Rhythm gaming? JRPGs? Anime girls? Catgirls? !
Giraffe and Annika is an anime-tinged role-playing that stars a cute catgirl, and features battles that play out in rhythm gaming sequences. It boas♎ts an adorable art style and cozy character designs, and looks to have a bit of open-world exploration as well. In other words, it's something that's right up my alley, and I need it in my life right now.
The titular Annika is the aforementioned catgirl, and in the game, she's run into a bit of a jam. She's washed ashore the mysterious Spic❀a Island, without a clear recollection of how she got there. Don't you hate it when that happens? Shortly thereafter, she runs into a boy who goes by Giraffe, and promptly get roped into finding mystical trinkets. What do these trinkets do? What's up with Spica Island? Who names their kid "Giraffe"? These questions will hopefully get answered over the course of the game.
Giraffe and Annika comes out of the indie studio Atelier Mimina, which is headed up by prolific artist Atsushi Saito. Atsushi has worked on Gitaroo Man and Elite Beat Agents, and contributed des🐟ign work to a✤ line of Hatsune Miku figurines. From what we can gather, this is his solo project. Pretty impressive stuff!
Giraffe and Annika looks like the kind of thing that was designed for a very specific audience. Luckily, I'm squarely in the middle of that audience, so ෴August 22nd can't come soon enough. You can preorder the game from NIS America right now!