Publisher CFK and developer DeerFarm have announced the voice cast, released the first screenshots, and opened the Steam page for newly announced side-scrolling shoot ’em up game Shikhondo: Blue Pieta.

Here are the latest details, including the voice cast:

About

Once more, the hunt for Youkai begins! Across the ocean in a city far, far away, the side-scrolling shoot ’em up action of our two protagonists unfolds! Complete the Pietà of struggle that burns blue with its raging barrage!

Act 2 of Shikhondo Unfolds Atop a New Stage

The darkness of the city and fantastical beasts of legend appear as formidable new enemies! Enjoy the fierce struggle of our two protagonists, drawn in an unmatched style, as the passionate performances of the all-star vocal cast bring them to life!

Chase the Shadows That Lurk Within the Glorious City Centers!

Set amongst meticulously drawn modern stages, including a big city, a theme park, a subway station, and more, the thrilling hunt of the Youkai begins, and you can’t let your guard down for a single instant!

A Battlefield Without Limits, Shaken to Its Core

Alongside the sense of immersion delivered through the overwhelmingly expanded scope of the battlefield, feel the tense action of drilling a hole through the brilliantly laid-out bullets! On top of that, the game fully supports ultra-wide 32:9 monitors!

Shoot for the Highest Score with “Soul Collect!”

The more risk you take, the more powerful you become with the ‘Soul Collect’ system! Avoid the enemies’ bullets by the slightest of margins to recharge your Soul Gauge, then unleash all the energy at once to turn the tide and reach the highest scores!

Shoot ‘Em Up Fun That Anyone Can Enjoy!

Enjoy the challenge that best matches your skills as you get a taste of the diverse array of game modes packed into Shikhondo: Blue Pieta!

Arcade Mode – A mode to enjoy the main story.

Boss Rush – An extreme series of battles against powerful enemies that won’t give a moment’s rest.

Custom Mode – A special experience allowing you to set your own conditions and challenge your limits.

Characters

Chae Woori, the Rookie Grim Reaper (voiced by Ikumi Hasegawa [Ikuyo Kita in Bocchi the Rock!]) – An ordinary college student buried under busy days, moving between the ordinary and extraordinary in her duties as a Death’s emissary trainee.

Layla, the Vampire Hunter (voiced by Yoshino Aoyama [Hitori Goto in Bocchi the Rock!]) – Heir to a family of wizards with a long history. As payment for the powerful magic she inherited from her predecessors, time has stopped for her, and her body shows no sign of aging for all time.

Sister Maria, a Boss Character (voiced by Sayumi Suzushiro [Nijika Ijichi in Bocchi the Rock!])

Full voice acting is planned for the entire game. Additional cast details will be announced in the coming weeks.

Shikhondo: Blue Pieta is due out for PC via Steam in the first half of 2026, followed by PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Switch at a later date.

Publisher CFK and developer DeerFarm have released new information and screenshots introducing side-scrolling shoot ’em up game Shikhondo: Blue Pieta‘s major characters: Layla, the vampire hunter; Chae Woori, the rookie grim reaper; and Sister Maria.

Get the details below.

■ Side-Scrolling: A Series First

For the first time in the series, Shikhondo: Blue Pieta makes the jump to side-scrolling. Where previous entries used a vertical-scrolling layout, this entry brings a fresh perspective to the series’ signature bullet hell gameplay. Further details on game systems will be announced in the coming weeks. The three characters revealed today are the game’s two protagonists and one boss character, brought to life by voice actors Yoshino Aoyama, Ikumi Hasegawa, and Sayumi Suzushiro. Here’s a closer look at each of them.

■ Characters

Layla, the Vampire Hunter (voiced by Yoshino Aoyama)

Layla is the heir to a wizard lineage with a long history. She calls herself a vampire hunter, but her identity has never been tied to a single title—over the years, she has been a wizard, a monster, a saint, the leader of a secret society, and a witch. Every name has passed through the same person. The wizard family Layla belongs to follows a system of apprenticeship rather than bloodline inheritance. A predecessor selects a disciple, and when that disciple is judged ready, a ritual transfers the magical power—fixing the successor’s appearance and physical state in place. Layla received her inheritance about twenty years ago, at the age of twenty-nine. Since then, she hasn’t aged a day. She quit being a wizard at seventeen, then returned ten years later. What happened in those ten years, she doesn’t seem particularly eager to share. Twenty years on from inheriting her power, she carries herself with the ease and humor of someone who has seen everything at least twice. In her teens, she joined a yokai-sealing mission alongside a fellow grim reaper named Gangrim and her mentor. Gangrim’s strength left a deep impression on her. These days she uses a hammer and chisel for her vampire hunter work—not out of preference, but practicality. She’ll use whatever gets the job done.

