Hirogami Preview – Origami Meets Action Platforming

Hirogami caught attention the moment Bandai Namco Studios Singapore revealed it in the most recent State of Play. The action platformer is directly inspired by the Japanese art form of paper folding, seen in Origami, and charts that delicate yet creative theme into movement, shapes and level design. Just days after its announcement, a free demo arrived on Steam, giving people a sense of how the concept works in practice. The demo is short, but it’s definitely a tease of things to come.

First Impressions

Well, the demo clocks in at less than 30 minutes covering a single stage but it somehow shows more than you’d expect. The player character, Hero, has an basic attack and double jump. These building blocks are responsive and quickly exhaustible — it’s clear the studio’s taken care to make movement feel exact. One small but much appreciated addition is the settings menu, allowing you to adjust controller dead zones. It’s something often done in one-size-fits-all platformers, but it does a lot to make the experience accommodating for all manner of play.

From the very start, you can tell Hirogami isn’tlooking to revolutionize platforming at large. Instead, it leans into what works and hammers home its specific hook: transformation.

Transformations at the Core

There are two states in the demo and both transform how Hero traverses and interacts with the environment.

There we have the paper form, which makes Hero a fragile sheet subject to the whims of air. It feels intuitive and organic being able to get up and reach higher places or jump across wide gaps. It’s actually quite smooth, flying around the stage —and with airwaves worked into the levels well enough that it never feels gimmicky.

The second one is the armadillo form. The game’s speed can be also turned up to a higher gear as Hero ploughs his way through walls of breakable objects or enemies. It feels lively and well controlled simultaneously, with steering that splits the difference between looseness and precision. Transforming between them is an easy matter done by simply pressing a button rather than popping up a new menu. This maintains rapid gameplay and avoids obstacles during platforming sections.

Localizing the on-the-fly transformation mechanic may not be completely novel to the genre, but it’s execution here is pretty seamless. Both forms serve their purpose, and both are fun to ride on.

Level Design and Exploration

As a demo for a one-level game, your stage design seems to have a lot of potential. The way forward is usually straightforward, but hidden pathways and side goals reward exploration. Collectibles are hidden throughout the level, and optional stage-specific missions provide rewards, for a bit of replay in even the demo’s brief running time.

What is remarkable is how much the level mirrors the theme of packet. The delicate design reveals vulnerability, but as well beauty and poetry in its arrangements and metamorphosis. The presentation is darn impressive, though animation for its paper form can be a bit rough fluttering around. It’s not so much that it detracts from the style, but this is an area that needs a bit more polish prior to release if possible.

Combat and Feedback

One area in which the demo does feel a bit underwhelming is combat feedback. Hero’s primary form of attack lands OK in the base game; there are haptic responses, but they’re a little too gentle to feel particularly satisfying. Considering the armadillo form feels so full of momentum and heft, the regular attacks feel a bit lacklustre. This might be by design, a way of emphasizing the distinction between the vulnerable paper cut-out hero and his hardier rolled-up alter ego, but a touch more weight to regular attacks would have made for smoother battles.

Combat, however, doesn’t feel completely broken or frustrating — it just lacks a bit of oomph to match the otherwise polished mechanics.

Presentation and Style

The Origami theme is also making Hirogami develop some character. It's instantly distinctive through dividing its visuals between our origami world and rivaling platformers, and the design decision to represent both vulnerability and grace through your gameplay is sound. Despite the fact that certain animations visibly jolt, the art direction itself is unique and memorable. Matched to tight controls and well-measured changes, it’s a strong enough base on which to pin a full release.

System Requirements

Minimum:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903 or higher)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-7700 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti 4 GB / AMD Radeon RX 560 4 GB
• Storage: 6 GB available space

Recommended:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903 or higher)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-8700 / AMD Ryzen 5 3500
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2060 6 GB / AMD Radeon RX 5600XT 6 GB
• Storage: 6 GB available space

What We Want to See in the Full Game

It’s a small, confident taste of Hirogami, and it gets one or two hopes up for the full release. Increasing the varieties of transformation would seem a natural next step, as both canvassed are engaging and useful. Should later levels introduce new shapes with equally specific functions, the gameplay could remain fresh throughout.

More intricate level designs would also have made it more expansive. The demo demonstrates a solid split between direction and exploration, but it's how this crosses over into the larger, more multifaceted levels with layered challenges that would have made the platforming sing. Also, combat would be nice to polish up. By adding a bit more weight and impact to Hero’s basic attacks, encounters could feel just as satisfying as Hero’s traversal.

Lastly, if the Origami inspiration continues to influence not only the look of the game but also its puzzles, environments and narrative, Hirogami might turn out as more than just a gorgeously crafted platformer – it might prove that its developers fully understand what kind of story they want to tell with it.

Final Thoughts

The Hirogami demo may only be of a one stage game, however it does succeed in highlighting why this game is worth keeping your eyes on. The transformations are fun to play with and you can quickly switch between them, the level design is a nice balance of linearity and exploration, and the Origami-like art style means it stands out from all of the other platformers out there.

There's room for a bit of fine tuning, heavier hand to hand combat or the occasional wibbly-wobbly animation but nothing that goes against the excitement the demo constructs. Instead, they stand as reminders that this remains a taste of an uncompleted work.

If the full release is built on top of this solid base with more forms, weird levels and tighter combat, Hirogami could be one of the platformers to watch in 2025.

Hirogami is due out for PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam) on September 3, 2025.