SONOKUNI Review

“Form without function is as meaningless as an empty prayer”

Bombastic and beautiful, SONOKUNI bursts onto the scene with a wholly unique visual flair. Starring the vengeful Takeru, it is a tale of two clans — the Sonokuni and Wanokuni — who are simultaneously at odds and collaborating. Taking inspiration from Japanese mythology (including some famous names such as Susanoo and Tsukuyomi), it explores themes of extreme violence and their moral implications. While the implementation of these mythologies may not be particularly interesting, the game itself is.

Publisher: Kakehashi Games

Developer: DON YASA CREW

Platform: Played on PC

Availability: Release on March 24, 2025 for Windows PC, and March 31, 2025 for Nintendo Switch.

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SONOKUNI was created by DON YASA GROUP, a 7-person hip hop group who took up game development during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in Japan. The pandemic made live performances impossible, so the team decided to take their talents and apply them to a new medium — infusing their game with energetic sound and a distinctly Japanese neon visual style. The entirety of the game is very explicitly Japanese-inspired. Beyond the sights and sounds, even the story is borne of the culture.

At first presented as a history lesson, the game starts by revealing some history on a chalkboard, but soon sends you back in time and places you in the shoes of Takeru. You are tasked with killing enemies in the vicinity, with glowing red footsteps showing your path through the building. There’s a shield, which only protects against projectiles, and an attack which is used to slay enemies, but can also deflect certain red projectiles. The enemies are quick and you die in a single hit, but luckily you have a bit of time-slowing at your disposal to help you get through the day. The game is quite difficult — the time-slowing ability is in short supply and enemies are fast, but the game does give you hints after death as to what was needed to survive. As you also get checkpoints after each encounter, you’ll never feel like you lost progress when you fail.

Truly, each encounter is a puzzle, and you’re meant to at least have some ability to view the pending fight beforehand as the game uses a top-down perspective for the combat. The top-down perspective would normally allow for a better view of the battlefield, but in SONOKUNI your ability to distinguish objects against the background is not a priority, it seems. As the game’s defining fault, visual clarity is at a minimum; Backgrounds are busy, enemies can feel indistinguishable from the background or other objects, and the bounds of the areas in which you are confined are sometimes unknowable. Despite the visual confusion, it does have a unique style unlike anything I’ve really seen in a game. 

All of this comes to a head during the boss fights. Tough as nails, these ferocious foes force you to use every tool at your disposal. Planned movement, pointed shield use, and timely attacks are integral to getting through these encounters. While it’s difficult to determine what needs to be done on the first run of each boss, they always follow the same exact pattern, allowing you to learn the moves and improve as you go.

Combat sections are presented from the top-down, and are visually busy.

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Once you have escaped the confines of a combat section, you’re plopped into the Sonokuni village, where all of your people live. Here you meet characters like the village chief, your brother, and many Wanokuni citizens. This change of scenery also comes with a change of perspective, moving to a side-scrolling view that is reminiscent of older games like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link or Faxanadu. Those perspective shifts evolve even further in these non-combat areas by frequently changing where your character is coming from on-screen, or using character sizing changes to give the illusion of a 3d space. Perspective is not only important to the visual identity of the game, it is integral to understanding the story itself; It is a portent of events to come, and a message to the players beyond what transpires in text.

First impressions of the Wanokuni are poor. These tree people all look alike, do not understand the Sonokuni, and want to assimilate the Sonokuni into their lifestyle by offering a pill that will transform them. There is a question as to whether this transformation would come with the loss of the self, and debate between the characters regarding such, but the Wanokuni themselves do not seem to display any individuality; whether that lack of individuality of spirit is a part of the transformation process or something more is unknown, at first. Takeru does not want to assimilate, and thus begins her quest for vengeance, aided by Susanoo and Tsukuyomi. While the mythology aspect of the game is underwhelming, the game does explore some deeper ideas beyond ‘good’ and ‘evil.’

The events of the game are punctuated by the almost hypnotic beats of the DON YASA GROUP’s music that permeates throughout. Japanese rap is not necessarily my forte, but it’s high-energy and succeeds in setting the mood in any given scene. Unfortunately, the songs are very short, and loop endlessly. In combat areas it seems to repeat the same 15 seconds ad infinitum, which becomes grating after failing an encounter or boss for the umpteenth time. These songs are so short that you can often reach the end of them during a conversation with another character, at which point the tune will abruptly stop, filling the room with only silence before once again beginning. All of this being exasperated by the repetitious gameplay loop and high difficulty of some encounters.

Sonokuni is one of the most visually unique games I've ever played.

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The overall difficulty can be quite frustrating, as your character is terminated after only a single hit — even one small mistake means entire encounters need to be replayed. While for most enemy groups this becomes only a minor annoyance, there are a few bosses that really wore on me — most notably the final two. In these cases, the fights are very long and the screen is entirely too busy, which makes it much harder to keep track of all the moving parts. While players who are used to such visual noise might not have much issue, it's worth noting there are no settings available to alleviate this concern for anyone else.

While it may be inspired by the events depicted in Japanese mythology and it may have mechanical similarities to games like Hotline Miami, I can’t help but feel I experienced something wholly unique. With its blend of art, music, and combat, SONOKUNI is sure to stick with me in the days to come.

Verdict

While SONOKUNI doesn’t break barriers or have the most moving story, the visual style and music create a memorable experience. Combat is fast but measured, allowing you to correct your mistakes and make incremental improvements and progress. For anyone itching to try a new spin on the Hotline Miami formula, this game has a lot to offer.

Image Credits: Taylor Rioux

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from the developer