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Timothy “Timaugustin” Augustin
TGS 2026 impressions: FAREIDOLIA from MapleStory devs is an anime game with snazzy combat
MapleStory’s Nexon is making a new supernatural anime game.
At Tokyo Game Show 2026, we were able to get hands-on with Nexon’s gameplay demo for FAREIDOLIA, an upcoming supernatural game with anime aesthetics. The game features a cast of teenagers who reside in a cosy home called Tasogare Hall, and investigate supernatural occurrences together.
Here are our early impressions of the game:
FAREIDOLIA
Developers: IO Division; RX Studio (published by Nexon)
FAREIDOLIA Tokyo Game Show 2026 demo impressions
Nexon brought a massive booth for both Mabinogi Mobile and its upcoming anime-like supernatural game FAREIDOLIA. It proved to be rather popular during the event’s two business days, which GosuGamers attended. The booth included a small slice of Tasogare Hall physically recreated, with a few cosplayers playing the game’s main cast (specifically Ohana, Shami, and Elevator Girl) as they lounge around the homey building. There was also a trial play corner where players could get hands-on with the game, and a rock-paper-scissors challenge.
The latter is rather interesting, because it involves the game’s microphone controls. While I didn’t get to test this out during the game’s demo, I was informed afterwards that FAREIDOLIA’s characters will react to things the player says during certain dialogue cutscenes. This means that if players are given a yes or no question to answer in-game, they can say yes or no in real life to progress the cutscene.
The rock-paper-scissors challenge demonstrated this with a screen displaying the game’s cast reacting to the player’s statements in real time. The cast is referred to as “Mates”, which refer to people who possess superpowers. The game takes place in a fictional city called Anima City, wherein players serve as the city’s Restoration Centre director, and live alongside these Mates.
The demo we played was rather short (roughly 20 minutes or less), introducing four characters: the lively Minieh, the nonchalant Ohana, the bubbly cat-girl Shami, and Elevator Girl. The latter character appeared much later in the demo, operating Tasogare Hall’s supernaturally-powered elevator.
The demo took me through Tasogare Hall, and a quest that involved Minieh, Ohana, and Shami finding and defeating shadow versions of themselves. Here, I was introduced to the game’s unique take on the turn-based combat system: much like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it melds turn-based combat with real-time combat to make its battle a touch more dynamic.
Players will still take turns to take combat actions, but they can also reposition themselves in real time to get closer to enemies or create more space. This is important because they also have different types of combat abilities, each of which have an attack range they’ll need to deal with. Enemies can also reposition themselves in between attacks, which means that you’ll need to shift around often to maintain a tactical advantage.
Once combat was concluded, I was introduced to the game’s slice-of-life elements, involving dialogue cutscenes in Tasogare Hall. The game’s cast does seem rather likeable, and the animations are pretty fluid and fun to watch–but it’s hard to tell if they’ll land well at launch. Their designs do seem a touch generic compared to the other anime games launching in recent times, but launch day is some time away yet, so it’s hard to cast judgement on the game’s cast right now.
All in all, I was quite impressed by FAREIDOLIA. Nexon has some experience with live service games (MapleStory, Blue Archive), so this is shaping up to be another winner in the making. Time will tell if the developer delivers on the promise this demo shows, but we’re looking forward to seeing more in the near future.
AuthorTimothy “Timaugustin” AugustinTimothy Augustin is a Senior Editor at GosuGamers who has written about video games and pop culture for over seven years, with hands-on experience previewing titles across PC, console, and mobile at industry events.
Currently, Tim won’t shut up about how good Pokémon Pokopia is. It’s very good!
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