Greetings, Yokai!
Ever since the technical playtest, we’ve been hard at work refining the game. A lot has already changed over the past couple of months, not just with new content, but with how the game feels to play and how the world comes to life around you.
And because of this, we want to start being more open with the changes we’re making behind the scenes: You’re helping shape the world of Yokai Tales: Fox, and that shouldn’t be completely hidden.
Building Better Movement:
Since the playtest, we've continued refining the game based on your feedback, our own testing, and plenty of experimentation with what feels better to play. Lionna has received a new character model that better emphasizes her strength and agility, alongside faster movement, snappier animations, an adjusted gravity curve, new vaults and exits, and a wider variety of flips and dodges. The goal across all of these changes is simple: make moving through the world feel faster, more responsive, and more expressive.
Combat has received an even bigger overhaul, having been rebuilt from scratch around the idea that every enemy is a movement node. Enemies can now be vaulted, juggled, and worked into combos, making combat another way to move through the world rather than something that brings you to a stop. We've also introduced Spells and Ultimate abilities, while outside of gameplay we've been revamping the UI and adding button remapping to give players more control over how they play.
Finding Our Artistic Direction:
While movement, combat, and systems are what make the game play, art is what catches the eye. It brings all those pieces together into the world and style we’ve been working towards. We can’t share too much of that work just yet, but we can show you some gorgeous concept art and share a few words from Omar, the artist behind it.
"With this concept, I wanted to represent the sanctuary, a space of calm and peace within the video game where our protagonist can take a break, however brief, from the war and the hatred directed at the yokai. It is a place for self-discovery and, above all, a refuge where the yokai can be themselves and find peace. The central tree symbolizes precisely that space of connection and unity"
The poem isn't part of the concept art; it's a little extra from our Narrative Designer, Athena, who saw such a peaceful-looking piece and couldn't resist writing something fitting for it.
Small Changes Add Up
We’re not just working on the big flashy aspects of the game.
Throughout development, we’ve also made dozens of smaller refinements, from quality-of-life improvements and technical optimizations to polish passes most players may never consciously notice.
Individually, they’re small.
Together, they make the game feel significantly better than the version many of you first experienced in the playtest.
What’s next?
There’s plenty more taking shape behind the scenes, and we’re excited to share more of what we’ve been building as development continues.
The team is continuing to iterate on gameplay, expand the world, and polish every system we can get our hands on.
As always, your feedback continues to shape the game, and we’re excited to share more as we get closer to the next milestone.
Until next time,
See you soon, Yokai!