AMEDAMA is a 2.5D sidescroller sandbox action game that pits a spirit with the power of possession against those who have kidnapped his sister. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
AMEDAMA Review Overview
What is AMEDAMA?
Yushin and his mute sister Yui live peaceful lives as they run an umbrella shop in the town of Aihama. But on one faithful rainy day, a group of men raid the store kill Yushin, and abduct Yui. Despite what happened, it seems Yushin’s on a local deity’s good side, as he soon finds out he’s been given the power to possess the living.
We’re talking frogs, dogs, starving old men, beautiful geishas, swaggering samurai, crooked bandits, and more. Yushin has seven days to rescue his beloved sister, and he’ll have to possess the right people to find her.
That’s absolutely what the player will be doing as they explore Aihama in this side-scroller sandbox action. Yushin can "Soul Shunt" people (i.e. kick their butts) and forcibly evict their souls before taking control of their bodies, like the bank when you don’t pay your mortgage.
Every class of person in Aihama has different abilities: geisha can enter buildings owned by the Bakuto (the precursor to the Yakuza), samurai retainers have a higher attack power, and old men can seemingly kick random people without repercussions. Players will have to choose the right body to progress through the game, and in certain parts, you can choose what Yuushin will do to explore the game’s many winding story paths (the developers felt compelled to include a story map, so you know it’s going places).
Sometimes, combat can’t be avoided, and here enters the game’s side-scrolling slash-em-up gameplay. Wait for your enemy to attack and parry their moves like a true samurai, before swooping in for a lethal counterattack. Each person Yushin possesses has their own unique weapon, as well as their own moveset - from wildly swinging a humble kitchen knife to swinging two katanas with enough lethality to make the real-life Battousai, Kawakami Gensai, blush.
But don’t get too eager to cut people down, as each "kill" decreases Yushin’s Soul Glow. Once his Soul Glow reaches zero, the tables turn on Yushin and he gets kicked out of the body, so you’ll have to find a new one.
AMEDAMA features:
⚫︎ Possess the bodies of the living! (forcibly, if needed)
⚫︎ Stylized pixel 3D graphics, like a PS1 game but cooler-looking
⚫︎ Save your mute little sister from very bad people
⚫︎ You’re stuck in a seven-day time loop until you do that
⚫︎ Beautiful soundtrack inspired by traditional Japanese music
⚫︎ Make different choices in the story, get different endings
⚫︎ The game may look like it’s 2D, but it’s a sandbox
⚫︎ Master the art of blocking your enemy’s attacks, before striking at the last minute
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about AMEDAMA’S's gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
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| Price | $22.49 | ||||
AMEDAMA Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Beautiful 3D Pixel Art Style and Music Multiple Story Paths and Endings Decent Combat and Possession Mechanics The Game Is a Bit Screwed Up but We Don’t Care (and You Won’t Too) |
Combat and Possession Can Get Cumbersome at Times Main Story Gets Easy to Piece Together Even by the Midpoint The Game Is Rather Short for its Asking Price Food System Feels Tacked-On at the Last Minute |
AMEDAMA Overall Score - 82/100
AMEDAMA is a weird game. Thankfully in a good way, as it combines straight-laced and beautifully crafted Japanese art and music with a rather wacky possession mechanic, decent combat, and a story with a good amount of branching paths that will make you want to see most, if not all the possible endings. There’s just something so funny about staring at this peaceful rainy Japanese town scene before it gets disrupted by you in the body of an old man kicking every person in sight. Though it’s a bit expensive for what it offers, AMEDAMA is a high-quality piece of art, with a decent game to boot.
AMEDAMA Story - 8/10
AMEDAMA’S story is straight out of an anime: An impoverished boy and his (adopted) sister are minding their own business in late Edo Period Japan when suddenly a devious masked man and his cronies attack. The boy gets killed, and his little sis gets kidnapped, but the boy finds out he can possess people after beating them up (read: kill). From there, our boy Yushin will find himself neck-deep in a conspiracy surrounding his sister, a suspicious "iron box," and the ultimate fate of Aihama. So he’ll have to possess the right people and make the right choices to get the golden ending and rescue his sister… after seeing every other ending, that is. The game’s multiple endings will keep you hooked until you’ve seen all possible conclusions.
