HOW TO PLAY
You're a samurai kitten. Knock over everything, ride dragons between the islands, then fight in the ring. Tap a topic to open it.
Moving & fighting
Every button
| What it does | Gamepad | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Move | left stick | WASD |
| Jump press twice to double-jump | A | Space |
| Slash | X | F |
| Sprint | RT | Shift |
| Ride when the ring glows | Y | Q |
| Action join a clan, or buy from the dealer | B | E |
| What it does | Gamepad | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Fly | left stick | WASD |
| Climb | A | Space |
| Dive | B | E |
| Boost | RT | Shift |
| Breathe fire | X | F |
| Hop off it flies home itself | Y | Q |
Player 2 plays the same shape, on the other side of the keyboard. OKL; is WASD moved across — same finger, same job — and the buttons sit around it in the same shape: P ride, I action, J slash. Right Alt jumps, the big key right next to player 1's Space, and ' or Right Shift sprints, under her little finger exactly where Shift is under player 1's. The arrow keys and the numpad still work too, for anyone who already learned them.
Flying a dragon
Whistle a storm dragon down and climb on. Up there the same four buttons mean four new things — and you can let go anywhere you like, because the dragon flies itself home.
- Fly left stick
- Climb ✕
- Dive ○
- Boost R2 hold it
- Breathe fire □
- Hop off △ anywhere — it flies home itself
This is a PlayStation pad, because its buttons are shapes you can match to the one in your hands. On an Xbox or most PC pads those four are A B X Y and boost is RT — the Moving & fighting topic has the whole table, keyboard keys included.
Fighting in the arena
The ring is the only place a slash lands on your sister. Everywhere else the katana is for knocking things over. Start a round at the arena and the same buttons you walk around with become a fight.
- Move left stick
- Jump ✕ twice to double-jump
- Slash □ this is the one that lands
- Sprint R2 hold it
The two dark buttons are ride and action. Every kitten fights with the four lit ones — but Icewhisker and Windwhisker use action for their clan power, and a Pandapaw kitten can ride her panda into the fight. See The arena → Clan abilities.
Good to know
Whatever pad you plug in, the game names its own buttons. The tables in Moving & fighting use Xbox lettering, which is what most pads are printed with. A PlayStation pad shows the shapes instead — ✕ to jump, □ to slash, △ to ride, and R2 to sprint. A Joy-Con held sideways sprints on SR. Whatever it is, the button the game draws over your kitten is the one in your hands.
PLAY starts you on your own. A second player joins whenever she likes and nobody has to stop: she picks up a controller, or presses Enter to share the keyboard — player 1 on WASD, player 2 on OKL;. Up to four can play, and anyone who joined can drop out again from SETTINGS.
On a phone
One phone, one player. Turn it sideways to play. A friend with a Bluetooth controller can press START to join, but you share the one screen. Playing across two phones is coming later.
Move — left thumb anywhere on the left half, and drag. Jump A, slash X, clan B, ride Y, run hold ZR. Double-tap RUN or RIDE to lock it on — your thumb comes off and it stays down, so you can run and slash with one hand. Tap it once more to let it go. Tap the map to zoom it, and tap the sin & cos board in the Dojo to hide it.
Playing with a controller instead. Open SETTINGS ▸ Player 1 plays as and pick Gamepad. The on-screen stick goes away and you become player 1 on the controller — a second controller joins as player 2. Pick Mobile input to go back to your thumbs, and then a controller joins as player 2 instead.
Clans
Six clans, six powers. Swear at a shrine and the clan's power is yours straight away. Swap any time at another shrine — and clan powers stack on top of your orbs.
-
Thunderpaw
Run faster Sunstreak · Siamese “fastest kittens on any island” -
Riverclaw
Longer katana Rippleclaw · Turkish Van “never walks around a puddle” -
Shadowtail
Triple jump Duskcoat · Tuxedo “you never hear them coming” -
Windwhisker
Huge dragon breath Galemane · Maine Coon “loudest paws in the sky” -
Icewhisker
Sense mischief Snowmantle · Himalayan “finds what everyone else walked past” -
Pandapaw
Raise a panda Bambooheart · Ragdoll “never hurries, always arrives”
Pandapaw are the odd ones out. They hand out a job, not a power — cut bamboo, and something very small follows you home. See Raise a panda, below.
Three clans have a power in the arena too. Icewhisker can steal an orb off another kitten, Windwhisker breathes fire, and a Pandapaw panda fights beside you. See The arena → Clan abilities for how to use them.
Raise a panda
Join Pandapaw on the bamboo island, then cut 20 bamboo and a cub follows you. Cut 20 more and it grows big enough to ride — fast, and its claw cuts four canes at once.
