Verdant Bend
15 waves · one road
Cherry blossom · the Great Oni
Build anywhere beside the road
There are no tower spots. Every map is a hand-shaped road on a sheet of paper, and any open ground beside it is yours: the bend where three lanes meet, the bank of the koi pond, the one gap between two rocks.
Try it: tap the board to build. The yōkai keep coming either way.
Seven towers. Three are ready from the start; the rest unlock as you clear the first maps.
Then choose its final form
Three levels, then a fork. Every tower becomes one of two things, and the two play differently: the Archer’s Twin Arrows or the armour-piercing Hawk Eye; Fire Pot’s Scattering Embers or Burning Ground, which sets the road alight; Raijin’s Strike, which drops red lightning on the strongest yōkai every fourth beat.
- Archer: Twin Arrows · Hawk Eye
- Fire Pot: Scattering Embers · Burning Ground
- Snow Lantern: Frozen Solid · Brittle Frost
- Thunder Drum: Storm Call · Raijin’s Strike
- Long Bow: Heaven-splitting Shot · Volley
- Dragon Eye: Dragon’s Fury · Twin Gaze
- Shrine: Blessed Offerings · Warding Shrine
Twelve maps on one scroll
From Verdant Bend to Ash Summit: fifteen to forty-five waves, one, two or three roads, each with its own weather, flower and piece of music. These are the game’s own paintings of them.
Twin Hooks
20 waves · a koi pond
Red and white plum · the Kappa
The Coil
20 waves · moonlight
White blossom · Jorōgumo
Crossroads
25 waves · a waterfall
Rapeseed · the Great Tengu
Switchback
25 waves · passing showers
Hydrangea · Umibōzu
The Fork
30 waves · two roads, by night
White blossom · Nue
Gauntlet
30 waves · late snow
Spider lily · Yuki-onna
The Maw
40 waves · two roads, a storm
Chrysanthemum · Gashadokuro
Bamboo Grove
30 waves · thick bamboo
Camellia · Kamaitachi
Moon Gate
35 waves · two roads, fireflies
Bellflower · Nurarihyon
Maple Pass
35 waves · a road that crosses itself
Bush clover · Kyūbi
Ash Summit
45 waves · three roads, snow
White blossom · Shuten-dōji
Eleven great yokai, each a trick
Every map’s boss waves bring its own great yōkai, painted with the same brush as everything else, and each one breaks a rule. The Kappa dives under the road where your towers can’t see it. Yuki-onna freezes the towers around her. Gashadokuro falls, and stands up again.
The board on the right walks them past one at a time, against towers kept weak enough that you see every trick.
KappaDives under the road, and heals there.Twin Hooks
JorōgumoLays Ink Mites as she walks.The Coil
Great TenguFlies, and bursts forward.Crossroads
UmibōzuAn ink shield that keeps coming back.Switchback
NueSplits down every road.The Fork
Yuki-onnaFreezes the towers around her.Gauntlet
GashadokuroFalls, and rises once more.The Maw
KamaitachiSlashing dashes down the road.Bamboo Grove
NurarihyonHeals the yōkai around him.Moon Gate
KyūbiThe nine-tailed fox calls the Kitsune.Maple Pass
Shuten-dōjiThe oni king: faster the more he bleeds.Ash Summit
Great OniNo trick. Plain strength.Verdant Bend
A painting that moves
Grass sways in the wind and gusts carry petals across the map. Showers pass over Switchback, a storm sits on The Maw, snow comes late to Gauntlet, and the night maps stay in moonlight with fireflies. The light moves from morning to dusk over a level, and the koi pond and the waterfall fill with colour as the battle goes on.
The Daily Scroll
One map, one trial and the same charm offers for every player each day, twenty waves, with every tower lent to you. Only your first try counts. Then you get a little grid to post: a filled square for a clean wave, an empty one for a wave that cost lives.
Today’s scroll
A different map every day
Worked out from the date, the same way the game does it.
The grid above is an example result.
Your run, as a hanging scroll
Every run paints a picture nobody else has: towers where you put them, flowers where yōkai fell, water coloured in. At the end, Share Scroll mounts it like a kakejiku, with the verdict, your stars and the charms you kept, and hands it to your phone’s share sheet.
This one is being painted right now, in your browser, by the game: a run on Twin Hooks played out and mounted.
Music that plays the battle
The score is written live, in the hirajoshi scale, tuned in just intonation: pure intervals that don’t beat. Each map has its own piece. Every fallen yōkai plucks a koto string, pitched by where it fell; a kill streak climbs the scale; a great yōkai on the road darkens the whole ensemble.
These are the five ratios, over two octaves. Pluck them. Or press Listen and the boards on this page play their own music.
Hold the road
Coming soonto iPhone
- 12
- hand-shaped maps, 15 to 45 waves
- 7
- towers, three levels each
- 14
- final forms
- 11
- great yōkai with their own tricks
- 15
- omamori charms, one every five waves
- 12
- trials, one rule each
- 1
- Daily Scroll, the same for everyone
- ∞
- Endless, on every map you clear
Free, with no ads, no purchases and no account. It plays offline. It sends anonymous gameplay statistics and session recordings, which you can turn off in Settings under “Help improve the game”. Nothing you type is recorded. The privacy policy has every detail.
When is it out, and is it on Android?
It’s coming to iPhone first; the App Store listing is being prepared now. Android follows later.
Does it need the internet?
No. The whole game plays offline, in portrait, with one thumb.
How hard is it?
The first maps teach you; from Switchback on, the great yōkai will take lives if you’re careless. Every map has Hard and Endless once you’ve cleared it, and a trial with one rule of its own.
Is everything on this page really the game?
Yes. Every board, painting and scroll here is drawn by the game’s own engine running in your browser. Nothing is a video or a mock-up.