Kadokawa Games

Kadokawa Games was a Japanese games company founded in 2009 as part of the Kadokawa Group. It focused primarily on Japanese RPGs, tactical games, dungeon RPGs and narrative adventure games for PlayStation, Nintendo and other platforms.

One of the company’s best-known games is God Wars: Future Past, a tactical JRPG inspired by Japanese mythology and folklore. Players lead a group of heroes in turn-based battles on maps divided into individual squares and utilise an extensive system of classes, abilities and character development.

The game later received an expanded version, God Wars: The Complete Legend, which added further content and was also released on the Nintendo Switch.

Another significant franchise was Metal Max. Kadokawa Games contributed to Metal Max Xeno, a post-apocalyptic JRPG combining classic character progression with combat vehicles and tanks. Players explore a devastated world, customise their machines and battle mechanical enemies and monsters.

Kadokawa Games was also behind the mysterious adventure game Root Letter. The story revolves around letters from a girl named Aya Fumino, with whom the protagonist corresponded fifteen years ago. The player travels to Shimane Prefecture in Japan, interviews her former classmates and tries to find out what really happened to Aya. A remastered version, Root Letter: Last Answer, was later released.

Kadokawa Games is also associated with the dungeon RPG Demon Gaze, created in collaboration with the studio Experience. Players explore vast dungeons, assemble their own party of adventurers and battle demons. In the case of this game, it is more accurate to cite Experience as the lead developer and Kadokawa Games as the publisher/production partner.

The company’s portfolio also included other projects, such as Natural Doctrine, a tactical RPG released for the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, and the strategy series The Lost Child – though Kadokawa often took on different roles for individual titles, ranging from development to publishing and production.

In 2022, a major change took place. Part of Kadokawa Games’ development team and gaming operations were transferred to the newly formed company Dragami Games, founded by the former president of Kadokawa Games, Yoshimi Yasuda. Kadokawa Games subsequently ceased to operate as an independent gaming company.

Brands such as Lollipop Chainsaw are also associated with the history of Kadokawa Games. It was Dragami Games that later took over some of the earlier brands and created a modernised version, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP.

Thanks to games such as God Wars: Future Past, Metal Max Xeno, Root Letter and Natural Doctrine, Kadokawa Games was one of the well-known Japanese companies focusing primarily on RPGs, tactical games and narrative-driven titles.