AMEDAMA Gameplay - 8/10
AMEDAMA is technically two games: The first game has you looking for the right people to possess and piecing together the puzzle of who kidnapped Yushin’s sister, and why she was kidnapped in the first place. The second game is Yushin beating the ever-loving crap out of either enemies or people who are not too keen on being possessed and will need some "convincing" beforehand. Good thing that both these aspects blend well with each other, with neither the fighting nor the possessing demanding too much from the player except for finding the right person to possess, as well as basic timing and mouse-clicking.
AMEDAMA Visuals - 9/10
Beautiful. AMEDAMA is beautiful. That’s it. That’s the review.
But seriously, AMEDAMA is a beautiful game with a clear respect for its inspiration. Aihama, its people, and its many locations from the peaceful riverside to the bustling downtown, to its manicured monastery and bamboo paths - all of them are lovingly rendered in pixelated 2D and 3D. They look like Squaresoft pre-renders from the PlayStation 1 era, but they also have this poise and grace to them that makes them good enough to be desktop backgrounds. The characters themselves meanwhile are drawn in clean anime-style 2D, but somehow the contrast with the pixelated art style makes them blend even better within the game.
AMEDAMA Audio - 9/10
The audio in this game is so rich, in both how it presents its soundtrack and how it artistically renders the soundscape of rain in a Japanese town. The soundtrack is crisp, with shamisen strums blending in with the blow of a shakuhachi, the beats of various drums, and the koto strums that make it sound so dang Japanese (it gave me Total War: Shogun 2 flashbacks). As for the soundscaping, it only takes five minutes at the main menu to realize just how lavish the game’s rain sound effects are. Makes one wonder if the developers went out of their way to record real rain sounds just for this game.
AMEDAMA Value for Money -7/10
AMEDAMA’s in Early Access, and it’s asking $22.49 on opening day for what is essentially an 8 to 12-hour sidescroller (maybe 16 or so hours if you wanna be sweaty and complete everything). That price is already 10% off, by the way. Some people may think it’s still a tad bit expensive for what it’s asking, and that’s fine. Considering the quality of what went into it, though - great visuals and sound, coupled with decent gameplay and an actual story - it’s forgivable enough to consider buying it.
AMEDAMA Review: AMEDang, This Game Is Pretty (and a Bit Weird)
AMEDAMA is a beautiful game. We can write so many jokes about everything else it is, but it bears repeating that it is a beautiful game. It’s a good thing that the devs decided to go with stylized 2D and 3D pixel art rather than try to make the game look "realistic," because the former adds a certain grace to everything. From the scene of a riverside with water rippling between stones because of the rain, to people milling about between the wooden buildings downtown, to the crashing waves of the harbor and the teahouse by the seaside. Nearly every frame looks good enough to be a screen background, maybe even something you’d hang on a wall.
The soundtrack and sound effects prop up the art style, with traditional Japanese instruments setting the mood amid the pitter-patter of rain. A casual stroll through the town is backed by the strums of a shamisen and judicious blows of the shakuhachi, while boss battles are marked by drums and war horns that seem to boast about how powerful your opponent is. Each track is crisp, with no dithering or noticeable errors. Though the characters themselves are voiced only with grunts (save for one old guy at the very start of the game), it’s fitting enough for a 2D-style sidescroller like this.
Now, for the gameplay, one can say it’s "good" to rather decent. The possession mechanics are simple enough to understand: if you defeat that person in combat, you can possess them. Once you’ve possessed them, you’ll have access to all their moves, as well as special techniques that the game calls "Soul Specialisms." But the bodies you possess come with a time limit in the form of the Soul Glow. Every time you defeat a person, the Soul Glow number on the right-hand side of the screen goes down. Once it hits zero, you’ll be ejected from that body.
The game starts to open up once you’ve completed your first set of seven days. Yushin is thrown right back to the beginning of the game but with his level intact. He can also possess people he’s already defeated, allowing you to witness things you may have missed in your past playthrough. This is where AMEDAMA’s multiple endings come in: Defeat the boss of one story path, and you’ll be able to possess them in future runs. With the body of this boss, you can get into certain places that would’ve been restricted to you if you were in someone else’s body, leading to alternate endings.
Good thing that the main story and sub-stories are good enough to warrant looking for those multiple endings. Yuushin quickly realizes that there’s more to the entire situation than just his sister’s kidnapping, and you’ll want to know just how deep the rabbit hole goes. There are also the stories of side characters that you can find the end of if you wish. A story map in the game helps you keep track of which day leads to what conclusion, so players will have an easy time figuring out what they have to do to get to a certain ending.
