Pankapu The DreamKeeper

Pankapu: the DreamKeeper is a narrative 2D action platformer currently in development by Too Kind Studio. It was recently funded by Kickstarter and the first chapter is planned for summer 2016. It was Greenlit by the Steam Community and approved by the Square-Enix Collective. The game also mixes in a bit of RPG as the story progresses. The developer states the main purpose of creating the game was to allow them to go back to the roots of old school Action/Platform games. In May 2016, the developers announced that Pankapu will be divided into two episodic games: **Pankapu the Dreamkeeper**, and **Pankapu the Nightseeker**.

### **Overview**

The game is about Pankapu, a shadow warrior who travels across Omnia with a mission to strike down nightmares before they can invade humans.

The story is actually a tale told by Djaha'Rell's father. Djaha'Rell is a child who can't sleep at night because of nightmares. In order to help him sleep, his father tells him the story of Pankapu.

Pankapu is about two parallel stories: the one of Pankapu, and the story of Djaha'Rell. In the game, the player will find memoliths, fragments of memories that will reveal the story of Djaha'Rell.

Pankapu will also be confronted by the dark and vicious Gangreyn, an enemy in the nightmare land. Pankapu must find the source of the nightmares and figure out what can be done to stop them.

Mixing platforms, action and role play, players will control Pankapu through 8 levels with multiple junctions. As their adventure progresses they will customize Pankapu, assign new equipment, armor (Aegis) and skills to perfectly fit with their style and situations that they will encounter.
Players will be able to re-explore at their leisure and discover every secret of the world.

One of Pankapu's major feature is the ability to switch Aegis in real time. Player will be able to choose up to 3 Aegis: Bravery (Melee Attacks), Ardour (long-ranged attacks) and Faith (heal).

### **Development**

After 2 years of development, Too Kind Studio first submitted Pankapu to the Square-Enix Collective in May 2015. The game was approved, and they decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help them produce the game. The Kickstarter was launched in October 2015, with an initial goal of 40,000€. The campaign closed on December 11th, with 53,120€. Thanks to that additional money, the studio announced the presence of Kai Kennedy as the narrator of the game, and Playstation 4 and Xbox One versions.

After the Kickstarter campaign, Too Kind Studio launched a slacker backer campaign on PayPal, which they closed in April 2016. When they closed the campaign, they announced the Wii U version. However, as the console versions will come out in 2017, Too Kind Studio said the game could come to the Nintendo NX instead.

In May 2016, Too Kind Studio announced that Pankapu will be divided into two episodic games :

* Pankapu the Dreamkeeper (episodes 1 and 2)
* Pankapu the Nightseeker (episodes 3 and 4)

### **Characters**

* **Pankapu**: Hero of the adventure, he's controlled by the player. Created from dreams matter, he has the mission to protect Omnia from the Nightmares' invasion.
* **Iketomi**: God of Dreams, he also created Pankapu. He's the builder of the magic Web that thrones above the sea of stars and that catches the dreams to crystallize and bring them to life.
* **Chii**: Friend and confident of Pankapu whom he met at the beginning of the adventure. He perfectly knows the world of Omnia.
* **Gangreyn**: Incarnated creature, born from the Darkness. He forced himself to invade the world of Humans in order to establish
* **Djaha'Rell:** The child to whom the story is told. He has lived tragic events, and the story should help him overcome his trauma.

### **Themes**

Very early in development, before the studio was even created, **Jérôme Brulin** and **Jimmy Kalhart** created the world of Omnia and the Orbis universe, being inspired by Final Fantasy XIII. In an interview, they stated that they wanted to break the usual stereotypes of the man saving the princess (making a reference to Super Mario Bros.) for example when writing the story of Pankapu.

Too Kind Studio wanted to create games as a scenario supported by a gameplay and not the opposite.Their goal is to share a progressist vision of the world and explore psychological and social themes in their games.

They were also very inspired by the Final Fantasy series, as well as The Legend of Zelda series, and 2D plat-formers.

## Videos

Pankapu the DreamKeeper - Trailer 2015Music - Piano Version - HanaéMusic 02 - The Lush Forest Forêt Luxuriante
## External links

Kickstarter

Official Web Site (EN)