Developer: Studio Saizensen
Publisher: Success (Japan), Nicalis (Western release)
Genre: Rubber Ring Action (Rubber-band Action)
Release Date: April 25th 2019 (Japan, Physical/Digital), April 30th 2019 (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Physical/Digital), July 9th 2019 (North America, Physical/Digital), July 9th 2019 (Rest of World, Digital)
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: ¥5,800 excluding tax (Japan), $39.99 (US)
File size: 1.9GB
Language options:
- Published by Success: Japanese, English, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional)
- Published by Nicalis: English
Players: 1
Online: Yes - Leaderboards. (Nintendo Switch Online subscription not required)
DLC:
Planned.
Umihara Kawase Fresh! is the fourth title of the Umihara Kawase series (excluding ports and enhanced editions). Its genre is "Rubber Ring Action" although I'd like to describe it as a physics-based puzzle/platformer because you control a character who uses an elastic fishing line to swing across platforms and obstacles to get to the end of a stage in a non-linear fashion. However it is not as simple to play as it sounds.
The series moves into a new direction in Umihara Kawase Fresh! going from non-linear stage based progression to an interconnected map, similar to what you would find in a
Metroidvania-style of game.
What this means is that you'll now do quests to progress in the game. Not much changes because you're still going from Point A to Point B to complete it.
With quests, this means you will now interact with NPCs in the game, a series first.
Instead of dying in one hit like in past games, you now have a health bar called Hunger. It's just a regular health bar, you lose health when you get hit. There is also a new Stamina bar which depletes based on your actions, all it will do is deplete health when it becomes empty.
This results in the implementation of food, cooking and currency in the game. You can scavenge for food from trees or enemies. Food can be eaten to recover Hunger and Stamina, you can also cook food anywhere which creates a dish. Dishes give you buffs such as half damage taken or higher jumping. Currency can be used to buy ingredients from the store in the main menu.
There are hidden items throughout the map so exploration is something you can do between quests. Camp sites can be used as checkpoints in the game. Also, you can travel underwater now which means there's a status bar for air.
Online Leaderboards are back, the Nintendo Switch Online subscription is not required to use it. Compete by completing time attack stages with the fastest time, records are separate for each character in the game.
You can play as other characters:
Each character in the game has a unique playstyle. Cotton, is a special guest character from Success's Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams. She has the ability to ride her broomstick which allows her to fly.
Just like with Sayonara Umihara Kawase, I created a guide for Umihara Kawase Fresh! It is mainly to help newcomers understand some of the mechanics in the game to help you know how to get past difficult obstacles.
The guide is in video format,
linked here:
There is also a number of videos released by Success that give some quick tips to beginners however, it is in Japanese so you'll only get a visual sense of what's going on but it's easy to follow:
Extending your hook
Scaling walls vertically
Crossing ceilings
Cooking
Pendulum Swing
Rocket Dash
Zero Gravity Jump
Reverse Cliff Grab²
Slope Dash
The following was posted by the
@SUCCESS_Corp Twitter account when Umihara Kawase Fresh! debuted at Tokyo Game Show 2018.
Plot:
When a young traveling chef named Kawase arrives in the frontier town of Kingness, she finds it to be a perfect real-life replica of a town that she used to dream of as a child. Intrigued, she takes a job as a delivery person and occasional chef for a local restaurant. Through exploration and conversations with the locals, Kawase gradually learns the history of the town, the mysterious castle that floats above it, the dangerous cavern that lurks below it and the unspeakable demons who have terrorized its residents.
Umihara Kawase:
A traveling Sushi Chef with her pink backpack and elastic fishing line in hand.
In the last game she was known to be 20 years old. Umihara Kawase has a calm demeanor and looks up to no one. She can swallow pills without drinking water and dislikes poisonous mushrooms.
Cotton:
Cotton is a special guest character from the shoot 'em up Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams because the publisher of Umihara Kawase Fresh! is Success. If you are curious about the games Cotton is from then the following links are some gameplay videos.
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams (First appearance in 1991 for Arcades. Ported to: PC-Engine, X68000, PlayStation, Neo Geo Pocket Color)
Märchen Adventure Cotton 100% (First appearance in 1993 for Super Famicom. Ported to PlayStation.)
