Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation Unveils Its Mechanical Tower and Yagokoro no Kusabi in a 3.5-Minute Teaser
Two years after first pulling back the curtain on a spin-off starring the harvest goddess's closest friend and rival, publisher Marvelous (alongside western publishing arm XSEED Games) and Japanese indie studio Edelweiss have released the second official teaser trailer for Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation (Sakuna-hime Gaiden: Kokorowa to Sousei no Haguruma). Running a full three and a half minutes, the new promotional video delves into how Princess Kokorowa first set foot on the path of an inventor goddess, introduces key supporting characters, and reveals the central conflict surrounding a massive mechanical tower.
Yagokoro no Kusabi, Takebina, and the Mystery of the Mechanical Tower
While the initial November 2024 announcement teaser briefly spotlighted Kokorowa breathing life into an automaton inside her celestial workshop, this second trailer lays out the narrative foundations of the spin-off. The footage depicts protagonist Kokorowa, the goddess of wheels and mechanical inventions voiced in Japanese by Rika Kinugawa, and her formative encounter with Yagokoro no Kusabi, the pivotal mentor figure who inspired her pursuit of divine engineering.
Alongside Yagokoro no Kusabi, the trailer highlights Kokorowa's interactions with new characters including Takebina, the sentient bamboo doll automaton crafted by her own hands, and a newcomer named Aikichi. Blending story cutscenes with in-development gameplay footage, the video teases an unfolding crisis in the Lofty Realm tied to an imposing mechanical tower reaching into the heavens. Marvelous bills the project as the latest console entry in the franchise, and while specific hardware targets and a launch window remain unannounced as the market tracks Japan's evolving console hardware landscape, fans are eagerly watching to see where it lands on the upcoming video game release calendar.
Building on the 1.5-Million-Selling Legacy of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Originally released in November 2020 by core Edelweiss duo Nal and Koichi, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin became a breakout hit by pairing kinetic 2D side-scrolling combat with an extraordinarily detailed traditional rice-farming simulation. After surpassing 1.5 million copies sold worldwide and inspiring a 2024 television anime adaptation produced by P.A. Works, the series is shifting perspective from agriculture to clockwork craftsmanship. Putting Princess Kokorowa at the center of the action allows Edelweiss to explore the Lofty Realm's industrial and scholarly side through a protagonist known both for her intricate wheelwork and her secret career as a romance novelist.
To commemorate the debut of the second teaser trailer, Marvelous has also kicked off a limited-time digital promotion on the Japanese Nintendo eShop, discounting the base game Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin by 50% through November 26, 2026 for players looking to catch up on Kokorowa and Sakuna's history before the spin-off arrives.
My Field Notes
Back in the 2020 original, Princess Kokorowa was easily the most nuanced member of the supporting cast: beneath her polite celestial composure and brilliant engineering mind lay a deeply relatable sense of impostor syndrome and quiet envy toward Sakuna's natural gifts. Giving her top billing alongside her bamboo automaton Takebina, her mentor Yagokoro no Kusabi, and a towering clockwork spire lets Edelweiss pivot from paddy fields to mechanical invention without losing the studio's signature heart. Three and a half minutes of new footage confirm that the writing retains every bit of its bittersweet charm, and I cannot wait to see how Kokorowa's gear-driven creations translate into hands-on combat and exploration.
Originally from Lyon, France, gaming journalist Bastien "Orion" relocated nearly a decade ago to Quebec City's Saint-Roch district, right in the heart of eastern Canada's development studio hub. Before crossing the Atlantic, he honed his versatile reporting style across classic French gaming web portals and specialist television outlets in the 2000s and 2010s, notably with JeuxVideo.fr and JeuxNews. Equally passionate about AAA blockbusters, North American studio culture, retro preservation, and community modding projects, he anchors Pro-Gamer's transatlantic desk and real-time coverage of US and Japanese industry announcements.
