BODY: When the name Yuji Horii appears in a game's credits, Japanese players pay attention. The creator of Dragon Quest is lending his design sensibility as an advisor to Tensei Game: Karma × Cross, a digital board game arriving on the Nintendo Switch eShop at midnight on August 6.
Developer and publisher Any is pricing the title at 3,980 yen. It launches natively on the original Nintendo Switch, and the company confirms it also runs on the newer Nintendo Switch 2, ensuring the game reaches players across both generations of hardware.
As the "reincarnation" in the title suggests, the game builds its board-game loop around the concept of tensei—rebirth and the karmic cycle—a theme deeply woven into Japanese pop culture and storytelling. The "Karma × Cross" branding hints at systems where players' choices and accumulated karma intersect and shape their fate across the board.
Horii's involvement is the headline draw here. Beyond Dragon Quest, he is a veteran of narrative-driven and puzzle design going back to The Portopia Serial Murder Case, and his fingerprints on a board game promise accessible rules layered with the kind of light strategy that has made Dragon Quest a national institution.
The insider take
Board games occupy a special place in Japanese living rooms, and Nintendo's own Itadaki Street—co-created by Horii himself—proved that Monopoly-style play with an RPG twist can become a household staple. That lineage matters: seeing Horii attached to Karma × Cross, even as an advisor rather than lead designer, signals to Japanese buyers that this is a "party title with a brain," positioned for family tables and casual multiplayer sessions rather than the hardcore crowd. At under 4,000 yen and playable on Switch 2, it's clearly aimed at the summer break window, when families and students hunt for something to gather around.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).