Panorama Cotton (First appearance in 1994 for Sega Mega Drive)
Cotton 2: Fantastic Night Dreams (First appearance in 1997 for Arcades. Ported to Sega Saturn)
Cotton: Boomerang (First appearance in 1998 for Arcades. Ported to Sega Saturn)
Rainbow Cotton (First appearance in 2000 for Sega Dreamcast)
Trivia: Cotton also appeared as a playable character in the Nintendo DS game Rondo of Swords developed by Success.
Ms. Silvy:
Ms. Silvy is the owner of the restaurant "Hunnyeim Home". She hires Umihara Kawase to deliver dishes to customers in Kingness.
"
The Husband":
Ms. Silvy's husband, who she always brags about. His name is Gin. Looks like he's not at Hunnyeim Home right now...³
Queen:
The Queen who started "Kingness". Loving signs, in her heavenly castle in the sky she does around the clock research on them. That research has resulted in…⁴
Will this game be coming to other platforms?
Any decisions to port the game won't happen until after the game has released on Nintendo Switch, if it does get ported it may take up to 6 months of work.
Source
Is there a demo of this game on the eShop?
Yes, you can play the demo by downloading the Japanese version from the eShop. You will need a Nintendo Account with region settings set to Japan and a Switch user profile linked to it to connect to the Japan region of the eShop.
Warning: If you do not want Japanese Nintendo News in the News section of your Switch then do not follow any of these steps.
Where I can import the Japanese physical version of Umihara Kawase Fresh!?
Go to this link. The linked post will remind you of the differences between the Japanese and western versions regarding, price, availability and language options and then some import links for the Japanese version are listed.
I can't get past this obstacle, what do I do?
The Umihara Kawase series is known to have a high skill-curve which is why I made a video guide to help explain the mechanics of the game. The video is in the "Gameplay and Understanding the Traversal Mechanics" section of this OT. If you are still stuck, there is more than one way to get to the goal. So look around the map and see if there are any ceilings or walls that may provide a shortcut.
Is it true that Curly from Cave Story is coming to Umihara Kawase Fresh!?
Yes... I mean,
No.
_______________
Credit to
SinCItyAssassin for the OT banner.
²Credit to
Fukuzatsu for the translation.
³Credit to
Fukuzatsu for the translation.
⁴Credit to
KtSlime for the translation.
________________
The meaning of the title "Umihara Kawase" comes from Japanese chef terminology meaning "Fish from the sea have fat on their bellies, and fish from rivers have fat on their backs." In Japanese, this is pronounced "
Umi no sakana wa
hara ni,
kawa no sakana wa
se ni abura ga notteru." In this series, many fatty fish of the sea and rivers appear as enemy characters.¹
Note: Umi hara kawa se = Sea belly river back
The following is a quote from a USGamer interview of Kiyoshi Sakai:
"The reason I named the game that way, I was watching a travel program on TV, and that saying came up. It sounded really good in my ear, so that's why I named the game that way."
If you'd like to learn more about the origins of Umihara Kawase,
here is the link to USGamer where they interview the creator: Kiyoshi Sakai.
There are two developers that are well known for their work on the Umihara Kawase series, Kiyoshi Sakai and Toshinobu Kondo. Kiyoshi Sakai is the creator, game designer and programmer behind the Umihara Kawase series, he came up with the physics-based platforming for Umihara Kawase by use of an elastic fishing line. Toshinobu Kondo is the illustrator and hence gave us the character design of Umihara Kawase. They have worked on every title in the series excluding Umihara Kawase Portable.
Disclaimer: The following historical information regarding TNN and XING may be inaccurate due to lack of verification.
Kiyoshi Sakai was coming up with concepts for a game to make back in the early 90s. He made the prototypes on a Sharp X680000. This quote from the
USGamer interview is relevant:
Kiyoshi Sakai said:
"There was one game that I created, similar to Dig-Dug 2. And then there was another one that basically… there was a maze, and then you poured water into the maze and killed the enemies with the water that you poured. I prototyped out those two games as well. When I was thinking about them just as concepts, they seemed like really awesome ideas, but once I worked out the prototypes, they didn't turn out to be that interesting."
Here is a video of those two prototypes mentioned.
