Penny Blood has been a long time coming for fans of Shadow Hearts, and unfortunately, there is still no publisher attached to the upcoming spiritual successor. Matsuzo Machida, creator of the Shadow Hearts series and the driving force behind Penny Blood, has now provided another update on the project, confirming that the team remains committed to bringing the RPG to life despite the difficult state of the game industry.
Penny Blood was originally announced in 2022 as part of a joint Kickstarter campaign alongside Armed Fantasia, a spiritual successor to Wild Arms. The campaign raised roughly 379 million yen from around 18,000 backers, giving both projects a major boost. Penny Blood has faced a much more difficult road since then, however, with the funds allocated to the main game’s development eventually running out and Studio Wild Rose continuing its efforts to find a publishing partner.
According to Machida’s latest update, the team still has not been able to secure a publisher, with the current state of the industry making it particularly difficult to move forward with a large-scale RPG. Despite that, the studio has no intention of simply walking away from Penny Blood or abandoning the new IP. Instead, it is continuing to find ways to build interest in the project while keeping the series alive.
One of those efforts is Penny Blood REVIOLENCE, a novel set within the Penny Blood universe. The project is intended to raise awareness of the IP and increase its value while the studio continues searching for a publisher. This isn’t a replacement for the game itself, but rather another way for Studio Wild Rose to keep Penny Blood in front of potential fans and publishers while work toward the main RPG remains stalled.
This isn’t the first time the team has turned to additional Penny Blood projects while trying to get the main game moving. The studio has previously worked on Penny Blood: Hellbound, an action-oriented spin-off developed with Natsume Atari, with the project specifically intended to help demonstrate the potential of the Penny Blood IP to prospective publishers. The studio has also continued publishing Penny Blood fiction, including Inheritor’s Story.
For now, though, the central problem remains unchanged. Penny Blood still needs a publisher before production of the main RPG can properly move forward, and Machida’s latest comments do not provide a new release window or a timetable for when that might happen. What they do make clear is that Penny Blood has not been abandoned, with Studio Wild Rose continuing to look for a way to turn the long-awaited Shadow Hearts spiritual successor into a finished game.