Category Archives: Penny Blood

Penny Blood: Hellbound featured in the Dengeki Indie Game Awards 2025!

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Thanks to a heads-up by a fellow member in the Penny Blood Discord for this news! 

It appears as though there was a voting period held by Dengeki for the most recommended indie games as part of the Dengeki Indie Awards 2025. Voting was open until Sunday, April 13 at 11:59pm, so it’s a little sad to find out about this now.

At any rate, Rie-pon has written a really nice article introducing the top three titles in the Dengeki Indie Awards 2025 as chosen by the Dengeki online writers.

Here’s the blurb that she wrote for Penny Blood: Hellhound:

6:00pm – Wednesday, April 2 – by Rie-pon
▶︎ PENNY BLOOD：HELLBOUND

This roguelike action game by Studio Wild Rose and Natsume Atari serves as a prequel to the RPG Penny Blood, which was originally announced as a spiritual successor to the Shadow Hearts series from the PS2 era (2001).

I am a big fan of Shadow Hearts and naturally supported Penny Blood during its crowdfunding campaign. I’ve been playing this game since its early access release, and there’s also a review article from that time―feel free to check it out if you’re interested. 

The full version was released in December, featuring the final companion and final boss. If you enjoy the dark yet humorous world of Shadow Hearts, I highly recommend giving this game a try.

It’s a solid roguelike action title. While it might be challenging at first, you can take your time with it. Even if you’re not familiar with Shadow Hearts but are intrigued by the game itself, I hope you’ll give it a shot!

▶︎ About the Dengeki Indie Game Awards 2025

Voting Deadline:
Sunday, April 13, 2025, at 23:59 (JST)

Eligible Titles:
Games released between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025 (including early access versions)

How to Vote:
Please read the guidelines carefully and submit your vote through the “Dengeki Indie Awards 2025” voting form. Only one vote per person is allowed. Multiple submissions will not be counted or entered into the prize lottery.

Prize:
An Amazon gift card (email type) worth 3,000 yen
Three winners will be selected by lottery.

Winner Announcement:
Only the winners will be notified via email (scheduled for June 2025). Please note that only residents of Japan are eligible to receive the prize.

Important:
Notification emails will be sent from <redacted> (PC email). Please make sure your email settings allow you to receive messages from this address.

▶︎ Related Tweets

Penny Blood Fan Activities

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Commissioned artwork by @Kubaushi

As it seems like the progress of the mainline Penny Blood game will have to be put on the back burner for a while due to the unfortunate lawsuit, and since the official devs / Kickstarter crew are likely unable to do much for us fans right now, I thought we’d might as well move forward on our own to help bridge the gap and enjoy what little we currently have.

That is why I’d like to start some strictly fan-based and fan-run events for us to enjoy and participate in (ie. holiday-themed art contests, fan fiction prompts, etc.).

→ 日本語訳はこちら。

▶︎ What is the purpose of doing this?

The main purpose is to promote the Penny Blood IP in a fun and creative way, to strengthen general awareness of the title (you’d be surprised how many people are STILL finding out about Penny Blood for the first time!!), and to build up our own community of fans.

▶︎ Will there be prizes?

Since this will be strictly fan-run, it’s not possible to offer much in terms of prizes, but at least I might be able to give the winners a postcard of the Matthew illustration that I had commissioned from a good friend of mine (that is assuming anyone would want it as a prize). I would also like to promote everybody’s work, whether it wins or not on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. Honestly, it might not even be necessary to have a typical “winner” if people just want something to engage with or participate in.

Since I live in Japan, it’s not all that difficult for me to get Shadow Hearts related items, so it’s not impossible to offer some other Shadow Hearts related prizes, but I’d have to see what I’m able to do since I’m super broke right now. (I *might* be able to get some cool items that would be a great ifncentivisor for people to participate!) At any rate, I’d have to ask for at least the cost of shipping anything to the winner(s).

▶︎ Possible Themes

  • April Fool’s Day (might be coming too soon to do this)
  • General Spring theme (Japanese cherry blossoms, flowers, spring-time foods, etc.)
  • Golden Week (several holidays in a row in Japan, starting April 29)

The above are just a couple ideas for this time of year (roughly April-June), but we can certainly continue to add to the list as we go.

