The PC adventure game Ukiyo, a cyberpunk samurai cat story developed by Freekey Design, was canceled by publisher Shueisha Games on June 30, 2026, and the developer has taken over future updates. A separate free visual novel titled Bishoujo Ukiyoe-shi -HOKU, which shares the ukiyo-e theme but is unrelated to the canceled game, launched on unityroom on June 16, 2026.
Two different projects share the ukiyo-e theme but have no connection to each other. The first, a PC adventure game called Ukiyo, was being developed by Freekey Design and published by Shueisha Games. On June 30, 2026, Shueisha Games announced it would cancel the release of the game, apologizing to fans who had been waiting for it. The game, described as a cyberpunk samurai cat story, had been shown at events in 2022 but had received no updates since then. Shueisha Games stated that future information about the project would come directly from Freekey Design, handing control of the title back to the small developer.
The second project, Bishoujo Ukiyoe-shi -HOKU, is a free visual novel released on unityroom on June 16, 2026, by developer Asumaro. It reimagines Edo-period artist Katsushika Hokusai as a modern beautiful girl streamer named HOKU who wants to become a god-tier artist. Players act as a publisher commissioning pictures, with branching stories and an encyclopedia of Hokusai's real works. Playtime is about 15 minutes. The two works share the ukiyo-e cultural reference but are otherwise unrelated in development, publisher, or platform.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself
sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every
fact links the story it came from.
Jun 30
Shueisha Games announced on June 30 that it will cancel the release of the PC adventure game Ukiyo, which was in development by Free Key Design. The game, set in a cyberspace world with a Japanese-style aesthetic, follows a samurai cat named Kai trapped in a virtual space called UKIYO. It had been shown at events like BitSummit and Tokyo Game Show in 2022, but updates on its official X account had stopped. Shueisha Games apologized to those waiting for the release and said future information will come from the developer. According to Game Spark and GameBusiness.jp, the publisher and developer on the Steam store page have been changed to FREAKY DESIGN, which was previously handling the design aspect. The game was originally part of Shueisha's Game Creators CAMP support project. Seaknot Studios, which handled game system production, has not commented on the change.
Jun 16
Developer Asumaro released the free ukiyo-e selection adventure game Bishoujo Ukiyoe-shi -HOKU on unityroom on June 16. The game reimagines Edo-period artist Katsushika Hokusai as a modern beautiful girl streamer named HOKU who seeks to become a god-tier artist. Players act as a publisher commissioning pictures, with branching stories and an encyclopedia of Hokusai's real works. Playtime is about 15 minutes.