Chae Woori, the Rookie Grim Reaper (voiced by Ikumi Hasegawa)

Chae Woori is a twenty-three-year-old rookie grim reaper—though not long ago, she was just a college student living an ordinary life. During a previous incident in which yokai broke out of purgatory, she and Gangrim managed to seal all the escapees. But the disturbance stirred something deeper: creatures that had been dormant for a long time began to stir, and new ones started to emerge from the darkness. After returning home safely, Chae Woori graduated high school and started university. She now takes on yokai incidents during her breaks, building connections with the many organizations and people who deal with the supernatural. Of all the yokai sealed during that incident, one slipped away—a nameless creature that had just come into existence at the time. Now, traces of that same creature have appeared across the sea. With a letter from Gangrim in hand, Chae Woori boards a plane.

Sister Maria (voiced by Sayumi Suzushiro)

Sister Maria is a boss character in Shikhondo: Blue Pieta—and the first human boss in the history of the series. Where every previous Shikhondo boss has been a yokai or a creature of fantasy, Maria stands apart. A human being as the final obstacle—that alone tells you this game is trying to say something new. What exactly is she? That’s a story best experienced in the game itself.

Shikhondo: Blue Pieta is due out for PC via Steam and Stove in the first half of 2026, followed by PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Switch at a later date.

Publisher CFK and developer DeerFarm have released new information and screenshots for side-scrolling shoot ’em up game Shikhondo: Blue Pieta‘s introducing the game’s prologue and systems.

Get the details below.

■ About

The Shikhondo series has always been about getting close to the bullets. Blue Pieta takes that further—new city, new enemies, new mechanics built around the same core tension: how close are you willing to get? A vampire hunter. A rookie grim reaper. A city that keeps breaking in ways that shouldn’t be possible. The two cross paths, and a conflict begins that neither of them was fully prepared for. Full voice acting throughout. Ultra-wide support up to 32:9. Shikhondo: Blue Pieta follows Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage.

■ Prologue

Three days now. Morning and evening, knocking at the door. Fifth visit. Finally—a presence, somewhere inside. “Come in.” The room was darker than expected. A woman sat by the window, teacup in hand, watching. White hair. Unhurried eyes. A face far younger than anything she’d imagined. “…Aren’t you going to ask who I am?” The woman set down her cup and smiled. “It’s been a while since a grim reaper made it out this far. Figured you’d all be too busy to come in person—didn’t expect them to send someone so young.” In this line of work, reading someone’s age is pretty much impossible. She tilted her head, settled into the chair, and kept watching. “I haven’t been fixed like this for that long myself—not since I inherited the power. But you seem a little young to be here already. Anyway. Welcome. I’m Layla.” A small bow, still seated. “Chae Woori. I’m still an apprentice—I’ve heard you’re a friend of my senior’s, so I’m hoping to learn whatever I can.” “Eastern manners. Still alive and well. Ha. Likewise.” Layla smiled a little deeper and poured tea into the cup. “Sorry—I have to head out the moment I finish this. First time back home in almost a week. This isn’t your first visit, is it?” “No… I was thinking if you weren’t back by today, I’d leave a note and start scouting on my own. Nothing’s gone wrong yet, but I spotted a few signs of spatial distortion on the way here.” “Yeah, this place was a disaster at first. Took out the obvious ones, adjusted the seals, reinforced the preventive measures—managed to get it under control. But the fact that things keep happening without a break… there’s got to be something else causing it.” She drained the cup, then reached for the hammer and chisel leaning against the wall. “Alright then. Let’s go, Reaper.” The city the two protagonists walk into runs on rules the series has never seen before. Shikhondo: Blue Pieta rebuilds the bullet hell formula from the ground up—side-scrolling for the first time in franchise history, with a fully overhauled Soul Collect system and an all-new Counter Bomb mechanic that turns the moment of getting hit into a window of opportunity. Here’s how it works.

■ Game Systems

Side-Scrolling: A Franchise First

Every previous Shikhondo entry scrolled vertically. Blue Pieta doesn’t. The shift to side-scrolling changes how you read stages, how bullets move across the screen, and how you position yourself in the middle of it all. The series DNA is intact. The perspective is entirely new.

