is a reflection of that inspiration too. But even when I try to lean on Western culture, the bottom line is I was born and raised in Japan, so somehow the Japanese essence is still reflected in my own art."
While Twin Soul has been in development for several years, the initial concept had actually been around for over a decade when Hotta was at Grounding Inc, a studio he had co-founded with other former Sega staff members. Unfortunately, as the company grew, it became more difficult to make time for original projects, which is why he ultimately left to form Core 8, once again reverting to a small team, similar to the team sizes he had when working on Sega's most innovative titles.
There are still many ideas to implement, and there have also been changes in some of the gameplay design, but one area where Hotta is staying the course is its art style. "I don't want to lean into anything realistic, because art is art," he concludes. "When I create the concept, I simply implement it into actual art for the game. There's a balance depending on the character or the shader, but I try to keep the art as it is."
Twin Soul doesn't have a release date, but you can try the demo on Steam.
