‘Hirogami’ looks great on paper, but its various issues hold it back from being a modern-day classic.
Bandai Namco
Hirogami has turned a lot of heads in the lead-up to its September 3rd release on PC and PS5, and it’s easy to see why. Bandai Namco’s origami-infused platformer is charming, looks gorgeous, and with the right approach to its character-changing puzzle mechanics, it could be a classic for 2025.
While you can’t doubt Hirogami’s beauty or endearing credentials, it still has its fair share of rough edges. It’s not that it has any truly rotten issues, but rather a constant accumulation of minor frustrations that detract from a game with incredible potential — death by a thousand paper cuts, so to speak.
Hirogami sees you assume the role of Hiro, a shapeshifting “entertainer” who loses folding powers to the Blight, a vine-like disease that invades your origami homeland of Papyrunia. Despite Hiro being perceived as a coward by warrior Shiori, they begrudgingly accept you as a fighter, if only because you’re one of the few survivors remaining.
At its core, Hirogami is a collectathon platformer set over ten chapters, told across the pages of an open book on a table in the “real world”. Mainlining the game takes around six hours, but each stage has three core missions — such as completing the level, collecting paper, or maintaining your health above several hearts — alongside a trio of additional challenges for collectibles and currencies, catering to those looking for their next ten-hour Platinum trophy.
Hirogami is reminiscent of a grown-up Tearaway Unfolded with Far Eastern influences, complete with punchy colors and gorgeous landscapes that wonderfully apply a paper aesthetic. Once you get hands-on with the tutorial, it’s a bit jarring — a mix of free-flowing surroundings playing out at a consistent 60fps, with your stop-motion protagonist juddering and skipping between frames — but you soon find your feet and learn to love it.
You’re initially stuck with just your “Hiro fold” and wind-wafting Sacred Fan for defense. It’s pretty standard fare: you explore levels, fight initially docile enemies, catch breezes in your flat-paper form, and search for treasure chests. Basic commands are a little quirky — jumping feels slightly off, and has an odd hang time (though I suppose you are made of paper), while actions and combat moves often lock you in place until they’re completed — but it’s forgiving, at least to begin with.
However, platforming sections are pretty tight, even if they lack timing and curation that delivers those real moments of satisfaction, whether you’re reacting quickly, solving a puzzle, or most crucially, forced to transform at short notice.
Animal magic
You’re finally allowed to shapeshift once you regain your basic animal folds, which you quickly learn over Hirogami’s first few stages by defeating a trio of Blighted characters: an armadillo with a Yorkshire dialect, a posh frog, and a self-conscious ape. There’s also a stage-specific bird form, which deliciously transforms you into a paper aeroplane when you use your boost ability.
The frog is a game changer.
Bandai Namco
Each one looks believably handmade, even if they all have the same color scheme as the aliens in They Live. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses: the armadillo rolls up for speedy movement and bashing, but can’t jump or walk well; the frog can jump high and spit goo, but lacks defense; the ape can swing from vines, smash boxes, and move blocks, but is a bit average at everything in general.
Changing between forms is effortless, so long as you always remember which button summons what, which you won’t. Each swap is tied to the flat paper ability, making transformations both very satisfying to watch — as you deconstruct and reconstruct in moments — and also a bit frustrating, as you incorrectly cycle through forms and you’re forced to see them all play out.
Each form also brings other abilities, and while these are introduced with good ideas in mind, some are never used after their introductory progression point, and others make your paper forms unbalanced.
Far from ace combat
Initially, Hirogami’s combat is a breeze. However, as more enemies are introduced and combine in different ways, it quickly becomes a minefield that relies heavily on good fortune. The fact that no-damage runs are a recurring side quest means that completionists will definitely tear their hair out on some of the levels.
Hiro can’t fight animals with his fan, so you have to transform. Initially, you rely on the armadillo’s rolling attack, but Hirogami constantly adds new obstacles to complicate things. Once your frog fold finally gets its splash upgrade — initially used to bounce higher via toadstools — you can effectively spam an entire field of enemies without much resistance, especially if you anticipate attacks.
The absolute bane of the game are shielded enemies, cheap foes that have clearly been created to make you use your frog’s spit ability. They offer no warning of their defensive move and ruin any flow you have.
Crumple zones
Combat aside, Hirogami also has several minor issues that hold it back. First and foremost are the camera angles; these are regularly hard-locked to intended paths, rather than allowing for exploration, making some sections, including visit-and-return excursions, challenging to navigate. The distance blur can also be dramatic, obscuring your view of what’s to come and essentially hiding its beauty.
Most crucially, Hirogami feels reminiscent of 2020’s Superliminal in how it presents its best ideas in the first half of the game and fails to capitalize on its amassed strengths in the final act. Instead, later stages feel unpolished, undertested, and frankly harsh; some sections rely more on luck than skill due to dodgy responsiveness, weird puzzle timings, or the occasional drop into sub-30fps territory.
These last parts of the game are also undermined by gatekeeping. It took me until chapter nine to realize I needed 35 paper cranes to play the next level. Hirogami doesn’t need to do this — it already scratches the itch for collectors and challenge fans, and for more casual players, returning to old levels to beat trials is ultimately performative, especially as you’ll have all animal forms and plenty of upgrades. Health-based tests, in particular, are a breeze as you’ll’ve doubled your life bar since you played them the first time.
Bosses are a nice challenge, and are usually a little fairer than certaian combat scenarios.
Bandai Namco
Crucially, the narrative doesn’t scratch the itch you want it to. Dialogue is snappy and funny, complemented by an atmospheric and beautiful soundtrack, but its light-touch approach to storytelling somehow leaves you with more questions than answers, with twists and turns that either fail to add up or simply don’t make sense.
Untapped potential
Bandai Namco has laid the foundations for a sequel, and it would be silly to pass on the chance for a follow-up. In those moments that everything comes together, Hirogami is one of the more ambitious, individual, and enjoyable platformers you’ll play this year.
Many of its issues can be fixed with patches; three months down the road, updates could push it from yellow to green score territory. It won’t save the story or the missed opportunities, though — Hirogami always feels like it’s building up to a crescendo that never quite arrives.
It’ll be something special if its creators take stock and iron out the creases. With more consistent creativity, better combat, more variety, and more time spent on crafting a strong narrative, Hirogami 2 could be real GOTY material.