Highlights
- Slitterhead is a horror action-adventure game from Keiichiro Toyama and Bokeh Game Studio, set in a fictional Asian city with a premise similar to Jujutsu Kaisen and Parasyte.
- The game draws inspiration from manga like Gantz, Parasyte, and Tokyo Ghoul, as well as Chinese folklore monster Yegouzi, and incorporates elements from previous titles like Siren and Gravity Rush.
- Slitterhead promises a unique blend of horror, anime, and Chinese folklore in its gameplay, aiming to be approachable for a wider audience and offering a treat for manga and anime fans.
This year’s Summer Game Fest gave us an extended look at Slitterhead, the upcoming horror action-adventure title from Bokeh Game Studio and the original Silent Hill creator, Keiichiro Toyama. Set in the neon-filled streets of a fictional Asian city, a boundless entity is tasked with destroying the titular monsters that disguise themselves as humans. It’s a premise that anime fans will resonate with, sharing a thematic space with the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen and Parasyte, and the creator recently confirmed a lot of the game’s inspiration hailed from manga.
Having previously helmed Siren and Gravity Rush, Toyama has also incorporated several components from these titles into Slitterhead’s gameplay, in addition to harboring a few atmospheric Silent Hill elements in the blueprint, like hiring composer Akira Yamaoka to work on the score. Combining manga, Silent Hill, and the design of a brain-eating Chinese monster within the studio’s influence pool, Slitterhead is shaping up to be an amalgamation of rich material that’s already beloved by anime fans.
Slitterhead Draws Inspiration From The Anime Greats
During an interview with IGN, Toyama noted that he was “especially inspired” by manga like Gantz, Parasyte, and Tokyo Ghoul. The “essence of horror” and the “battle action” that takes place in these particular creations made the material “more accessible” in the creator’s eyes, and he wanted Slitterhead to be “approachable for a wider audience” too. Combining veteran anime fans’ concern about a character’s death with a casual watcher’s entertainment from high-octane battles is an “approach unique to Japanese manga”, says Toyama, and he wanted this essence to also exist in Slitterhead.
There’s a clear visual similarity between the monstrous, mutated creatures in Slitterhead and the organisms from Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga series Parasyte, which was also adapted into an anime. Faces opening up like orchids once infected and the parasites hiding in plain sight under the cover of human skin will be the main threat in Bokeh’s game also. Additionally, Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul has a slew of creatures devouring human flesh, and the game’s protagonist, Hyoki, has the appearance of the leading half-ghoul, Ken Kaneki. Ishida’s manga also found success in an anime adaptation, and fans of both body horror projects will likely find a lot to admire in Slitterhead.