A City Unlike Any Before

The game’s stages span a sprawling metropolis, an amusement park, and a subway station—contemporary spaces packed with detail, pulled straight from a city that feels lived-in and just slightly off. The enemies that inhabit them aren’t the yokai of previous entries. They’re creatures drawn from the legends of a different world, and they hit differently. Full voice acting brings the story to life throughout.

Soul Collect: Raised Stakes, Higher Ceiling

The Soul Collect system from Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage returns in Blue Pieta, and it’s been pushed further. Graze enemy bullets to charge the Soul Gauge. Fill it up, and you can trigger Soul Collect Mode—converting every bullet on screen into score pickups and doubling your multiplier. If you still have bombs left, spend one to push into a second stage: multiplier hits 4x, normal attacks get a boost on top of that. The closer you play to the edge, the more you stand to gain. High risk. High reward. That’s the deal.

New to the Series: Counter Bomb

Here’s the new one. Take a hit, and the screen flashes—you have eight frames. Press the bomb button in that window and the hit doesn’t land. Instead, you either pop Soul Collect Mode or spend a bomb. It’s a mechanic that rewards players who stay sharp under pressure and punishes the ones who don’t. Every near-death is a decision point now. Counter Bomb requires either a full Soul Gauge or at least one available bomb to activate.

Fantasy bullet hell shoot ’em up game Shikhondo: Blue Pieta will launch for PC via Steam and Stove on May 18, followed by PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Switch at a later date, publisher CFK and developer DeerFarm announced. It will support English, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese language options.

Here is an overview of the game, via CFK:

About

Shikhondo: Blue Pieta is a side-scrolling fantasy bullet hell—a series first. It follows Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage (Steam: April 2024, Nintendo Switch: May 2025), moving the stage to a foreign city where a rookie grim reaper and a vampire hunter cross paths. Full voice acting throughout. Ultra-wide support up to 32:9.

What’s New

"Shikhondo: Soul Eater" for the PlayStation 4 is a bullet hell shooter game rooted in East Asian folklore, particularly focusing on themes of demons and spirits that have escaped from hell to wreak havoc on Earth. The game's aesthetic and narrative context provides a unique stage for exploring profound philosophical themes concerning dualism, morality, the cycle of sin and redemption, and existential battles. This analysis will draw from the philosophies of Zhuangzi, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and Arthur Schopenhauer to delve into the game’s underlying philosophical and spiritual dimensions.

1. Zhuangzi and the Fluidity of Moral Boundaries: Zhuangzi, a foundational figure in Daoism, emphasized the relativity and transformation of all things, advocating for a perspective that transcends rigid moral and ontological dualities. "Shikhondo: Soul Eater," with its blurring of the lines between demons and the divine, humans and spirits, embodies this philosophical fluidity. The characters, whether they are soul collectors or demonic entities, challenge conventional moral categorizations, suggesting that good and evil are not absolute but interdependent and transformable states. Zhuangzi’s idea that “true men” transcend life and death, viewing existence from the perspective of the infinite, can be applied to understand the game's narrative of constant battle between realms.

2. Nietzsche and the Will to Power: Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the "will to power" provides a lens to explore the characters' motivations and actions in "Shikhondo." Nietzsche proposed that the fundamental driving force in humans is not survival or reproduction, but a fundamental will to manifest power. The intense, endless battles against waves of enemies can be seen as an expression of this will, where each character strives to assert their dominance and achieve mastery over chaos. This philosophical perspective highlights the existential dimension of their struggle, emphasizing the game’s portrayal of life as a perpetual conflict and quest for self-overcoming.

3. Carl Jung and the Shadow Self: Carl Jung’s theory of the Shadow, the unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself, is vividly relevant in "Shikhondo." The game’s demons can be seen as manifestations of the Shadow self, representing the repressed, darker aspects of human psyche that must be confronted and integrated. Jungian analysis would suggest that the battle against these demons is symbolic of the psychic battle to acknowledge and reconcile with one’s own darker sides, a necessary step towards psychological wholeness and individuation.

4. Schopenhauer and the Metaphysics of Will: Arthur Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy, which posits that the world is driven by a blind, irrational "Will" that manifests in visible phenomena, can be applied to the chaotic and violent world of "Shikhondo." Schopenhauer viewed human actions as influenced by an underlying Will that leads to suffering and strife; similarly, the endless conflict in the game can be interpreted as the unfolding of this metaphysical Will. The cyclical nature of battles in the game, where peace is perpetually disrupted by new threats, mirrors Schopenhauer’s view of existence as a constant cycle of desire and suffering.