Review
Successful upgrade: "Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + The Star Shard World" impresses
by Kevin Hofer
Pleasure and frustration go hand in hand in origami platformer Hirogami
2.9.2025
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Pictures: Kevin Hofer
3D action platformer Hirogami looks incredibly pretty with its origami-inspired graphics. The gameplay ideas are great as well. Just a shame that the game leaves me feeling frustrated far too often.
Just moments ago, I, protagonist Hiro, was fighting various glitches with my fan. Seconds later, I transformed – sorry: folded – myself into an armadillo and rolled through wooden blockades. Only to then hop over deep chasms and sharp spikes as a frog. Hirogami truly shines in these moments: fluidly switching back and forth between Hiro’s folds to fight my way through the wonderful world.
These stand in stark contrast to many moments when the isometric perspective makes me despair, or the controls just feel imprecise and unfair.
A simple story
In 3D action platformer Hirogami, I control my hero – Hiro – from an isometric view, steering him through an origami-inspired world. He’s an origami master and can fold himself into a multitude of animals. Or more precisely, could. At the start of the game, digital invaders threatened the world order, and Hiro lost his abilities as a result. He set out to fight evil and gradually recovers his folding skills.
Story-wise, Hirogami doesn’t knock my socks off. The game tells a classic good versus evil or tradition versus technology story. The few characters capable of folding alongside Hiro are clichés and boring. One character is even wholly forgotten in the course of the story. The origami animals, on the other hand, provide a bit of fun and a few smiles, and I like the way they look. I was particularly taken with the somewhat stupid frog Bingley, who only ever thinks about eating.
A classic platformer
The game’s divided into several chapters with up to three levels. They’re all self-contained and mostly linear. You’ll find hidden paths that conceal goodies such as designs for reinforcements from time to time. You enter levels via a kind of world map. If you finish one, you’ll receive up to three origami cranes as an award. However, you’ll have to fulfil certain conditions, such as completing the level within a certain time. There are also other challenges, but you won’t get rewarded with cranes for those.
At first I thought the origami cranes had no function. But as I discovered later in the game, they do: they’re considered a kind of key to levels. To even play later levels, you need to have collected a certain number of those birds. So, I’m practically forced to dive back into certain sections. Not that I’m annoyed by this.
You can also talk to NPCs on the world map. By visiting Ruz Pappy – a kind of village elder – you can create ornaments from designs you found. They give advantages throughout the game, such as more health in the form of hearts. You do have to pay Pappy with paper, though, which you’ll collect during the course of the game.
Ingenious presentation
Where Hirogami truly shines is in its presentation. Whether it’s a mountain landscape, river or volcano, the paper-like origami environment looks phenomenal. I can’t get enough of the trees, flowers and mushrooms. You know, I feel like I’m in an old PS1 platformer with pre-rendered backgrounds.
I also love the music. All the sounds have a Japanese feel, even though Hirogami’s being developed by a team from Bandai Namco Singapore. In any case, it complements the surroundings wonderfully without being too obtrusive. Here’s an audio sample from another trailer:
Frustrating gameplay in parts
Thanks to the isometric perspective, the developers can really show off their world from the best angle. It’s great fun exploring the world as Hiro or one of his origami animals – armadillo, frog, gorilla and the like. Unfortunately, the fixed camera isn’t always best for gaming. Again and again, Hiro disappears behind walls or trees and I can’t see where I’m going – which often ends with a fall to my death. In such cases, I’d be happy to have a freely rotating camera.
But that’s not all: you can’t always see exactly where you’re jumping because of how far the camera is. As an origami frog, you’ll also have to dodge spikes several times on rotating platforms. As a rule, your shadow on the ground will help you recognise where you are. However, this is very difficult when the camera’s that far away.
The controls usually feel alright, but they kick up a fuss again and again. More than once, it’s not my lack of skill that causes my virtual demise. Especially as an origami gorilla, I often fall to my death because he doesn’t jump in the right direction from a vine. The controls just don’t feel as smooth as I’m used to from other platformers like Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
There are also a few bugs. You can switch back and forth between different folds using a button combination. This is always accompanied by an animation in which Hiro unfolds into his original state – a leaf – then folds into his desired shape. It looks cool, but more than once the animation gets stuck on the leaf. I then have to trigger it again, which isn’t great during hectic or platforming-intensive passages. Another time, I tried to heal myself at a shrine and after each complete healing I took damage again – without anything actually touching me.
Solid combat system
I do think the combat system is better. As Hiro, you can attack enemies with a fan and jump around. In armadillo form, you’ll damage enemies by rolling into them. You use the origami frog to spit on enemies and slow them down, or to pounce on them mid-jump. The gorilla, on the other hand, deals out powerful blows. You can also use all these combat skills to remove or avoid obstacles.
All enemies have certain weak points, and you have to keep switching forms during fights to take them out efficiently. This adds a tactical component to the game, which is great fun. Unfortunately, there are only very few enemy types. Four digital enemies – so-called glitches – as well as strong and weak versions of frogs, armadillos and gorillas that have been contaminated by the digital invaders. Then there are the bosses, which, apart from the final boss, are also just variants of existing enemies. I’d have liked more variety here.
Hirogami will be available from 3 September for PS5 and PC. I tested the PC version, which was provided to me by Kakehashi Games.
In a nutshell
Missing those finishing touches
Exploring the beautiful origami world of Hirogami using Hiro’s folding skills is a lot of fun – most of the time. It feels great to switch seamlessly from armadillo to gorilla and beat up your opponents. As a frog with giant hops, I can easily explore even the highest locations on a level too.
Unfortunately, the isometric perspective and shoddy controls regularly put a spanner in the works. I also stumbled across various bugs. I hope the developers get these problems under control before launch or at least tackle them afterwards.
At its best moments, Hirogami is a great platformer that impressed me with its origami look and mechanics. But sometimes it’s just a (way too) frustrating experience. Too bad – without this drawback I’d have given the game four out of five stars.
Pro
- Beautiful origami-style world
- Mostly well put-together platformer
- Great gameplay ideas using folding mechanics
Contra
- Imprecise controls
- Isometric camera not always optimal
- Bugs in my review build
Kevin Hofer
Senior Editor
kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.chFrom big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
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