Publisher CFK and developer DeerFarm have released new information and screenshots for side-scrolling shoot ’em up game Shikhondo: Blue Pieta‘s introducing the game’s prologue and systems.
Get the details below.
■ About
The Shikhondo series has always been about getting close to the bullets. Blue Pieta takes that further—new city, new enemies, new mechanics built around the same core tension: how close are you willing to get?
A vampire hunter. A rookie grim reaper. A city that keeps breaking in ways that shouldn’t be possible. The two cross paths, and a conflict begins that neither of them was fully prepared for.
Full voice acting throughout. Ultra-wide support up to 32:9.
Shikhondo: Blue Pieta follows Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage.
■ Prologue
Three days now. Morning and evening, knocking at the door.
Fifth visit. Finally—a presence, somewhere inside.
“Come in.”
The room was darker than expected. A woman sat by the window, teacup in hand, watching. White hair. Unhurried eyes. A face far younger than anything she’d imagined.
“…Aren’t you going to ask who I am?”
The woman set down her cup and smiled.
“It’s been a while since a grim reaper made it out this far. Figured you’d all be too busy to come in person—didn’t expect them to send someone so young.”
In this line of work, reading someone’s age is pretty much impossible. She tilted her head, settled into the chair, and kept watching.
“I haven’t been fixed like this for that long myself—not since I inherited the power. But you seem a little young to be here already. Anyway. Welcome. I’m Layla.”
A small bow, still seated.
“Chae Woori. I’m still an apprentice—I’ve heard you’re a friend of my senior’s, so I’m hoping to learn whatever I can.”
“Eastern manners. Still alive and well. Ha. Likewise.”
Layla smiled a little deeper and poured tea into the cup.
“Sorry—I have to head out the moment I finish this. First time back home in almost a week. This isn’t your first visit, is it?”
“No… I was thinking if you weren’t back by today, I’d leave a note and start scouting on my own. Nothing’s gone wrong yet, but I spotted a few signs of spatial distortion on the way here.”
“Yeah, this place was a disaster at first. Took out the obvious ones, adjusted the seals, reinforced the preventive measures—managed to get it under control. But the fact that things keep happening without a break… there’s got to be something else causing it.”
She drained the cup, then reached for the hammer and chisel leaning against the wall.
“Alright then. Let’s go, Reaper.”
The city the two protagonists walk into runs on rules the series has never seen before.
Shikhondo: Blue Pieta rebuilds the bullet hell formula from the ground up—side-scrolling for the first time in franchise history, with a fully overhauled Soul Collect system and an all-new Counter Bomb mechanic that turns the moment of getting hit into a window of opportunity. Here’s how it works.
■ Game Systems
Side-Scrolling: A Franchise First
Every previous Shikhondo entry scrolled vertically. Blue Pieta doesn’t. The shift to side-scrolling changes how you read stages, how bullets move across the screen, and how you position yourself in the middle of it all. The series DNA is intact. The perspective is entirely new.
A City Unlike Any Before
The game’s stages span a sprawling metropolis, an amusement park, and a subway station—contemporary spaces packed with detail, pulled straight from a city that feels lived-in and just slightly off. The enemies that inhabit them aren’t the yokai of previous entries. They’re creatures drawn from the legends of a different world, and they hit differently.
Full voice acting brings the story to life throughout.
Soul Collect: Raised Stakes, Higher Ceiling
The Soul Collect system from Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage returns in Blue Pieta, and it’s been pushed further. Graze enemy bullets to charge the Soul Gauge. Fill it up, and you can trigger Soul Collect Mode—converting every bullet on screen into score pickups and doubling your multiplier.
If you still have bombs left, spend one to push into a second stage: multiplier hits 4x, normal attacks get a boost on top of that. The closer you play to the edge, the more you stand to gain. High risk. High reward. That’s the deal.
New to the Series: Counter Bomb
Here’s the new one. Take a hit, and the screen flashes—you have eight frames. Press the bomb button in that window and the hit doesn’t land. Instead, you either pop Soul Collect Mode or spend a bomb.
It’s a mechanic that rewards players who stay sharp under pressure and punishes the ones who don’t. Every near-death is a decision point now. Counter Bomb requires either a full Soul Gauge or at least one available bomb to activate.
View the screenshots at the gallery.
