{"id":64766,"date":"2026-04-07T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64766"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:38:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:38:31","slug":"japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland &#8211; AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese publisher Regista just announced that their exploration-focused fantasy adventure game <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/aiwu0303of\"><strong>Alice in Wonder Underland &#8211; AIWU &#8211;<\/strong><\/a> would release on April 23, For PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/aiwu0303st\">Steam<\/a>) and the Nintendo Switch. To commemorate the release, a month-long 20% discount sale is planned for both platforms.<\/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=\"Alice in Wonder Underland AIWU PV for Steam\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JAJAM1UdzjM?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>Alice in Wonder Underland &#8211; AIWU &#8211; follows the story of Alice, who wakes up in a mysterious room, and guided by her curiosity, decides to set off beyond the door. Outside the room lies a bizarre, fantasy-like world, which the player can explore freely without any constraints. The \u201cunknown, yet oddly nostalgic world\u201d features over 30 different areas to explore, from fairytale-inspired surrealistic realms to creepy-looking rural Japanese townscapes. The order in which to visit these areas and the style of exploration is completely up to the player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The game blends elements of dark fairytales, occult, internet culture and liminal spaces, aiming to evoke a sense of unease and deliver a \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore.<\/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\/20260311-62709-header.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62711\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260311-62709-header.jpg 960w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260311-62709-header-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260311-62709-header-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As you venture deeper into the world and traverse realms using your handy teleportation device, the experiences you gain during your journey let you unlock different outfits. Equipping these outfits opens up paths that Alice previously couldn\u2019t access. Aside from this core mechanic, there are also plenty of puzzles and mini games to experience along the way, as well as numerous \u201csecret areas\u201d and \u201csecret events\u201d to uncover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-647660001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-647660001.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-647660001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-647660001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After finding herself in the mysterious world, Alice also seems to have lost her voice for some reason. Luckily, her companion Noir Bunny and a few select others are able to sense her thoughts and feelings, becoming her trusty guides. However, not all of the residents are friendly towards Alice, and some of them might even turn hostile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a related note, Alice in Wonder Underland &#8211; AIWU <strong>&#8211;<\/strong> is based on \u201cAlice no Monogatari,\u201d an original manga by multimedia artist Suzume Takanashi, who is also in charge of the game\u2019s artwork, with the development being handled by Roman Geimu (YMCAT). Commissioned directly by Roman himself, Yoshifumi Ikeda, ex-member of arcade developer Taito\u2019s sound team Zuntata, is in charge of the game\u2019s soundtrack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/aiwu0303of\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alice in Wonder Underland -AIWU-<\/a> is set to release on April 23, for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/aiwu0303st\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>) and the Nintendo Switch. The title will be 20% off at launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Regista announced that Alice in Wonder Underland &#8211; AIWU &#8211;  will release on April 23, 2026, for Steam and Nintendo Switch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":64767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3],"tags":[39,17],"class_list":["post-64766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie-games","category-news","tag-indie-games","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Regista announced that Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU - will release on April 23, 2026, for Steam and Nintendo Switch.\" \/>\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\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Regista announced that Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU - will release on April 23, 2026, for Steam and Nintendo Switch.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-07T03:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-64766-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\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=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\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":"Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Regista announced that Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU - will release on April 23, 2026, for Steam and Nintendo Switch.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Regista announced that Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU - will release on April 23, 2026, for Steam and Nintendo Switch.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-04-07T03:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":432,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-64766-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0110or\u0111e P","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0110or\u0111e P","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/"},"author":{"name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696"},"headline":"Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland &#8211; AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore","datePublished":"2026-04-07T03:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/"},"wordCount":412,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-64766-header.jpg","keywords":["Indie Games","News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["Indie Games","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/","name":"Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-64766-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-07T03:00:00+00:00","description":"Regista announced that Alice in Wonder Underland - AIWU - will release on April 23, 2026, for Steam and Nintendo Switch.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-64766-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260407-64766-header.jpg","width":768,"height":432},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-hand-drawn-dark-fantasy-exploration-game-alice-in-wonder-underland-aiwu-launches-april-23-a-bizarre-experience-that-doesnt-rely-on-gore\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Japanese hand-drawn dark fantasy exploration game Alice in Wonder Underland &#8211; AIWU \u2013 launches April 23. A \u201cbizarre experience\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on gore"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696","name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","caption":"\u0110or\u0111e P"},"description":"Automaton West Editor","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/djordje-p\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64766"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64771,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64766\/revisions\/64771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}