What do you get when a Japanese hip-hop crew branches out into game development? You get SONOKUNI, a extremely stylish biopunk action game that’s dripping with a killer soundtrack. It’s out now on Steam, and coming to Switch on 31 March.
SONOKUNI comes from the creative minds of Don Yasa Crew, a 7-person hip-hop group from Tokyo. When COVID-19 made live performances impossible, the crew decided to turn their “have-not-hip-hop style” to game development, combining raw, energy music with a biopunk take on Japanese mythology.
In SONOKUNI, you play as Takeru, a lone assassin fighting to protect her people from a biotechnology-enhanced superpower. That fight plays out in a dynamic-looking top-down action game that appears to put a lot of emphasis on mobility, dodging, and the liberal use of a spin move to deflect enemy attacks. And, as you’d expect, it’s got a vibrant soundtrack to help build the surreal atmosphere – get a taste of it with the demo OST on YouTube.
SONOKUNI is available now on Steam, with a 10% launch discount that brings it down to NZ$19.79 for the next two weeks (the normal price is $21.99). The game’s 50-track OST is also available on Steam, and the SONOKUNI Deluxe Edition bundle will get you both. The game is also coming to Nintendo Switch on 31 March.
