{"id":63958,"date":"2026-03-25T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=63958"},"modified":"2026-03-24T19:08:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:08:56","slug":"guilty-gear-creators-new-action-rpg-is-a-project-meant-to-be-on-the-same-scale-as-castlevania-with-the-goal-to-foster-young-devs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-creators-new-action-rpg-is-a-project-meant-to-be-on-the-same-scale-as-castlevania-with-the-goal-to-foster-young-devs\/","title":{"rendered":"Guilty Gear creator\u2019s new action RPG is a project meant to be on the same scale as Castlevania, with the goal to foster young devs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari\u2019s announcement of his new top-down action RPG, <strong>Damon and Baby,<\/strong> during <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/KTmGjSdePtU?si=oGEhrYVpHqv86_ou\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">last year\u2019s Arc System Works Showcase<\/a> took many by surprise. While many expected the game to feel similar to the popular anime fighting game franchise, Ishiwatari says its initial inspiration came from Castlevania and his desire to prepare young ArcSys devs to create unique titles of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"DAMON and BABY - Pre-Order Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hHY9opUFrRw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with Korean outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamemeca.com\/view.php?gid=1773023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameMeca<\/a>, Ishiwatari revealed that Damon and Baby is ArcSys\u2019s first step toward gaining experience in raising the quality of small-scale games to a certain standard (note that this is based on machine translation, so exact nuances should be taken with a grain of salt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His goal with Damon and Baby is to create a unique action RPG that will hopefully become popular in the indie game scene; something that, in his words, &#8220;could rival Castlevania&#8221; (he likely refers to Castlevania&#8217;s impact on the gaming industry). Instead of \u201cjust copying and pasting existing elements\u201d and taking the same route as their existing titles, the developers wanted to create something that would highlight their unique strengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Damon and Baby originally began as a side-scrolling gun action title, it soon evolved into the twin-stick shooter it is today. With the genre set in stone, the theme of demons mixed with gunplay soon followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63963\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580001.jpg 960w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to appealing to indie fans, one of the game\u2019s primary goals is to nurture its younger developers. While ArcSys is known for its high-quality fighting games, according to Ishiwatari, its younger staff members don\u2019t have much experience when it comes to creating titles of other genres. In this case, the primary motivation behind Damon and Baby was to allow younger developers to gain experience in working on different genres, like working on an action RPG from start to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ishiwatari adds that creating an indie-like game within a big studio like ArcSys isn\u2019t the same as with a small company, as the required manpower and budget would increase significantly, resulting in a title that would no longer be able to offer a kind of competitive price associated with indie games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-63964\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580002.jpg 960w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-639580002-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of a traditional development cycle, Damon and Baby\u2019s development was much shorter, with less time spent on specifications and design documents. This allowed the developers to focus more on the game\u2019s action-puzzle elements and overall exploration \u2013 gameplay aspects you don\u2019t see in every action RPG. Those looking for a challenge, however, will be pleased to know that ArcSys didn\u2019t skimp on the boss battles, which Ishiwatari says resemble bullet hell shooters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Damon and Baby is set to release on March 26 for PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, and Windows (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/3557460\/DAMON_and_BABY\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-strives-overseas-publishing-rights-to-be-transferred-from-bandai-namco-entertainment-to-developer-arc-system-works\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Guilty Gear Strive\u2019s overseas publishing rights to be transferred from Bandai Namco Entertainment to developer Arc System Works<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/marvel-tokon-fighting-souls-anime-look-wasnt-pushed-by-arc-system-works-but-marvel-games\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Marvel T\u014dkon: Fighting Souls\u2019 anime look wasn\u2019t pushed by Arc System Works, but Marvel Games<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent interview, Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari talks about the development of his upcoming game Damon and Baby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":63962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-63958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Guilty Gear creator\u2019s new action RPG is a project meant to be on the same scale as Castlevania, with the goal to foster young devs - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent interview, Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari talks about the development of his upcoming game Damon and Baby.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-creators-new-action-rpg-is-a-project-meant-to-be-on-the-same-scale-as-castlevania-with-the-goal-to-foster-young-devs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guilty Gear creator\u2019s new action RPG is a project meant to be on the same scale as Castlevania, with the goal to foster young devs - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent interview, Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari talks about the development of his upcoming game Damon and Baby.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/guilty-gear-creators-new-action-rpg-is-a-project-meant-to-be-on-the-same-scale-as-castlevania-with-the-goal-to-foster-young-devs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-24T19:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260324-63958-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"941\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Guilty Gear creator\u2019s new action RPG is a project meant to be on the same scale as Castlevania, with the goal to foster young devs - 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