| Hirogami | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Hirogami Review Overview
What is Hirogami?
Hirogami is a 3D action-platformer developed by Bandai Namco Studios Singapore and Malaysia, and published by Kakehashi Games. It is set to release on PC (Steam and Epic Store) and PS5 on September 3, 2025. Players take on the role of Hiro, a sentient origami who wields a powerful folding fan and is a master of the mystical art of paper folding. On a quest to save the world from digital invaders who have stolen his powers, Hiro regains his shape-shifting abilities, transforming into various forms to solve intricate puzzles and battle enemies across vibrant, foldable landscapes.
Hirogami features:
⚫︎ 3D Platformer
⚫︎ Action-Adventure
⚫︎ Puzzle Elements
⚫︎ Single Player
⚫︎ Fantasy
⚫︎ Based on Japanese Paper Folding Art “Origami”
⚫︎ Shapeshifting Powers
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Hirogami's gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 PlayStation |
 Epic |
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| Price: | $29.99 | |||||||
Hirogami Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 A Beautiful Origami World Creative Puzzles and Platforming Segments Shapeshifting Powers are Diverse and Fun Immersive Soundtrack |
Enemies are Easy, Almost Paper Thin Fragile Some Noticeable Bugs and Glitches Could Have Used Voice Acting |
Hirogami Story - 7/10
Hirogami’s story follows a fairly standard “save the world” premise. The plot itself isn’t particularly engaging or groundbreaking, but the characters, especially the witty and charming hero Hiro, help carry the somewhat generic narrative. The game also earns points for its thoughtful nods to Japanese culture and mythology woven throughout.
Hirogami Gameplay - 9/10
Hirogami shines in pure creativity, with its puzzles, combat, and platforming all working in harmony. The protagonist’s transformation abilities make traversal genuinely enjoyable, offering numerous inventive ways to overcome obstacles and uncover hidden secrets. The main drawback is that the game is far too easy to complete.
Hirogami Visuals - 8/10
Hirogami’s world is a papercraft paradise, where everything feels handcrafted from real kami, from the movement to the way its framerate is presented as a deliberate artistic choice. The beautiful origami-inspired designs make it a joy to explore, though the experience is held back slightly by a handful of bugs that will hopefully be patched out.
Hirogami Audio - 9/10
The game features a beautiful Japanese-inspired soundtrack that greatly enhances immersion, complemented by fantastic sound design, particularly the subtle paper crinkles and effects that bring the world to life. Its only real drawback is the absence of voice acting, even in a minimal form, which could have helped elevate the somewhat underwhelming narrative.
Hirogami Value for Money - 8/10
Hirogami is priced at $30, which is a great deal given its reasonable length, replayable levels, and genuinely fun platforming that outshines many of its peers. The experience does lose a few points, however, due to bugs that range from minor annoyances to one that even forced me to restart a level.
Hirogami Overall Score - 82/100
Hirogami is a delightfully creative 3D platformer that folds its shapeshifting mechanics into a tapestry of clever puzzles and playful challenges. It may be on the easier side, but its constant sense of creativity makes you feel like an origami artist, shaping, unfolding, and breathing life into paper forms with every move.
Hirogami Review: A Wonderfully Crafted Platformer
For years now, many in the gaming community have argued that platformers are a dying genre. Outside of Nintendo’s output, there’s definitely some truth to that sentiment. But lately, we’ve seen a resurgence, with major releases like Astro Bot reminding players just how magical the genre can be. As someone who has spent countless hours with platformers and believes they’ll always hold a special place on every console, I was craving that same spark. When I first heard about Hirogami, it immediately caught my attention.
The game looked like it had the potential not only to capture the same sense of joy Astro Bot delivered, but also to carve out its own place in the genre. In Hirogami, you play as Hiro, a fan-wielding master of folding techniques, on a quest to defeat the Blight, save the origami world, and shapeshift your way through obstacles.
The concept immediately reminded me of Tearaway with its papercraft aesthetic, mixed with a touch of Kirby and Mario. Its transformation mechanics looked fresh, unique, and endlessly creative, and I couldn’t wait to dive in. So, let’s start by exploring its world and story.
