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JRPG developer Yoshiro Kimura, whose 1997 game Moon: Remix RPG Adventure was cited by Undertale creator Toby Fox as one of his major inspirations, is about to release a new game - inspired by Undertale.
At the end of October, Kimura is set to release the first new RPG he's designed in more than two decades. Dubbed Stray Children, it's a twisted fairy tale where you dwell in a world of kids under siege from crazed, monstrous adults that dwell beyond the walls of their stronghold. While you can defeat these 'Olders' in turn-based combat, you can also attempt to heal them instead, in a clear nod to the pacifist stance that helped make Undertale's name.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Kimura explained that "Undertale itself is a great game - playing it really moved me. It hit me in the soul, rather than the feels. As such, I can't say Undertale has absolutely no relation to Stray Children. There's some inspiration there, of course."
But Undertale isn't simply a source of stylistic inspiration for Stray Children - Kimura says it's a big part of the reason his new game exists at all. "I had wanted to make another RPG post-Moon," he says, "and I'd been thinking about it for a long time. But making an RPG is not an easy undertaking. I've known lots of teams that have attempted it and failed in numerous ways. I didn't really have the courage to set off on that journey until I played Undertale, and that gave me that last push I needed, while I'm still healthy enough to make that climb up the mountain, as it were."
Undertale has proven to be a major catalyst for Kimura. It released 18 years after Moon, but the friendship Kimura developed with Fox after Undertale came out was a major factor in his decision to release Moon outside of Japan for the first time in 2021. Now, Fox's game is helping shape Kimura's new project, but the latter wants to make it clear he's not simply piggybacking on the success of the former: "The most important thing when talking about Toby Fox in public is that I really like him, and because I really like him and respect him, I don't want anyone to get the impression I'm trying to use his name."
The Moon-Undertale-Stray Children timeline is a fascinating, inspirational ouroboros, the ideas of one creator inspiring another two decades later, only for the original creator to draw from the homage another ten years after that. Just don't ask me how Deltarune fits into the cycle.
Perhaps our list of the best JRPGs will help provide an answer.
