BEHIND THE SIGNAL / SEVEN-QUESTION ORIGINAL DEVELOPER INTERVIEW
Sometimes the inspiration for a game is wonderfully uncomplicated: you love a particular combat system, nobody else seems to be making it, and eventually you decide to build your own. That is where Ayakashi Profile began, according to its solo developer, Reroll_dev of Hyakki Yagyo.
The game is a Japanese-fantasy RPG about yokai, with separate buttons for party members and manually linked attacks. A free Windows demo introduces its four-battle First Gate, while the full game is currently planned for 30 November 2026. We invited the developer to discuss the influence of Valkyrie Profile, the challenge of teaching combination attacks and why an initially tragic world became populated by wonderfully troublesome characters.
These seven answers were provided in writing by the developer. This is a Behind the Signal interview, not a hands-on demo review or scored assessment.
In conversation with Reroll_dev
1. What inspired you to begin developing a spiritual successor to the combat you loved in Valkyrie Profile?
Quite simply, I loved linking combos in Valkyrie Profile’s four-on-four battles. Nothing quite like it seemed to come along, so I thought, “Well, I guess I’ll just make it myself!”
2. How did the yokai characters and world take shape?
I initially started building a world with a tragic atmosphere, but partway through I felt that something wasn’t quite right. It became a world full of troublesome characters who make a fuss and cause problems over the silliest things.
Yokai can be pretty strange characters. Sometimes you think, “What a weirdo,” or even, “What a pervert,” but they don’t necessarily feel evil. So I wanted the game to have that atmosphere of everyone constantly making a fuss over something ridiculous.
3. Why did you decide on separate buttons for individual party members?
I wanted to make the controls easy to understand by matching the button positions to the characters’ positions on screen.
However, people seem to have found the controls more difficult than I expected, and that’s something I need to reflect on. It taught me that what feels easy for me to control and what players find easy to understand are completely different things.
4. How do you teach players to execute satisfying guard breaks, launches and follow-ups?
I think the game hasn’t done enough to teach players so far. I’d like to improve the tutorial and bring those improvements into the full release.
5. What’s been the hardest part of combining motion comics and combat as a solo developer?
I didn’t have a system for creating the motion comics, and I couldn’t find suitable assets for the combat either, so having to build those things first was a challenge.
On top of that, it was difficult to make the battles and comics flow continuously into one another to tell these silly stories about yokai and humans.
6. What feedback have you received on the demo’s two difficulty modes?
Honestly, I haven’t received much feedback yet… I’d really love some!
7. What are you most proud of as the planned November 30 launch approaches?
I’ve put a lot of care into the combat animation. I know that more isn’t automatically better, but each character uses at least 150 individual animation images.
If someone plays the game and thinks, “That move looks so cool,” I’d be genuinely happy.
When the button layout isn’t as obvious as it seems
The most striking part of this conversation is the developer’s willingness to acknowledge where an idea hasn’t worked as neatly as intended. Matching four buttons to four party members seemed intuitive during development. But the demo has shown that familiarity with a control scheme does not necessarily translate to clarity for new players. Reroll_dev says the tutorial needs improvement, and is candid that there has been little feedback so far on the two difficulty settings.
The motion-comic scenes have their own story. Combining the comics with combat meant first creating the tools and assets needed to build them, on top of the usual work of making a solo-developed role-playing game. The developer’s stated reward is seeing a player appreciate the sheer number of frames devoted to a cool-looking move.
Try the free demo
The official Ayakashi Profile Steam page offers a free Windows demo with four First Gate battles, Beginner and Serious difficulty modes and motion-comic scenes, according to the developer. The full game is planned for 30 November 2026, subject to change.
We used original screenshot and motion-comic images from the developer’s official press kit. Thanks to Reroll_dev for sharing the answers and permitting us to show the game as it currently looks.
Editorial note: Seven written answers provided by the developer on 6 November 2026 are reproduced above in their original wording with paragraph formatting. The developer’s preferred credit is Reroll_dev. Original gameplay images sourced from Hyakki Yagyo’s supplied press kit are used with permission; some screenshots show the Japanese-language interface. The free demo has not been represented as independently played or tested by Coloured Static Press. This interview is independent, unscored editorial coverage.