Things are tough out there these days, and smaller developers are having to do whatever it takes to survive. Poor old Gyaar Studio—it's had to try and save money by making a whole game out of paper.
Hirogami, announced at the Tokyo Games Show 2024, takes place in a mystical, origami world. The earth is paper, the trees are paper, and, yes, our protagonist is paper. But that does have its advantages—he's able to unfold himself into a flat page, and then refold into animal forms that give him powerful new abilities.
Heading into an advance hands-on with an early build of the game, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it. I've honestly grown a bit jaded with a certain kind of indie action-platformer, and though technically this isn't indie (Gyaar Studio is a sort of off-shoot of Bandai Namco—it's weird), it ticks a lot of the usual boxes. You know the formula: a peaceful world is threatened by a glowing purple corruption, only a hero with a certain special power can cleanse it, by going on a journey that ends up being a metaphor for grief or something.
But Hirogami's charm pierced right through my cynicism. Part of that is its looks. Its slightly crumpled world is wonderfully tactile, and believably delicate in its papery construction—immediately you buy the idea that it needs your protection. Your character is cleverly rendered at a lower frame rate than his surroundings—a technique you might recognise from the Spiderverse movies—which gives him an almost stop-motion feel that enhances his own paper-y appearance. All that's contrasted against the corruption, which infects the land with fuzzy, glitchy forms reminiscent of early 3D graphics—as if a world of technology is trying to encroach on this hyper-traditional world.
The animal forms you can acquire are simply adorable, too—partway through my demo I was informed by the person running it that I might be spending a bit too much time admiring the armadillo form's cute little trotting animation rather than actually pushing on through the level.
They're more than just pretty faces, though. Each has its own unique powers, and importantly they all feel great to deploy. The frog's leap lets you soar through the air, a thrill after a stretch of more traditional platforming, while the armadillo's roll lets you smash fearlessly into enemies that you previously had to be wary of. I even found myself really enjoying the in-between form—simply a flat piece of paper. It's used for things like sliding under gaps or gliding on thermals, but there's something so satisfying about the way it drifts and slides along that I found myself going 2D when I didn't even need to. I sort of wish I could do it in real life.
I wouldn't expect a sprawling or super in-depth experience—there are some simple metroidvania elements that encourage returning to old levels with new forms to unlock secrets, but it still seems like quite a light and linear adventure. But it does plenty to stand out from the crowd of similar titles, and after an hour with it, I was already mentally blocking out a lazy sunday afternoon sometime in the future to spend with the full release.
That launch is planned for early 2025, and you can wishlist it on Steam now.
