Tencent-Affiliated COSMICPUP STUDIO Announces Open-World RPG Human Whimsy Project
The pitch leans on Fushigi as ordinary neighbors rather than horror monsters, a framing the genre's anime-style city RPGs have not centered, and the PV spends its time on that domestic strangeness instead of combat spectacle.
Key Facts
- COSMICPUP STUDIO announced Human Whimsy Project on October 21 for Japan, Europe, and the US.
- Human Whimsy Project is in development for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and is free-to-play with pre-registration open.
- Human Whimsy Project is set in Elysian, a floating city of many islands where humans coexist with beings called Fushigi.
- A 22-minute PV shows the protagonist and assistant Arabella investigating an incident that turns humans into gingerbread men.
- Human Whimsy Project was produced with Unreal Engine 5.
Reporting from 2 sources: Denfaminicogamer, Game Spark.
COSMICPUP STUDIO, a Tencent-affiliated developer, announced the open-world RPG Human Whimsy Project on October 21 for Japan, Europe, and the US. The game is set in Elysian, a floating city of many islands where humans live alongside beings called Fushigi. Players are special investigators recognized by the Elysian Investigation Bureau, taking requests from both humans and Fushigi. The first PV follows a paper-bag-wearing protagonist and assistant Arabella, described as a Fushigi of clothes who lives inside a painting, through an incident that turns humans into gingerbread men. Combat is 3D action: players guard on timing, switch companions in real time, and attack. One boss fight with the Nightingale Girls runs as simultaneous combat with 8 bodies and includes a roulette that deals heavy damage on a red space. The footage was made with Unreal Engine 5. It is free-to-play for PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with pre-registration open on the official website.
The PV is framed around a festival called Fushigi Day, a citywide parade whose mood mixes theme-park cheer with horror-game unease. Denfaminicogamer compared the parade to the procession in Satoshi Kon's film "Paprika," calling the overall effect "eerie, yet somehow you can't look away."
The story hinges on a past incident, the Nightingale Theater Incident, and on Luminar, a mysterious woman who disrupts the parade and asks the protagonist, "Boss, did you betray us?" The protagonist, Luminar, and Arabella were once children at a facility that raised them to "adapt" to something, where eating candy was treated as "education." During an escape, the protagonist was captured and "adapted," and the PV implies they disposed of the remaining children as "junk." A doll resembling Luminar appears throughout the footage, which the article reads as possible surveillance.
Combat varies by boss, with gimmicks tied to each Fushigi and interaction elements that respond to enemy attacks. The city districts differ in look, from calm residential areas to busy commercial districts and shadowy urban zones, and the PV shows wire-action moves to reach higher places alongside life simulation elements.
A Steam store page is planned for a later date. Follow-up news is set for the official X, YouTube, and Discord accounts.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.