Overall, AMEDAMA is a high-quality-looking game with beautiful art, a rich soundtrack, good gameplay, and a branching story. The price may be a tad bit high for a sidescroller, but there are enough interesting bits in the game to warrant it. Better to get it with its opening price of $22.49 for a small discount.
Pros of AMEDAMA
| Things AMEDAMA Got Right |
|---|
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Beautiful 3D Pixel Art Style and Music Multiple Story Paths and Endings Decent Combat and Possession Mechanics The Game Is a Bit Screwed Up but We Don’t Care (and You Won’t Too) |
Beautiful 3D Pixel Art Style and Music
We haven’t any other game with an art style quite like AMEDAMA, with its pixelated 2D backdrops and voxel-like 3D sprites in the foreground. Some games do "pixel-style" aesthetics and end up looking same-y, but AMEDAMA focuses on emphasizing its traditional Japanese inspiration and the amount of detail that goes into the artwork. Lacquered roofs in town are dripping with rainwater, there are signs written in Japanese everywhere, and the buildings you can enter either have paintings, posters, or small decorations here and there. There’s a high attention to detail that went into making these setpieces, and it shows, especially when you get to the monastery in town. All those flowers…
The day and night cycle adds different complexions to these setpieces, with a bright, somewhat light sepia tone in the day, before being bathed in blue at night (except for the Pleasure Quarter, which always seems draped in violet-red).
As for the music, we’ve already waxed poetic about the sounds themselves, but we want to emphasize that it sets the mood quite a bit. There’s tension in the air as Yushin (either in spirit form or in the body of whoever he possessed at that time) runs through town, looking for the next clue that would bring him that much closer to rescuing Yui. That’s in the middle of torrential rain, wind, and the splashing of water under one’s feet. It’s immersive and great to listen to all at once.
Multiple Story Paths and Endings
Now for the "story" aspect of AMEDAMA, we’ve already said there are multiple story paths and endings. What makes them worth seeing in the first place, however, is the story they’re attached to. It’s easy to feel for Yushin after he sees his sister getting kidnapped, only to be killed for all his trouble. Soon, as he possesses person after person connected with the kidnapping, he finds out that each of them has their own agendas and troubles, as well as their own flaws and plans for not only his sister but Aihama as a whole.
It feels like dipping head-first into a web of conspiracy, though it’s not overwhelming as to make one’s head spin. It’s just deep enough to keep one interested in finding out all the possibilities. And with Yushin trapped in a seven-day cycle until he rescues his sister, you’ll have a lot of time on your hands to find out everything.
Decent Combat and Possession Mechanics
Combat is reminiscent of older sidescroller games like Double Dragon in that you need to position yourself in a 2D foreground and get just close enough to enemies to hit them. But there’s an added twist with the "Misty Riposte" system, where you’ll be on guard and waiting for an enemy to strike, before parrying their blow and hitting them in turn.
Of course, the game doesn’t want to make it too easy - you have to watch your stamina bar since guarding drains that. If it runs out, your character will have to stop and catch their breath, leaving you open to attack. You can’t also wail repeatedly on enemies with your mouse buttons because they can counterattack with slashes of their own before getting up from the ground. Each hit stuns you and your enemies for a moment, which can then lead to stunlocking. You can do it to your enemies, but when they do it to you in turn, things can go south very fast. When facing bosses, the basics are the same, but they have their own gimmicks too with invincibility frames, attacks you can’t counter with Misty Riposte, and even unblockable attacks.
Once you defeat the enemy, though, you can possess them. Once you’ve possessed the character, you can Soul Shunt them in future runs. They even get an entry in the game’s "Body Brochure," which is kind of like a Pokedex, but for people. Does that sound strange? It gets a lot stranger.
The Game Is a Bit Screwed Up but We Don’t Care (and You Won’t Too)
So Yushin dies at the start of the story, right? But a Buddha statue saves his soul from going to heaven. He then possesses a frog, which then hops back to town to his umbrella shop. But then, he’s faced with a dog who wants to eat him, so Yushin uses his hidden sword techniques to somehow beat the dog up with his frog body. Despite drawing high-pressure blood Akira Kurosawa style, he possesses the dog, which then explores town until he comes across a bridge he can’t cross unless he becomes human.
