A Steam page has just been launched for a promising new Kirby-esque platformer called SANAE's Sylphid Breeze, which is a fangame based on Team Shanghai Alice's popular shoot 'em up series Touhou Project.
The game is being developed by the Japanese developer sorehodoh and is an expanded remake of a title that they originally distributed at Comiket85 in Japan back in 2013.
It sees players take control of Sanae Kochiya — one of the recurring characters from Touhou Project who made her first appearance as a boss in the tenth title Mountain of Faith — with the goal being to guide the priestess across a dangerous land filled with Yōkai.
To do this, players will be able to use the priestess's ability to absorb characters into her umbrella and take on the form of her enemies (similar to Nintendo's famous pink blob), with eight different forms having been teased as part of the promotional materials. Each of these transformations comes with its own unique representation of the character, which is rendered in adorable pixel-art.
Other features, meanwhile, will include a skill that lets players harness the power of the wind to levitate up to higher places and occasional aerial battles that resemble a sidescrolling shoot 'em up.
On the whole, it looks like a fascinating project, so we'll definitely be keeping an eye on it ahead of launch. If you're eager to support the devs, you can wishlist the game here. A brief demo of the game is currently available to download from the Japanese website Ci-en.