When I wasn’t looking, Cosplay Club, the new game by Behold Studios, the devs behind Knights of Pen and Paper and Chroma Squad, has entered Early Access.
I was wondering how I missed the announcement, but apparently, the heads-up was only given on December 11. Cosplay Club is a single-player, turn-based RPG where you get powers from the costumes you craft. In that sense, it reminds me of Costume Quest, but there seems to be a lot more customization here. You’re able to craft your own Magical Girl costume, and you gain new parts that expand the customization.
Cosplay Club takes place in the Chroma Squad universe, where the eponymous squad saved the world. Truly, the two games share a similar narrative foundation, as both are about costumes and imagination leading to real empowerment.
I was a backer of Chroma Squad’s Kickstarter back in the day. The end product didn’t really wind up impressing me, but I don’t regret supporting it. The developer showed a lot of tenacity, especially when Saban Brands threatened legal action against them. Chroma Squad is based on Japanese tokusatsu productions (specifically Super Sentai), which Saban Brands didn’t invent. They just repackaged it. However, because they owned the rights to Power Rangers here in North America, they had grounds for a lawsuit (probably, I’m not a lawyer). Whether it would succeed or not, Behold Studios just decided to play ball and got a licensing agreement. That’s probably why they’re not doing a direct sequel to Chroma Squad.
I have had the Cosplay Club demo sitting in my library for quite a while now, but never did get around to playing it. I’ll probably skip ahead and just buy the game. The developer says that the current state of the game is “playable and feature-rich” but also notes that it only includes “an initial portion of the story.”
Cosplay Club is now available on PC via Steam Early Access. Behold Studios predicts it will remain there for 9-12 months before its full release.