I will continue to update and edit this page the more I’m able to develop this idea. I’m totally open to feedback and we can totally change or update things as we go. All of this is still very much a work in progress, so if anyone has any other ideas or general feedback, I’d love to hear from you! You can get me on Twitter @RekkaAlexiel, leave a comment on this post, or in the Penny Blood Discord server. The current invite link for the server seems to be faulty at the moment, so you may have to search for it in order to join. Sorry about that!

I’ll try to update this information as soon as I can.

Additionally, I’m not sure if the official Press Kit would be a useful resource for anyone to create your own art or whatever, but I’ll list both download links for the Japanese and English versions below.

* Please note that the Japanese version is somehow missing a couple additional files: the gameplay trailer and main visual image.

▶︎ Get the official ENGLISH Penny Blood Press Kit here! – 467MB

▶︎ Get the official JAPANESE Penny Blood Press Kit here! – 94MB

▶︎ Background Art

  • asakusa_6ku_1923.png
  • background.txt
  • tarrytown_house.png

▶︎ Character Art

  • 00_FusionMonster
    • fm01_00_helm.pmg
    • fusion.txt

___

  • 01_Matthew
    • matthew.txt
    • pc01_00_Matthew.png

___

  • 02_Emilia
    • emilia.txt
    • pc02_00_Emilia.png

___

  • 03_Suseri
    • pc03_99_Suseri_fullbody_cutout.png – This file was actually left in Japanese.
    • suseri.txt

▶︎ Enemy Art

  • Atam.png
  • Maliferous Patient.jpg
  • monsters.txt
  • Motofuji.png

▶︎ Logo

  • Illustrator File
    • PB Logo_EB.ai
    • PB Logo_EW.ai
  • PB Logo_EB.png
  • PB Logo_EW.png

▶︎ Main Visual

  • PB_keyvisual_02.png – This file wasn’t renamed to match the English translation, as “key visual” is literally the Japanese term that’s used for this.

▶︎ Press Release

  • Double_Kickstarter_PressRelease.docx

▶︎ Screenshots

  • PB_Sh001_001_220809.jpg
  • PB_Sh001_002_220809.jpg
  • PB_Sh002_001_220809.jpg
  • PB_Sh002_002_220809.jpg
  • PB_Sh002_003_220809.jpg
  • PB_Sh003_001_220809.jpg
  • PB_Sh003_002_220809.jpg
  • PB_Sh002_003_220809.jpg

▶︎ Videos

  • Penny Blood – Gameplay Trailer.mp4

Comic Market 105 – Penny Blood

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Welcome to a look back at this year’s Winter Comic Market (Comiket, C105). This was my first time participating in the event as a circle member.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do as much as I wanted; I had initially planned on completing a full novel style book to release at the event, in both English and Japanese, but various circumstances got in the way (work related and then I got sick with pneumonia)… so I was only able to release a very short snippet of my fanfic story based within the Penny Blood world.

I also wanted to showcase my friend Kubaushi’s artwork, so that’s why I tried to sell some postcards and photos with the key visual that he created for me.

I also got a lot of help from a good friend, Keisuke, who joined me to set up and helped throughout the day. He typically goes to events like this to participate as a cosplayer, but this time, he didn’t dress up as anyone. If anyone is interested in checking out some of his work, you can find him on Twitter here.

Here’s a quick look at my booth and crazy me sitting there all day. I am not a fan of the cold, so I might try to avoid winter events in the future (we’ll see), but I think I’m much more capable of handling hot temperatures than I am with cold ones…

Here, I was selling 3 different things:

  1. Story Preview page (EN/JP) – 200 yen
  2. Postcard Set of 2 – 300 yen
  3. 2L Size Photo – 500 yen

Most people who stopped by decided to combine the story preview with the postcards for an easy 500 yen, but I was shocked that some people actually bought they preview alone as it is. My booth neighbor was one of these kind souls! Thank you!

▶︎ Sales

  • Preview: 5
  • Postcard Sets: 3
  • Photos: 0

So, as far as turn-out goes, not too many people stopped by and actually purchased something, BUT many people did stop by to chat, and for that I’m eternally grateful!! Since my memory is super bad, I took a tally of how many people came by… which was about 9 people, including my kind booth neighbors!

Suffice it to say, I did not end my first Comiket endeavour in the black– I probably printed too many things in anticipation, but this was not unexpected. I mostly wanted to give a presence for Penny Blood at Comiket at all.

