BANSHEE: Demon Girl Announced at TGS 2024!
TOKYO – 26th September 2024
Today, indie development studio False Prophet reveals their next project, code named BANSHEE: Demon Girl, at Tokyo Game Show 2024. BANSHEE offers an action packed single player stealth experience inspired by soulsborne games and will be developed in Unreal Engine 5 using top tier talent from the industry in sound, music and gameplay design.
Piotr Pacynko, founder and director explains: “The vision for BANSHEE is to be a mix between games such as Sekiro, Tenchu and Red Ninja, with unique gameplay elements only found in our game.”
In the late 1500s (Sengoku period), a female shinobi-samurai. A kunoichi in geisha disguise arrives with a secret mission in Europe with the first Japanese Embassy. Betrayed, she dies a gruesome death and becomes a demon (similar to European vampires like “Vampyr”, “Strzyga” or “Banshee”). As a player you will be able to send away or devour restless souls to grow in strength and discover secrets. Fight with Japanese swords, parrying death blows without a trace of fatigue. Raise fear and terror in European medieval cities & castles not only as a shinobi but also as a demon and devil incarnate in a beautiful human body.
The team is in Japan to gather early feedback from players and partners to get the look and feel right for the game as it enters early stages of production. Pacynko explains:
“With our previous game release “BEAST”, we waited for years during development to ask players for feedback. This time, we’re starting off early explaining the vision for the game and showcasing a first look demo of this vision to a genre fan expert audience such as the Japanese players.”
BANSHEE is described by the developers as a passion project they have planned for years to work on, Piotr continues: “The soulsborne genre is close to our hearts and so is Japanese and European history, we wanted to find a strong way using all our previous industry experience to combine those and tell a unique larger than life story using a fresh way to play this type of genre.”
BANSHEE is played in a unique way with something the studio calls the “Dance of Death Music System”. Col Walder – Composer for BANSHEE explains:
“Banshee’s Dance of Death music system builds on the cutting edge Quartz and Harmonix technology in Unreal Engine 5 to synchronize the gameplay action and audio. Enemy AI and animations follow the timing and rhythm of the music to create a gameplay experience that is both cinematic and interactive. Custom music themes for enemies composed alongside the gameplay design mean that players can learn the rhythms of light, heavy, and combo attacks and by listening to the music defeat powerful enemies even with their eyes closed.
Taking it further, Dance of Death features bi-directional synchronization; even as the gameplay and enemy actions are synchronized to the music, the music is dynamically responding to the player. Musical themes and leitmotifs do battle in the score, echoing the action on screen, as the player becomes an active part of the composition with the sounds of their parries, blocks, and attacks.”
BANSHEE is targeted for PC Early Access in September 2025.
The main theme to BANSHEE will be sung by award winning singer Jillian Aversa.
About False Prophet Studio:
False Prophet consists of 25 veteran developers based in Warsaw, Poland.
The team self published their first game, “BEAST: False Prophet” in Early Access on Steam in 2023 with good reception and recognition from media and players alike.
About BANSHEE:
BANSHEE offers an action packed single player stealth experience inspired by soulsborne games and will be developed in Unreal Engine 5 using top tier talent from the industry in sound, music and gameplay design. Slice and dice your way through Europe in larger than life battles all synced to False Prophet’s Dance of Death Music System. BANSHEE is scheduled for release in Early Access on PC in September 2025.