It’s been almost three years since Showa American Story premiered in January 2022, whose B-movie-style trailer depicting 1980s America as a colony of Japan became a viral hit.
Updates have been meager since then, but IGN can now exclusively reveal a novel trailer along with a 2025 release window for PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam). The game genre is described as “end-of-the-century period drama romantic RPG”.
The dramatic trailer introduces a novel boss named Shogun, a powerful villain who wields a shield like Captain America, a flowing cape and floats like Superman before the sunset. Elsewhere in the film, we see Shogun riding on the back of a pitch-black giraffe.
Creative director XY.Luo told IGN: “Shogun is a boss character who stands 6 meters lofty. He uses the long neck of a giraffe to attack and can also fly, throwing his shield to attack the player.
Luo explained that fighting such a huge enemy that is mounted on the back of an even taller beast will create an epic scale reminiscent of Monster Hunter.
Showa American Story is a road movie-style action RPG where you travel across America in a camper and a motorcycle, and the trailer shows off plenty of places to visit. We see San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge decorated with Japanese lanterns, Las Vegas awash in kanji neon lights, the Hollywood sign replaced by “Neo Yokohama,” and the newly christened Neo Tokyo-4 (Austin, Texas) filled with cherry blossoms. A man commits seppuku in front of Mount Rushmore. America is irresistibly colored with the colors of Japan’s Showa era.
Protagonist Chouko Chigusa travels across America, fighting zombies and strange humanoid creatures using a variety of brutal combat options. In addition to her primary weapons of swords and guns, we see Chouko fighting a giant drill. Luo told us that Chouko’s arsenal will expand throughout her adventure and will come in a wide variety. The trailer also shows the wealth of customization elements and mini-games found in the camper.
The story is still shrouded in mystery, but there is no doubt that it has a sturdy cast of characters. in August IGN exclusively revealed the Gokou boss characterthe governor of Texas became a cowboy-samurai and sold his state to Japan. A novel trailer showing Chouko Chigusa stomping on enemies in high heels and bashing zombie heads in with a golf club has us excited for more updates as we get closer to Showa American Story’s 2025 release.
Daniel Robson is the editor-in-chief of IGN Japan and Ezra Krabbe is a member of the editorial team.
