Kurokage–Black Shadow–is dead. A local hero, streetracer extraordinaire, and, as it happens, your mentor, died in a car crash. The cause? A fault in their car’s brake lines.

And you were the last one to tune up their ride.

Was it carelessness? Were you framed? Who knows? What matters in Karoshi Electric Company’s flagship racing RPG is DRIVING… and lots of it!

Inspired by the Choro-Q game series–also known as ‘Everywhere Road Trip’ in the US and ‘Road Trip Adventure’ in Europe–Kaido Genkai: An Anime Racing RPG is a racing adventure game that tasks you with rebuilding your shattered reputation and rekindling friendships the only way you know how! Your journey takes you across a gorgeous sprawling map filled to the brim with roads, rivals, and races… and with them come new challenges, paintjobs, cars, and much, much more.

Though still rough around the edges, the Kaido Genkai demo is pretty fleshed-out. There’s plenty to explore in South Nibiru and quite a few challenges to complete as well. Races, scavenger hunts, food delivery… Kaido Genkai keeps the pedal to the metal the whole way through. The question is, though, can it stay in the lead til’ the end?

Start Your Engines!

Kaido Genkai is a stylish racing RPG that looks right at home on the Sega Dreamcast. Even as a demo, the game already has (basic) voice-acting, flashy visuals, multiple songs to crash into guardrails to, and a fleshed-out map jam-packed with missions and challenges! It’s hard not to fall in love at first sight–the game’s already hit most of its Kickstarter Goals, and with the baseline down it’s really just a matter of waiting for the full release.

Presentation is good and all, but what about the gameplay? Nothing too unique, as you might expect–the demo starts you off with one car (with your choice of manual or automatic transmission) and a few paint jobs to go with it, but completing tasks nets you new rides, tuning, and more.

This is Kaido Genkai’s gameplay in a nutshell. Puttering around your pastoral Japanese town, you work to repair your broken reputation and earn neat stuff in the process! The more REP (short for ‘reputation’, cool cats!) you have, the more sway you have among the town’s sizable street racer crowd. The more sway you have, the more new races, new cars, and eventually new areas you unlock.

Challenges range from deliveries to races, and while they never get TOO annoying in the demo, you always have the option of clicking ‘Restart Race’ if you mess up. Kaido Genkai is by no means the hardest racing game around, but it’s fun… and that’s what matters most, right?

Needless to say, the concept is simple… but it’s not every day a racing RPG hits the shelves, and what Kaido Genkai lacks in uniqueness it makes up for in flair.

Under the Hood…

Kaido Genkai sits, art wise, somewhere between the Initial D games, Sonic Robo Blast 2 (fantastic fangame, by the way), and Jet Set Radio. The map is lush, open, and fun to explore, and there’s just enough variety in the racetracks to keep things interesting. Some races are relatively straight-forward sprints, others take you off-road or around a circuit a few times. These all occur day or night, so you’re never starving for some good visuals.

True to their source material, the cars look cool–good thing, too, since you don’t get to customize your parts. At night the UI changes along with your lights, and all of your tasks are accessed through your handy-dandy flip-phone. Needless to say, the demo stands out–keep it up, artists. That said, the voicework and the character sprites could use a little more work. Can’t rush perfection…

Tap Those Brakes…

Beneath Kaido Genkai’s polished art and ample amount of quests, there’s still plenty of work to be done. The biggest dent I noticed was the AI–for a game revolving around racing, Kaido Genkai’s NPCs have trouble navigating. It’s not terrible, mind, but in some of the bigger races I often found opponents getting tripped up by the terrain and other hazards. That’s to be expected in a racing game, sure, but it’s something to iron out before the final release.

My other issue, as I all-too-often bring up reviewing demos I enjoy, is longevity. By the time I completed Kaido Genkai demo’s content, I felt a bit burnt out. Sure, the races are varied enough to still be fun and the game isn’t stingy with rewards, but what can I expect from the final release? Your friends and rivals hint at an inevitable confrontation with the EINEN–local law enforcement–but will some new paint jobs and a tuned-up version of the same car keep people playing to the end?

The good news is that by the time I finished the Kaido Genkai demo I was hungry for more, but there’s still a whole game left to finish here… what’s it gonna look like at the finish line, I wonder?

Kaido Genkai demo participated in the Steam Next Fest: June 2026, but you can still take it for a spin! Wanna stay in the loop? Check out Karoshi Electric Company’s Website, Twitter, Discord, and Kickstarter Page.