Tensei Game (tentative) is a four-player board game-style title coming to Nintendo Switch in the summer of 2026. Co-developed by ArtePiazza and Any, the game was supervised by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, with an original concept and scenario penned by author Muneyuki Kaneshiro (As the Gods Will, Blue Lock). Shintaro Mashima, known for his work on the Dragon Quest and SaGa series, serves as art director.
Following Tensei Game (lit. Reincarnation Game)’s initial announcement in May 2025, there has been little news on the project, but recently, Horii and Kaneshiro shed some light on the “friendship-wrecking” game they’ve been quietly working on in an interview with Denfaminicogamer.
Horii explained that contrary to his previous party game/digital board game Itadaki Street, which centered on exchanging money, Tensei Game revolves around a completely different concept. It’s fundamentally a sugoroku-style game, so it follows the basic mechanics of rolling dice and progressing on a game board, but the twist is that players will reincarnate into all sorts of life forms (including humans of various professions, animals, and even microorganisms).
Kaneshiro conceptualized it as an alternative take on the classic “The Game of Life,” but taking place after death. “The main concept is that everyone dies, becoming something like a soul, and then fights each other to be reborn. Looking back on it now, it’s kind of like Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s The Spider’s Thread. A sinner arrives in hell, and a spider lowers a single thread. But when they try to climb it, the other sinners swarm after them, and while kicking the others down, they end up falling themselves.”
The difference is, Tensei Game isn’t set in hell, but in Rinnekai, or the realm of reincarnation, where people fall and become beings called Karmans. Four players are forced into a death-game-style competition where they gather karma, with karma functioning almost like a currency. By collecting karma, the top three players get to be reborn, while the player in fourth place is doomed. “So if you want to live again, Kaneshiro explains, “you’ll need to sabotage others, form alliances, and scheme against people. You can be cruel, or you can show mercy. That’s the kind of gameplay it is.”
While the basic game cycle of collecting karma to progress and reincarnate, the game will come with chance cards and events that can be used to knock other players down, which the devs hope will make it a thrilling experience for both the players and potential spectators (the game was designated with affinity with streamers in mind). Additionally, Horii stresses that it will be important to choose what to reincarnate into wisely.
Tensei Game (tentative) is planned to release in the summer of 2026 for Nintendo Switch. It’s currently not known whether there are plans for release outside of Japan. The developers have also announced plans for potential IP expansion via anime, manga and merchandising.