How he ended up deciding on making Umihara Kawase:
Kiyoshi Sakai said:
It's not that I had this exact idea at the beginning," he admits. "The main thing I wanted to do is create an action game that played really well. What I did is I logically thought that out -- what would make a good action game? While I was thinking through that, I decided that a wire action game would be what I wanted to create. After that, I prototyped a few games out, and Umihara Kawase was one of those prototypes. That's the one I ended up creating as a full game."
Here is footage of the prototype of Umihara Kawase he made on a Sharp X68000 back in 1992. If you read the USGamer interview it explains how he took the prototype to a friend at a development studio to see if a game could be made out of it. Sakai said the process didn't go smoothly and that it took more than two years for the game to release.
The first game in the series: Umihara Kawase released on December 23rd 1994 for the Super Famicom in Japan, developed by TNN (Think about Needs of Notice for Human Being) and published by NHK SC (NHK Service Center) which is a subsidiary of the television broadcaster NHK (a.k.a. Japan Broadcasting Corporation). There are 49 fields (stages) and this Super Famicom game allowed you to save replay data. You will not find this game in the
top 30 charts from Famitsu Weekly back when it released but that didn't stop the game from having a cult following.
Picture is from Umihara Kawase on Steam
The second game in the series: Umihara Kawase Shun released on February 28th, 1997 for the Sony Playstation in Japan, published by XING and developed by
Jackpot who were the development studio TNN but were bought out by Japan Clary Games. This sequel has a new artstyle with environmental objects in 3D, animated cutscenes and voice acting with
in-game commercials.
Picture is from Umihara Kawase Shun Steam Edition
In September 1997, Studio Saizensen was founded by Toshinobu Kondo who is currently the President and CEO of the company. Establishing themselves as an independent developer studio, they would go on to release games such as
Pounding Poyaccio (PS1),
Shining Hearts (PSP),
Glory of Heracles (Nintendo DS) and
more.
After a number of ports and enhanced versions of Umihara Kawase Shun games…
On September 26th, 2012.
News released that Studio Saizensen had acquired the rights to Umihara Kawase which allowed Studio Saizensen to release
Umihara Kawase Shun: Second Edition on PSN.
For more proof of this,
read the following quote from Toshinobu Kondo:
I have made a lot of games and designed a number of characters. But Umihara Kawase is one of the most loved character. I am so happy and really grateful to you all.
When game industry began, the rules of game copyrights were not really fixed and therefore Umihara Kawase had passed into several companies' processions. But since some years we "Studio Saizensen" have had back the copyright in hand. (it's like "my daughter who was leaving home for a long time came back finally"!) and now, we can make another Umihara Kawase as we like.
We will challenge to make "newly reborn" Umihara Kawase in the future. Mr. Sakai and I are keep working so hard for a new game, so please look forward to playing it!
The third game in the series: Sayonara Umihara Kawase released on June 20th, 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan, published by Agatsuma Entertainment and developed by Studio Saizensen. It features new playable characters and transitions from having 2D sprites to 3D characters. It would later become the first title in the series to release overseas.
Picture is from Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ on Steam.
Where can I play the other games in the series?
If you are looking to play Umihara Kawase, Umihara Kawase Shun and Sayonara Umihara Kawase. The easiest place to find those three games digitally is on Steam for PC. Here's the
Steam link for the trilogy pack, you can also buy them separately.
If you don't have a PC, your options for digital games are limited. The Nintendo 3DS has the original Sayonara Umihara Kawase (Yumi's Odd Odyssey for the US because Natsume) on the eShop and the PS Vita has Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ on PSN.
Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ (PS Vita) comes with the original Umihara Kawase. To be able to play Umihara Kawase Shun Second Edition (PS1), you will need a Japanese PSN account to download the game on PS3/PSP/PS Vita.
The link for it is here.
If you don't have any of the above then, if you own an Android Smartphone you can download Sayonara Umihara Kawase Smart (
Click here). It is a port of Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ which is simplified by having replay and online leaderboard functions removed. It is highly recommended that you play the game using a "Bluetooth wireless controller or similar" because the touch controls are not good since the UI makes using jump + lure simultaneously an extremely difficult task (
Sakai even made instructions for pairing your PS4 Dualshock Controller or Nintendo Switch Pro Controller to your phone). The first 10 stages of the game are free, you have to pay to play all 60 stages which is ¥450 or equivalent to the currency of your region (around $4). The game was ported by Kiyoshi Sakai under his studio called Sakai Game Development Factory, Sayonara Umihara Kawase Smart is licensed from Studio Saizensen.