It just so happens that a starving old man is at the bridge too, and he just died from hunger, so of course Yushin possesses him. Moments ago this old man just starved to death, but he is now capable of taking down bandit after bandit with his kitchen knife. Despite visibly killing these bandits (the game says they’re "on the verge of death" but the blood pools under them say otherwise), Yushin can possess their bodies and strut around town perfectly fine.
Oh yeah, did I mention that up to a certain point in the game, Yushin can kick every man, woman, dog, and frog in sight? Even after that, people would challenge him to a duel to the death, and he could simply possess their bodies once defeated. There are even some story-important characters who will just stand there while you kick their pixelated behinds without so much as a reaction.
And we’re not even talking about where the spirits of the bodies Yushin possesses go. Every time he possesses a body, a gray-colored soul comes out and flies up to heaven. One cannot help but wonder - did Yushin kill them? If you leave a body to possess another body, your old body will just stand there like a discarded set of power armor. Are they going to stay like that forever?
It’s these things, coupled with AMEDAMA’s straight-faced presentation of everything else, that make this title so… Japanese. There are no other titles where I can run around town as an old man, kicking everything and everything in sight, before cutting down even the toughest samurai with my kitchen knife.
Cons of AMEDAMA
| Things That AMEDAMA Can Improve |
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Combat and Possession Can Get Cumbersome at Times Main Story Gets Easy to Piece Together Even by the Midpoint The Game Is Rather Short for its Asking Price Food System Feels Tacked-On at the Last Minute |
Combat and Possession Can Get Cumbersome at Times
This may be just on the part of the devs trying to make it realistic, but sometimes there are sections in the game where you need to possess a certain type of body in order to get into an establishment, and in that establishment, you’ll be facing a boss. But if you get defeated, you are banished from the establishment and you’ll need to look for another body of the same type again. Unfortunately, they’re all on the opposite end of the map. This can get rather tedious at times since you’ll have to run all the way to the other end of the map, possess that person, and then run all the way back to your objective.
Main Story Gets Easy to Piece Together Even by the Midpoint
It doesn’t take long for the player to get a good grasp of what is actually going on with the main story. The game makes little to no effort to hide some of the major characters, and some of them act in a rather predictable way. You can go through the story and say "ha, called it" a few times, though there are exceptions. You’ll still want to find out the finer details of the narrative, though, so there’s still motivation to grind out the story paths and figure out how everyone is involved in this grand conspiracy.
The Game Is Rather Short for its Asking Price
You can clear the game in around 8 to 12 hours, maybe 16 if you want to complete every path and get every character. Its current price is rather expensive in that regard, if we’re going by $1 equals 1 hour of enjoyment from a game. But at the same time, those 12 to 16 hours will still be worth it because of the visuals, the sound, and the hijinks you can get into with possession.
Food System Feels Tacked-On
In AMEDAMA, you can buy food from local sellers, and this food gives various buffs to the body Yushin is currently using. That means extra defense, faster movement, more HP, higher attack damage, etc. But the system (save for food that restores HP) is kind of useless in that the bodies you’re using are all on a time limit anyway because of the Soul Glow mechanic, so you can simply possess a more powerful person and use them instead of needing to get a buff.
But the food system’s not too offensive either. It’s just… there. Also, the icons for the different types of food are rendered in pixel-style too. I’ve never seen a more delectable-looking bowl of pixel soba in a video game until AMEDAMA.
Is AMEDAMA Worth It?
Yes, despite the price
Yup, AMEDAMA’s worth it. It’s a bit expensive, but it’s a high-quality sidescroller with good gameplay and a decent story. You’ll want to know how deep the mystery is, and you’ll enjoy the art and the music, as well as the strangeness. Better to buy it at its early access launch price for a 10% discount.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
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| Price | $22.49 | ||||
AMEDAMA FAQ
Will AMEDAMA be available on platforms other than PC?
AMEDAMA’s developer, IzanagiGames, has said that it plans to add support for platforms other than PC, though it hasn’t specified which platforms these will be.
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AMEDAMA Product Information
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| Title | AMEDAMA |
|---|---|
| Release Date | March 22, 2024 (Early Access) |
| Developer | IzanagiGames, ACQUIRE Corp. |
| Publisher | IzanagiGames |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Action, Sandbox, Side-Scroller |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | IzanagiGames Official Website |
