At PAX West 2026, Nippon Ichi Software unveiled The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster, a hand-drawn storybook adventure rooted in the oldest of human fears — illness, abandonment, and the desperate love between siblings. The studio, long known for crafting worlds where narrative and landscape are one, now turns its attention to a girl named Mono who ventures into a quarantine of transformed souls to reclaim the only person who ever saw her. It is a story about what we risk when love is the only thing we have left to lose.
Nippon Ichi Software Reveals 'The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster' at PAX West
She accepts this risk, knowing he plots revenge against humanity.
Mark
So this is a game about a girl trying to save her sister from a disease that turns people into books. That's the core premise?
Mimi
Yes. Mono's sister has Paper Mortis, and she's been taken to this containment facility. Mono goes there to find her, and along the way she has to explore these picture books that are actually transformed people.
Mark
And she teams up with a monster who wants revenge on humanity. That seems like a risky partnership.
Mimi
It is. But Mono is willing to work with him because he's the only way she can navigate the Libratarium and search for her sister. It's a story about desperation and unlikely alliances.
Luke
How much of the game is actually about the relationship between Mono and Mär, and how much is puzzle-solving and boss battles? The description says both, but it's not clear where the weight falls.
Mimi
The source material emphasizes that it's a narrative-driven game with puzzles and bosses woven in. The story seems to be the primary focus, given the developers' track record with The Liar Princess and The Cruel King.
Mark
What do we know about the actual gameplay loop? Do you enter each book, solve a puzzle, fight a boss, and move to the next one?
Mimi
That's the structure suggested, yes. Each book contains the tale of a girl who became a book, and you learn those stories while searching for Mono's sister.
Luke
But we don't have details on difficulty, length, or how the puzzles actually work. We know the aesthetic—hand-drawn, fairytale-like—but not the mechanics.
Mimi
That's fair. The reveal was focused on the story and the visual style. The gameplay details will likely come as we get closer to 2027.
Mark
The team has made two other games with this kind of storybook approach. Are there any hints about how this one differs from those?
Mimi
Not explicitly. But the Paper Mortis concept and the monster-as-ally angle seem like new territory for them. The previous games had their own dark premises, but this one feels more explicitly about transformation and loss.
Luke
And we should note: this is a 2027 release. That's still over a year away. Everything we know comes from a PAX reveal and developer statements. The game could shift significantly before launch.
Il Polso
- A disease called Paper Mortis is rewriting people into picture books and then into monsters, and the facility meant to contain them has already been abandoned.
- Mono — raised invisible in a theater attic, overlooked by a family of celebrated singers — learns her sister, her sole source of love, has been taken to that forsaken place.
- With no one else to turn to, she forges an uneasy pact with Mär, a legendary monster whose own agenda is revenge against humanity itself.
- Players must navigate hand-drawn storybooks, each one the transformed life of an infected girl, solving puzzles and battling bosses to unravel what happened and find Mono's sister.
- The game is set to arrive in 2027 on Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, PS5, and PC, adding another emotionally weighted chapter to Nippon Ichi Software's growing catalog of dark fairytales.
At PAX West 2026, Nippon Ichi Software unveiled The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster, a hand-drawn storybook adventure rooted in the oldest of human fears — illness, abandonment, and the desperate love between siblings. The studio, long known for crafting worlds where narrative and landscape are one, now turns its attention to a girl named Mono who ventures into a quarantine of transformed souls to reclaim the only person who ever saw her. It is a story about what we risk when love is the only thing we have left to lose.
Nippon Ichi Software arrived at PAX West 2026 carrying the quiet gravity of a whispered fairy tale. Their new title, The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster, comes from the same team that built The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince — developers who have made a craft of worlds where story and setting are inseparable.
At the center is Mono, a girl who has spent her life unseen in a theater attic, born into a family of celebrated opera singers who never thought to know her. When she learns her older sister — the one person who ever showed her love — has been taken to the Libratarium, a containment facility for those afflicted with Paper Mortis, she does not hesitate. The disease is as haunting as it sounds: it transforms its victims into picture books, and those books eventually become monsters. The epidemic has grown so severe that even the Libratarium has been abandoned.
Inside, Mono meets Mär, a legendary monster with vengeance against humanity simmering beneath the surface. They strike a bargain — he will help her search the picture books housed within for her sister, and she will accept the risk of his darker intentions. It is an alliance built on desperation and mutual need, held together by something neither fully trusts.
The game unfolds as a series of hand-drawn storybooks, each one the transformed life of a girl taken by Paper Mortis. Players solve puzzles, face bosses, and piece together each person's story while searching for Mono's sister. The art is rendered entirely by hand in the style of a children's picture book — expressive, detailed, and quietly devastating.
The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster launches in 2027 for Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
Nippon Ichi Software took the stage at PAX West 2026 with a new game that carries the weight of a fairy tale told in whispers. The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster is the latest from the studio behind The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince and The Cruel King and the Great Hero—developers who have made their name building worlds where stories themselves become the landscape you move through.
The game centers on Mono, a girl who has spent her entire life alone in the attic of a theater, part of a family of celebrated opera singers who never bothered to know her. Everything changes when she learns her older sister—the only person who ever showed her care—has been taken to the Libratarium, a facility designed to contain those infected with Paper Mortis. The disease is as strange as it is devastating: it transforms human beings into picture books, and those books eventually metamorphose into monsters. The epidemic has grown so severe that even the Libratarium itself has been abandoned.
Mono does not wait. She travels to the facility and there encounters Mär, a legendary monster with his own agenda. They strike a bargain. Mär agrees to help her search through the picture books housed in the Libratarium to find her sister, though Mono knows full well that he is plotting revenge against humanity. She accepts this risk. "All right. Together we go, then, Mär. But you have to keep me safe in return, okay?" she tells him. "Yeah, 'course I will. Let's you and me play nice as best we can, human," he responds. It is an uneasy alliance born from desperation.
The game itself is structured as a series of hand-drawn storybooks that Mono must navigate. Each book contains the tale of a girl who contracted Paper Mortis and was transformed. Players will solve puzzles, face off against bosses, and piece together the mystery of what happened to each of these people while searching for Mono's sister. The art style mimics the aesthetic of a children's picture book—detailed, expressive, and rendered entirely by hand. The developers describe it as a poignant, tragic tale, one that does not shy away from the weight of its premise: an incurable disease, a girl trying to save the only person who loved her, and a monster with vengeance in his heart.
The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster arrives in 2027 across Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam. For players drawn to narrative-driven indie games with distinctive visual styles and emotional depth, it represents another entry in Nippon Ichi Software's catalog of stories that treat their darker premises with genuine care.
Citazioni salienti
All right. Together we go, then, Mär. But you have to keep me safe in return, okay? Yeah, 'course I will. Let's you and me play nice as best we can, human.— Mono and Mär, in dialogue from the game
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