A World as Beautiful and Fragile as Paper
While games like Paper Mario and Tearaway have already explored the paper aesthetic, Hirogami gives it a fresh twist by building its entire world around origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. The game beautifully captures that essence, from the design of its creatures and characters to the environments that feel truly handcrafted. Every detail, from trees to mushrooms, looks like it could have been folded together in real life, sparking the thought: “Could I actually fold that myself?”
Hiro himself is a standout, with a design that’s both abstract and unique. His transformations, whether into a sheet of paper, a frog, or even an armadillo, feel like they’re all crafted from the same divine kami’s hand. And it’s not just how it looks, but how it moves. Hiro’s animations have a slightly choppy, stop-motion feel, as if each fold and unfold were captured frame by frame. It’s a deliberate choice that makes his movements look like actual paper being manipulated, and it adds a lot of charm—reminding me of stop motion films like Coraline.
I also love how fragile the world feels, just like real paper. The Blight, digital glitch-like creatures corrupting the origami realm, spread across the land as if water had spilled onto a delicate sheet. It’s strikingly elegant, almost like watching a traditional Japanese artist deconstruct their own work. The presentation is so strong that it actually made me want to try learning origami myself.
This beauty is elevated even further by the game’s serene and blissful soundtrack. It leans heavily on traditional Japanese instruments, with the shamisen’s plucked strings giving the music a grounded, earthy texture, while the bamboo flute carries airy notes that drift like wind across a quiet field. There’s a meditative quality to the score that perfectly matches the handcrafted origami world, filling it with a sense of elegance and calm. Yet when the tension rises, the music shifts, quickening its pace and layering its instruments to create an urgent, almost dangerous energy.
As for the story, it isn’t anything groundbreaking. At its core, it’s a familiar “save the world” narrative, but the unique origami setting helps give it a distinctive charm. What really carries the story are its characters. Hiro, in particular, is a likable, witty, and charismatic protagonist whose lighthearted personality makes the journey more enjoyable. The narrative may be serviceable at best, but the true highlight of Hirogami lies in its gameplay.
Bugs That Need to be Patched Out Soon
The game absolutely looks gorgeous, but just like paper, it has a few crinkles, and in this case, those crinkles are the bugs I ran into. Most of them were minor, like the poison effect from the toad transformation not showing up, or jumping perfectly onto a platform only to fall through for no reason.
Those were small annoyances, but one big issue I encountered was when I transformed mid-air into paper and got stuck inside an object. I couldn’t transform back, and my character was completely frozen, forcing me to restart the whole level. Thankfully, I never ran into any game-crashing bugs, but hopefully these glitches get ironed out in a day-one patch.
Smart and Creative Integration of Shapeshifting
Imagine blending the platforming charm of Kirby and Mario, complete with their power-up variety, but with a unique origami twist, and you’ve got the essence of Hirogami. The gameplay loop will feel familiar to fans of the genre: you explore a central hub, progress through handcrafted levels, and gradually restore the papercraft world from the Blight by defeating enemies, solving puzzles, and repairing corrupted structures with Hiro’s sacred fan. It may sound standard on paper (no pun intended), but the execution is seamless and endlessly fun.
What makes Hirogami stand out is how good it feels to play. Hiro’s transformations are fluid and responsive, letting you switch between forms instantly with no menus slowing you down. Early on, you gain the paper form, which lets you glide across windy areas or slip through tight spaces. As you progress, you unlock new transformations like the armadillo, frog, bird, and gorilla, each adding unique traversal abilities and combat options.
For example, the frog can jump higher and poison enemies, the armadillo can roll at high speeds and smash through walls, and the gorilla lets you climb and tackle vertical challenges. Later upgrades even expand these abilities, like giving the armadillo a powerful high jump. My favorite transformation would definitely be the Armadillo because I love rolling around levels.
