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Dead Cells designer returns with Hotline Miami style roguelike game

Tenjutsu is a new Like a Dragon, Double Dragon, and Hotline Miami style roguelike crime game from Dead Cells designer Sébastien Benard.

Dead Cells designer returns with Hotline Miami style roguelike game: A cartoon woman with red hair, from Tenjutsu.

Dead Cells has some of the finest action design in recent games. Its combat and movement is incredibly responsive, making platforming and duking it out with enemies satisfying enough to keep players glued to the game for run after gruelling run. Now, Dead Cells designer Sébastien Benard is setting out to bring his expertise in action games to a different venue with the newly announced Tenjutsu, a roguelike project that combines Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) style combat with a throwback pixel art style that calls to mind Double Dragon and Hotline Miami’s aesthetics.

Tenjutsu blends the roguelike game genre with a yakuza crime story that plays out as a violent martial arts brawler. It casts players as a gangster from the fictional Secret Garden City who’s out to overthrow her old crew by beating the snot out of them and other rival criminal organizations, weakening their control over various run down neighborhoods in the process.

As the player progresses and guides the protagonist on their quest for vengeance, Secret Garden City begins to return to life. Shops and restaurants then open up, providing access to upgrades and new combat moves and weapons, though the enemies in other territories in the city become increasingly tough the longer the player spends preparing to fight them.

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Tenjutsu doesn’t have a launch date just yet, but, given the pedigree that comes from its creator’s prior work on Dead Cells, we’ll be keeping an eye out for further news as it becomes available.

While you’re waiting for more news on Tenjutsu, take a look at our top crime games and action-adventure games.

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