Rusty Rabbit turns Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu into a fluffy bunny

Sometimes, magical things happen when games studios go outside of their wheelhouse. Without Creative Assembly getting experimental, we wouldn't have the terrifying Alien Isolation. And with Rusty Rabbit, renowned visual novel studio Nitro Plus is branching out in an unusual direction, seemingly blending its knack for storytelling with a cute 2D mascot platformer. One starring the (Japanese) voice of Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu as its lackadaisical lagomorph hero, Rusty, who you can hear in the demo on Steam now.

What we're looking at here feels a bit like a mash-up of Steamworld Dig and a metroidvania with a heavy narrative focus, at least judging by the (tragically short) demo. Rusty is a middle-aged, carrot-cigar-smoking scavenger, piloting his power suit through the ruins left behind by now-extinct humans. He seems a likeable sort—world-weary but friendly, wistful, and ready to throw down for anyone in trouble. Kiryu in fuzzy bunny form, pretty much.

Much of the demo's playtime is dedicated to basic tutorial stuff, giving players a first look at Rusty's basic movement tech, including teases of future abilities like jump-jetting and a handy grappling hook, before taking them away to focus on the basics. There's some satisfying Mega Man X-like wall grabbing and a major focus on tunnelling through soft blocks of scrap for XP, which can be poured into an intimidatingly large grid of perks. The blocks sometimes contain loot, which can presumably be traded or used in the full game, although we don't get the chance to do it here.

The demo does mention that some items can be shared with other bunnies at the diner or donated to the church; two locations that we don't get to see yet—intriguing hints at what could potentially be quite complex, but it's hard to get a sense for the game's true scope right now. One thing that is for certain is that Nitro Plus hasn't forgotten its roots as a visual novel studio, and the game often segues into full screens of (narrated) prose and illustrations. The script seems fun so far, penned by Gen Urobuchi, author of genre-subverting anime hit Madoka Magica and deeply transgressive horror classic VN Song of Saya.

While I doubt there's going to be anything here that would forever traumatize a child (or adult, for that matter—Song of Saya goes hard), there's just enough edge to the writing here that I wouldn't completely write off the possibility of tragic character deaths. Urobuchi has earned the nickname 'the butcher' in some circles, after all. But even if everything remains upbeat and fluffy, I'm still very curious to see how the full game pans out, given how many brief glimpses at game mechanics the demo gave me.

Despite the game coming to Switch as well, the PC version is no slouch graphically. If you've got the hardware for it (and it can make a 4090 sweat at max settings), the combination of Lumen ray-tracing and lush fur rendering makes for a surprisingly handsome game, and some adorably squishy looking bunnies. It's a surprisingly polished product, standing at interesting odds with Nitro Plus' other upcoming action title, the Armored Core/BLAME!-inspired souls-like Dolls Nest, which also has a demo on Steam right now.