Here’s a view from my booth. Actually, the location was REALLY good, right at the front of the hall and sort of in a rather visible area. For that reason, I was glad that I made a large tapestry to catch people’s eyes, even if they didn’t stop by.

I’m also wondering if I should have put the title of the series on the tapestry… I wanted to avoid it a little simply because I’m an unofficial fan, but maybe I should have posted it somewhere recognizable… I’m sort of learning as I go, so if anyone has any advice, that’d be super-duper!

I also took a few photos from before the general public was let in and after, although I don’t think I took a photo during the afternoon, after the fast-pass time period expired.

So, my first experience as a circle member at Comiket was exactly what I imagined it to be — I wasn’t expecting much or to really sell a whole lot, it was mostly just to learn the ropes for what to do next time!

That being said, I might try for Summer next year! So, if you can, please cheer me on! Every little bit of encouragement goes a long way!

Penny Blood: Hideseeker | Last Part in the Upcoming “Inheritors” Novel

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Updated:12/14/2024 – 5:50pm

We’ve been getting some exciting new material to better flesh out the overall Penny Blood IP recently by the creators! This is the 3rd, and I believe the final, part that will be included in the up-coming Inheritors novel.

Below is a list of sections in that novel along with their corresponding author:

  1. The Vessel of Summoners by Toya Katsuta
  2. Erebus by Ari Lee
  3. Hideseeker by Pen Name: Matsuzo Itchoda (Matsuzo Machida)
“To answer your question, Matsuzo Itchoda is the pen name I use for writing novels.
I’ve been using it since Grimorium Verum of Thirteeth“

(The app does display his name as “MATSUZOMACHIDA”)

Even more details were released in the announcement on the official Studio Wildrose website.
The following is a quick machine translation of the announcement with added human edits:

Hello, everyone. This is Machida from Studio Wildrose.

This week, I’m excited to introduce Penny Blood: Hideseeker, one of the three stories included in the Penny Blood Inheritors Story!

Hideseeker is a dark horror novel set in Europe in 1924.

The story follows Emilia Dawson, an agent of the British Intelligence Service (SIS), and Matthew Farrell, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (BOI) agent from New York who has come to assist her. These two protagonists also appear in the main story of Penny Blood.

Their partnership began a year earlier, in 1923, when they joined forces to stop a world-threatening invasion from another realm. Since then, Matthew and Emilia have been active in their respective home countries. Now, in Hideseeker, they reunite to confront a mysterious new case.

* Please note that there are some typographic inconsistencies in the following images.
　It should be corrected later down the road.

“So… let me hear the details. It’s our territory, right?”
“Yes.”

Their reunion marks the beginning of a battle to protect the world from a new threat.

“Leave the rest to me.”

The scars of the 1923 battle remain—literally. Matthew’s face bears a mark that appears when he transforms.

“I’m glad you’re happy!”

Meanwhile, Emilia fights fiercely to protect the peace of ordinary people.

“Matthew Farrell. Emilia Dawson. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

But those from another world, targeting the awakening world, may already be closer than anyone realizes.

▶︎ Production Notes

Hideseeker draws inspiration from infamous historical murder cases and incorporates elements of the Cthulhu Mythos, continuing the legacy of dark storytelling established by the Shadow Hearts series and carried forward into Penny Blood.

The game-like narrative structure of Hideseeker is designed to give readers a taste of the rich, dark, and heavy atmosphere of Penny Blood. It showcases the characters’ personalities, their interactions, and their battles with monstrous foes.

Every effort was made to highlight the characters’ unique charms, not only for the protagonists but also for supporting characters. Some unexpected personalities even bring comical moments into the mix, adding a lighter touch to the dark tale. Personally, I’m very fond of these elements and hope readers will enjoy them too.

The story also introduces key terms like Inheritors, the World in Between, and the Awakening World, offering glimpses of future story developments and a cosmic horror-inspired worldview. Fans of history or the Cthulhu Mythos may recognize certain elements, while newcomers can enjoy unraveling the mysteries as they go.

Interestingly, the name Hideseeker signifies a “hideout” or “secret base,” adding a layer of intrigue to the story.

With the release of information about Hideseeker, all three stories included in the Inheritors Story are now revealed. Each tale is unique, contributing to the world of Penny Blood while offering its own distinct appeal.

We hope you’ll look forward to the Penny Blood Inheritors Story!

— Machida

Stay tuned for more exciting information!!

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