If you're looking for physical copies of any of those games in the series, they can be much more difficult to find due to the fact being that this is a niche series that didn't come overseas until Sayonara Umihara Kawase on 3DS in 2014.
If you are still looking to import those other games in the series, I will list each game that had a physical release and you can go search on eBay and other resellers:
Umihara Kawase (Super Famicom, Nintendo DS*, PlayStation Vita**, Steam)
- Has 49 Fields (stages).
- Beware of region locking for the Super Famicom version.
- Steam release has additional features: Practice mode, online leaderboards, etc.
*Is an extra game included in Umihara Kawase Shun Second Edition Kanzenban for Nintendo DS
**Is an extra game included in Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ for PlayStation Vita.
Umihara Kawase Shun (PlayStation)
- Has 50 fields (stages)
- Only this game has
in-game commercials.
- Beware of region locking.
Umihara Kawase Shun Second Edition (PlayStation)
- Has 53 fields (stages).
- This does not have in-game commercials.
- Beware of region locking.
Umihara Kawase Shun Second Edition Kazenban (Nintendo DS)
- Has 61 Fields (stages).
- It includes Umihara Kawase.
- This does not have in-game commercials.
- The Steam release of Umihara Kawase Shun is based off this version, has additional online features: Leaderboards, etc. (Does not include Umihara Kawase.)
Umihara Kawase Portable (PSP)
-
Buyer beware, this is considered a bad port of Umihara Kawase Shun because it was handled by Rocket Studio which didn't involve Kiyoshi Sakai to handle any of the programming. It is said that the game is buggy and the physics are worse than the original game. The publisher was Marvelous Entertainment.
Sayonara Umihara Kawase (Nintendo 3DS)
- Has 50 Fields (stages).
- Physical release only in Japan, beware of region locking.
Sayonara Umihara Kawase Chirari/Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ (PlayStation Vita)
- Has 60 Fields (stages).
- Frame rate increased from 30FPS to 60FPS
- Enhanced graphics
- Includes Umihara Kawase
- Physical release only in Japan, PS Vita is region-free.
- The Steam release of Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ is based off this version. (Does not include Umihara Kawase)
- The Steam release of Umihara Kawase is based off this version, has additional online features: Leaderboards, etc. (Does not include Sayonara Umihara Kawase)
Sayonara Umihara Kawase++ (PlayStation Vita)
-
Go to this link.
In what order should I play the games?
You can play the games in any order. My suggestion if 1) You are a newcomer and 2) You are wanting to play something now while waiting for the western release of Umihara Kawase Fresh! is to play the games backwards in order. Sayonara Umihara Kawase is the easiest game to start with because your stage progression doesn't reset to zero. Plus, just like the guide I made for Umihara Kawase Fresh! there is also one I made for Sayonara Umihara Kawase+ three years ago and solutions to every stage (in case you get stuck) which is in this
playlist here.
Has Umihara Kawase appeared in any other games?
Yes. Umihara, her childhood friend Emiko and her time traveling cop descendant Noko are playable characters in the fighting game
Blade Strangers (PS4/Switch/Steam) developed by Studio Saizensen, published by Nicalis.
Umihara Kawase is also going to be a playable character in the game
Crystal Crisis (PS4/Switch). This is a game published and developed by Nicalis Inc. which plays like Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo. Note that she is a guest character because this game is not developed by Studio Saizensen, it is featuring characters from Cave Story, Binding of Isaac and Black Jack (Tezuka) to name a few.
Where can I see the anime scene of Umihara Kawase Shun in full screen?
So assuming you've reached the score ranking screen, you'll see
Umihara Kawase sitting down playing on a PS1 in front of a TV. (Yes, the PS1 is blurred out if you are playing any of the non-PlayStation versions of Umihara Kawase Shun).
The TV will show a small image of an anime scene going on, it's not possible to see the scene in full screen in-game however,
there is a YouTube link showing it in full screen. Mind you it's low res.
_____________________
¹Credit to
Gematsu for the chef terminology quote.
