Back in May this year, Akatsuki Games announced that the action RPG Tribe Nine would be shut down on November 27. News of the premature end-of-services came as a big shock to players and fans of the franchise, as it was announced only three months after the game launched and exceeded 10 million downloads worldwide. It goes without saying, but Tribe Nine ended without proper closure. To right this wrong, the creator of the franchise’s original concept – Too Kyo Games’ head Kazutaka Kodaka – established Neoneon Tribe, an independent group dedicated to continuing and completing the story.
Working on the project alongside Kodaka are Tribe Nine’s former producer Shuhei Yamaguchi and former scenario writer Katsunori Suginaka. Although their activities are unofficial, they have received blessings from Akatsuki Games (who still owns the IP) to publish the rest of Tribe Nine’s story in a non-profit, doujinshi capacity.
Where does the project lie now? As of November 21, the Neoneon Tribe project got an official homepage, and on the same date, Chapters 0 and 1 of the new novelization were published under the “Story” category. For now, the chapters are only available in Japanese, but according to an update from the creators, an English translation is in the works. Apart from that, the site also has a Character Introduction section, where new character profiles and backstories will be added as the project advances.
Additionally, as previously expressed by Kodaka and his peers, Neoneon Tribe will be a collaborative effort between the founders, fans and other professional and independent creators. To this end, they have published an open call for artwork that will be incorporated into the novel. Submissions for illustrations are being accepted through the official Discord server. The due date for artwork for Chapters 0 and 1 is Friday 20, 2026, and further rules and details about submissions are explained in the Discord.
In a founders’ message on the site, Kodaka, Suginaka and Yamaguchi comment, “We hope that Tribe Nine “will remain a work that is talked about for years to come. We will continue to create new stories centered around sequels to the untold tales within the work and reconstructions of existing narratives.”
Now that he has actually started working on Neoneon Tribe in earnest, Kodaka says it’s tougher than he’d anticipated (which is not surprising giving his work as a full-time developer), however, he’s dedicated to sticking to the project and giving Tribe Nine a proper ending.
Updates on the project can be found on the official Neoneon Tribe X account.
