Project Mugen combines the open world and moe vibe of Genshin Impact with Spider-Man’s web-swinging and the city vistas of Mirror’s Edge for a unique urban RPG experience. That’s what they’re selling, but unfortunately, there’s not much to look at yet. Let’s explore what we know so far.
Gameplay trailers are notoriously deceptive. Game industry retrospectives, such as Blood, Sweat, and Pixels (Jason Schreier, 2017), reveal how game developers build gameplay videos or demos specifically for an expo. Work crunch, deadlines, and goals that have little to do with gameplay experience create an entity that could be very different from the end product. Fundamentally, a demo might be nothing more than shiny lights, flashy animation, and enthusiastic handwaving. So, I’m skeptical when I see similar game loops, cutscene clips, and limited angles.
Scanning for Life
Project Mugen was announced recently, while the trailer above was revealed at the Tokyo Game Show 2023. The game is the work of Chinese video game developer Naked Rain, a subsidiary of Thunder Fire Studio.
While the Project Mugen official gameplay trailer is exciting, I have questions. Like, why do the enemies seem so static? Have I seen that swing animation somewhere before? Will we be playing a third-person shooter, like Zombie Shooting Star, or is that just a mini-game? And, importantly, is death by snu-snu an option? I’m excited to learn more!
Preregistration is currently open on the official Project Mugen website. You can follow the game’s news on the Project Mugen X/Twitter account.
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