Dead Cells Designer’s Tenjutsu Adds Switch 2, Targets 2027

It’s been over two years since Tenjutsu debuted at the 2024 Devolver Direct, and today’s Indie World Showcase gave the action roguelike a 2027 window along with a Switch 2 version to go with the PC release. The game comes from Deepnight Games, the studio of Sébastien Benard, who was the designer on Dead Cells before Motion Twin wrapped up support for that game in 2024. Devolver Digital is publishing, and by its own admission it has been relatively tight-lipped about Tenjutsu since the reveal, though the press release makes up for it with a spokesperson’s two-word assessment that I’ll leave for the trailer to back up.

Tenjutsu is set in Kuroboro City, where former yakuza Ten is trying to rebuild her life after getting out of prison, only for the city’s three crime syndicates to decide her release is a threat worth eliminating. Combat is built around a one-versus-many martial arts system, with melee, ranged, and special weapons that can be combined into a playstyle of your own against enemies that keep changing. The order you take on the syndicates matters, too, since every victory makes the surviving bosses stronger and the last one standing becomes the most dangerous.

The city itself is randomized and open to explore, with Jokers that bend its rules in your favor by building vending machines, altering what shops stock or charge, or healing you to keep a run going. Defeated enemies drop tattooed teeth that are turned in to a character called the Dentist for permanent upgrades between runs, including expanding the city, changing the game’s rules, and unlocking advanced weaponry. Between runs, the story plays out in Ten’s apartment and Nanny Hoken’s ramen shop below it, where visitors stop by over the course of the game, and some of them are the enemies she’s fighting.

PURE ROGUE-JUTSU FLOW | Tenjutsu Gameplay Trailer | Coming 2027 to PC and Switch 2