Well Designed Levels with Lots of Replay Value
The brilliance lies in how these forms are integrated into both combat and puzzles. Levels are designed to constantly push you to chain transformations together: rolling through walls as an armadillo, leaping onto mushrooms as a frog, flattening into paper to dodge hazards, and finally restoring shrines with Hiro’s fan. Combat encounters also encourage creativity, with enemies that require specific counters. A shielded foe, for example, might force you to use the frog’s poison before following up with Hiro’s fan attack or the armadillo’s charge. Every transformation feels essential, and the synergy between them makes you feel like a true origami master.
And man, the platforming in this game is just a blast. Like I mentioned before, you’re constantly switching between forms, and each one complements the others perfectly. The environments are just as fun, with bouncing mushrooms, cannons that launch you across the level, and vines to climb, making the world feel lively and dynamic. The controls are sharp and precise, but I also love that you can tweak the settings to better suit your playstyle.
The puzzles themselves are equally inventive, often mixing 2D and 3D perspectives to keep things dynamic. They make clever use of your abilities, whether it’s navigating platforms, solving mazes, or multitasking between enemies and environmental challenges. As you progress, you gain a tangible sense of growth, with your expanding toolkit opening up new strategies and secrets. And with replayable levels, hidden scrolls, optional tasks, and special Golden Crane stages, the replay value is surprisingly deep.
Puzzles and Combat Lack Difficulty
For all my praise of the gameplay, my one major gripe is that Hirogami is simply too easy. I get that platformers aren’t always about tough combat, but I really wish the game had a difficulty option, at least for battles. Enemies go down far too quickly, dodging is effortless, and I never once felt genuinely threatened, even during boss encounters.
The puzzles, too, are beautifully designed and wonderfully creative, but they never pushed me to think too hard or left me stumped for long. Don’t get me wrong, I admired their creativity and presentation, but they didn’t truly test my problem-solving skills. I understand that the goal was likely to create a more relaxing, accessible experience, yet a little more challenge would have gone a long way in elevating the adventure.
Thankfully, the lack of difficulty isn’t a dealbreaker, because the puzzles and platforming sections are so consistently fun and creative. Each level introduces unique challenges that keep the experience fresh. While the ultimate objectives may be similar, such as restoring a corrupted statue, the path to get there varies with clever twists.
For example, you might need to gather elemental pieces hidden across different areas, each filled with puzzles that mix and match your transformations. One standout moment for me was navigating a series of moving platforms, where I had to leap as the frog and instantly switch into paper mid-air to land safely. Sequences like this are executed so smoothly that they’re a genuine joy to play.
The Game Could Have Used Voice-Acting
Part of the reason I wasn’t fully invested in the story is the lack of voice acting. While it’s not uncommon for platformers to go without, even minimal voice work or simple grunts could have gone a long way. As it stands, characters feel oddly silent, which makes them less engaging and leaves their personalities underdeveloped. You’re left reading text boxes, which isn’t terrible, but some voice acting would have added much more life and made the narrative far more compelling.
Is Hirogami Worth It?
Yes, Spend Your Paper on This
Yes, Hirogami is absolutely worth playing right now. It’s a fun, creative adventure that may lean on the easier side and doesn’t offer the most compelling story, but it more than makes up for it with its inventive level design and impressive transformation animations. The replay value is also strong, with levels you can revisit to uncover secrets tied to new animal transformations, craft new skills, collect scrolls for artwork, and tackle challenging Golden Crane levels.
When it comes to bugs, none of them are game-breaking. Most are minor inconveniences that will hopefully be ironed out with a day-one patch. At just $30, it’s a fantastic deal compared to pricier platformers like Astro Bot or recent Mario titles. Simply put, Hirogami is a joy to play and definitely deserves your time and money.
| Digital Storefronts | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
PlayStation |
Epic |
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| Price: | $29.99 | |||||||
Hirogami FAQ
Is Hirogami Coming to the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Consoles?
Unfortunately, the game is currently only available on PC and PS5.
Does Hirogami Have a Demo?
Yes, Hirogami Demo is available on Steam.
Game8 Reviews
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Hirogami Product Information
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| Title | Hirogami |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 3, 2025 |
| Developer | Bandai Namco Singapore and Malaysia |
| Publisher | Kakehashi Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC, PS5 |
| Genre | Action, Platformer |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | E |
| Official Website | Hirogami Website |
