Yosuke Shiokawa on Lunar Pulse, the Tsurugihime closed beta test, and why he

What the report says

by Josh Torres on 05 September, 2026 At PAX West 2026, I got the chance to speak with Yosuke Shiokawa about his new studio, Fahrenheit 213, and the current status of his projects, Lunar Pulse and Tsurugihime. Previously, Shiokawa worked at DelightWorks as the first Director on Fate/Grand Order.Advertisement. Keep scrolling for moreLunar Pulse was first announced back in April. It's a single-player roguelite card battling game that is being co-developed with GIANTY. Meanwhile, Tsurugihime was first unveiled in December 2022 and has gone through several delays. At the time of this interview, Fahrenheit 213 has been conducting a small, limited-time closed beta test for the title as the developers aim to improve the title before its release.RPG Site: Thank you for meeting with me today, Shiokawa-san.

It’s been several years since the founding of your new studio, Fahrenheit 213. It was formally revealed to the public in early 2022. Can you share with us a bit about the journey to forming Fahrenheit 213, and how the studio has developed since its formation?Yosuke Shiokawa (Founder & CEO of Fahrenheit 213): Previously I was at DelightWorks, but I had a strong feeling of wanting to create original games instead of working on an existing IP. That’s the main reason I decided to go independent and start my own studio and now really focused on producing a variety of original games, instead.

With that intention, we’re currently a pretty small studio with only 3 employees. It took four years to come to that point. Lunar Pulse is our newest game, but we’re also working on a game called Tsurugihime. With these two games, we’re slowly, gradually working towards those goals of creating original works and bringing those kinds of indie games to the mainstream.RPG Site: You’re here at PAX West showing off Lunar Pulse, one of Fahrenheit 213’s upcoming titles that’s being co-developed with developer GIANTY. This made its hands-on playable debut just recently at Gamescom.

Key details

What has the initial reception from the audience been like, and what have you already observed or learned based on those reactions from players? Yosuke Shiokawa: Our original intention has always been to create Japanese games that are imbued with a kind of Japanese quality. So far, the wishlist on Steam for Lunar Pulse has been over 80% from foreigners. Even though we are creating this very Japanese game, we weren’t expecting the interest from foreign audiences to be so high. It’s something we really appreciate, and it’s been a really pleasant surprise for us.RPG Site: Lunar Pulse is a peculiar kind of game in the roguelite card-battling genre.

It focuses on quick 60-second battles with no concealed cards, and turns are executed simultaneously from both players.How did the concept of this game come about, and how has it continually evolved since its initial conception phase?Yosuke Shiokawa: We originally wanted to make a soulslike action game, and that turned into something that was turn-based. We originally debated whether we would make it a RPG, or an action game, or so on. After thinking about wanting to make it the most simple and accessible version of a kind of soulslike, we realized that a card game would be the most accessible way of creating that kind of game.

Soulslike games right now are popular; there’s 3D ones and 2D ones. I’m not very good at action games. When thinking about that, I figured there are probably other people in the world who maybe aren’t so good at those kinds of action-based combat games - but would like to have this experience themselves. That’s why I decided to adapt Lunar Pulse in this manner.RPG Site: There’s a significant narrative element to Lunar Pulse. It revolves around 13 witches that battle one another. In its debut trailer, there are deliberately redacted portions of the text, the decision to absolve or take from an enemy, and multiple endings.

More from the announcement

How do players interact with those elements in Lunar Pulse, and approximately how long does a playthrough run take on average?Yosuke Shiokawa: Because it’s a roguelite system, the whole point is that you’ll keep dying and reviving and dying and reviving and restarting. Then slowly as you progress through this cycle of death and rebirth, you’ll unveil more and more of the story and characters. That’s how we wanted to design that mechanic. So far, we haven’t determined how long it’ll take. We want this to be a very gradual process.Advertisement. Keep scrolling for moreRPG Site: Fahrenheit 213 is also working on the side-scrolling action RPG Tsurugihime.

I’ve personally kept my eye on this project since its announcement in December 2022, and followed the monthly Steam blog posts about the title.