History
Founding
Keiji Inafune founded Comcept after his departure from Capcom in December 2010. [4] [5] After the cancellation of Mega Man Legends 3 , which he mentioned as a "long-time held dream", [6] he thought that "not only had he abandoned himself, but the fans too".
Comcept functioned as a design and production studio which paired up with other studios to develop games. [7] This often included working on multiple games at once, and doing a variety of genres instead of being narrowly focused. [7]
Comcept's first game was the free to play smartphone title, The Island of Dr. Momo. The game had micro-transactions, and was released through the GREE platform. [8] They also developed another mobile game, J.J. Rockets. [9]
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z
In September 2012, the team's next project was revealed as a new Ninja Gaiden title, named Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. [10] The game is a collaboration between Comcept, Team Ninja, and American developer Spark Unlimited. [11] When announcing the game, Inafune said: "I’m very happy to stand here next to Mr. [Yosuke] Hayashi today, and we’ll prove to you that we are going to survive and make good games that will lead the Japanese game industry." [12]
The game was released in March 2014 to a largely negative reception, with Metacritic giving it a score of 43. [13] GamesRadar included it in their list of "the 50 worst games of all time". [14]
Kaio: King of Pirates
In 2012, Comcept and Intercept (a game developer also founded by Inafune) began work on Kaio: King of Pirates (海王, Kaiō), which was to be published by Marvelous. It was set for release on the Nintendo 3DS. [15] Using a pirate setting, the plot was a retelling of the Chinese story Romance of the Three Kingdoms . [16] Marvelous cancelled the game in 2015, and reported a loss of ¥461 million (roughly $3.8 million USD) on the project. [17]
Soul Sacrifice
In 2013, Comcept assisted Sony Computer Entertainment and its Japan Studio in designing the PlayStation Vita game Soul Sacrifice and the expansion, Soul Sacrifice Delta . [18]
Mighty No. 9
At PAX Prime 2013, Inafune held a special panel in order to reveal a brand new project called Mighty No. 9, a spiritual successor to the Mega Man series. At the end of the panel, Inafune officially launched the game's Kickstarter campaign. [19] He thought that Kickstarter would be "a great way to make dreams a reality". The game was developed jointly with Inti Creates (another studio founded by Capcom staff). After several delays, the game was released in 2016. It was met with a mixed critical reception for its level of quality and gameplay. [20] [21]
Following the release of the game, Inafune stated: "You know, I want to word this in a way to explain some of the issues that come with trying to make a game of this size on multiple platforms." adding "I'm kind of loath to say this because it's going to sound like an excuse and I don't want to make any excuses. I own all the problems that came with this game and if you want to hurl insults at me, it's totally my fault. I'm the key creator. I will own that responsibility." [22] [23] His translator, Ben Judd, followed up these remarks by giving his assessment of the project: "In this case, it was do the base game and do all the ports all at the same time. And it ended up being a huge amount of work, more than they actually estimated. Definitely, when they looked at the project, they were wrong about a lot of things. They underestimated how much work, time and money was going to be necessary. All of those things create a huge amount of pressure." [22] Later Judd added “But, again, we can hope that if things go well, there'll be sequels. Because I'll tell you what, I'm not getting my 2D side-scrolling fill. And at the end of the day, even if it's not perfect, it's better than nothing. At least, that's my opinion.” [24]
In 2017, Comcept licensed the Mighty No. 9 characters to Inti Creates, allowing them to feature the characters however they wished, free of charge, in their Nintendo Switch game Mighty Gunvolt Burst . [25]
Red Ash
Red Ash: The Indelible Legend [a] was announced as a spiritual successor to the Mega Man Legends series. Also funded via Kickstarter, the campaign ended with $519,999, well short of its $800,000 goal. It was later announced on July 30, 2015 that Chinese publisher Fuze would finance the game. [26]
The campaign for Red Ash was heavily criticized by game journalists and fans alike, describing it as rushed and poorly planned. [27] [28]
A CGI short titled Red Ash: -Gearworld-, originally known as Red Ash: -Magicicada-, [29] was funded by a separate Kickstarter campaign handled by Studio 4°C, that was released to coincide with the game. [30] [31] The short was released in March 2017 as part of the Young Animator Training Project's Anime Mirai 2017 project. [32]
As of 2025, there have been no updates on Red Ash, and the project is presumed to be cancelled.
Level-5 era
In 2017, Comcept was acquired by Level-5 and became Level-5 Comcept. The Tokyo office was closed, leaving the Osaka location as the sole base of operations. [33] [34] [2] Their first game under Level-5 was the mobile game Dragon & Colonies, launched in June 2019. The game was shut down on February 17, 2020. [35] It later provided development assistance for various later Level-5 games, such as Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Waiwai Gakuen Seikatsu and Megaton Musashi. On February 8, 2023, it was revealed Level-5 Comcept would handle the development of Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. [36]
On March 3, 2025, Level-5 revealed on a blog post that Keiji Inafune had left the company in mid-2024, and Fantasy Life i would be undergoing a major overhaul to development following unfavorable feedback from playtesters. In the same post, the company also announced the creation of the new Osaka Office, based in Level-5 Comcept's offices, in order to take over the game's development. [37] [38]
Level-5 Comcept was officially disbanded on April 30, 2025 and merged into Level-5 Osaka Office, following a shareholders meeting that day. The news was publicly revealed on May 15. [39]