⚠ Don't chop down ALL the bamboo too early! Nothing you cut grows back. You need canes left to grow a big panda — and only a big panda's claw can crack the boulder hiding a dragon ball.
Dragon balls & Ryuuseki
One glowing star on each of the seven islands. Only the first is in the open — the rest are locked: breathe fire on the frozen one, crack a boulder with a panda's claw, fly to a spire top, triple-jump up floating shards. Each tells you what it wants.
Collect all seven and Ryuuseki, a huge green dragon, appears. Two ride him — one flies, the second aims his seven beams. That second seat is the big job, not tagging along.
The arena
How the arena works
Knock over 80% of everything and Mr. Satan builds a fighting arena in the sky. Find him in town, walk up together, say yes, and his griffin flies you there. Then you fight each other — pick a league first with three or four players.
This is the only place fighting hurts anyone. Everywhere else in the world, you can't damage each other at all.
Winning pays. The winning side takes home a purse worth one orb from the dealer, split between them — so win a duel and it is all yours, win a 2v2 and it is half each. Beat three kittens on your own and you keep the lot. Knocking things over only pays once, so the arena is how you earn more points, as many times as you like.
Battle Feast — eating
Little animals scurry across the ring — during the fights, and especially in the calm break between rounds (the feast). Catching one to eat is how you get health back, and whoever won a round keeps the health she has left — so the break is her chance to top up. You can snack mid-fight too, but you have to hold still, so it's risky.
How to eat: first slash an animal to daze it (stars spin over its head). Then stand right next to it, keep still, and hold the Slash button — your kitten sits down and eats. Let go, or get hit, and it wriggles free.
Power-up orbs
Knock over everything (100%) and the Kotodama wake up: eight kinds of power-up orb hidden across the islands, and you can wear up to eight at once. (There are five more kinds that are only ever at the dealer's — see The rare orbs.)
They're scattered across the whole world, so explore it all again — and watch the mini-map, where each one shows as a little ring in its own colour and vanishes once it's picked up. That makes the map a checklist for the last few. How many are out there depends on the party:
- 1–2 players — 8 orbs (one of each kind)
- 3 players — 12 orbs
- 4 players — 16 orbs
Four kinds stack to make you stronger:
- 疾 Gale — run faster
- 斬 Long Cut — longer katana
- 剛 Adamant — more health in the ring
- 跳 Leap — an extra jump
Wear two of a kind for double, four for quadruple — and your clan power adds on top. The other four orbs are special moves — see Special abilities. There are no spares, so a second of anything is bought or traded for.
The rare orbs — dealer only
There are five more Kotodama, and they are not out in the world — the dealer has them. The only other way to get one is luck: a special quest can hand you one at the ending.
- 瞬 Flash Step — vanish, and land somewhere else. It's a move, so it's taught in Special abilities.
- 返 Riposte — block a blow from in front, and hit back. A move too.
- 守 Long Guard — your 壁 Ward lasts longer.
- 遠 Far Step — your 瞬 Flash Step goes further.
- 間 Long Parry — your 返 Riposte stays ready longer.
Those last three do nothing on their own — each needs the orb it boosts. All five cost two and a half times an ordinary orb.
Flash Step expanded
瞬 Flash Step is different. A second one does not add more of anything — it changes how the move works. With one, you choose which side of your sister you come out on. With two, you choose the exact spot: how far you push the stick is how far away you land. More than two adds nothing again.
It works best with a controller stick or the touch-screen stick — those are the two that can say "a little bit" instead of just "that way". This is the advanced way to use the move, for someone who wants to choose exactly where she lands.
遠 Far Step makes the whole move reach further: each one is half as far again — one makes it 1.5 times as far, two make it twice as far. That's how far away someone can be for you to lock on to them, and how far you go when you slip away.
Riposte expanded
Stand still, hold Interact, and push the stick toward whoever is about to hit you. You plant your feet and raise your guard — the half-circle on the floor shows which side it covers.
If a blow lands on that side while your guard is up, it does nothing, and you hit back straight away. From behind, it hits you like normal. Guess wrong and you stand there for a moment with your blade down — that's the catch. It works in the air too: you hang still until it's over. It only works in the arena.
間 Long Parry keeps your guard up for longer: half as long again for each one. It does nothing without a 返 Riposte.
Long Guard expanded
It stacks: each one you wear adds more time, so two are twice as good as one — but each one is also another slot you aren't using for something else.
The catch. If you hold your shield up for longer than the normal 2 seconds, you have to wait a fifth longer before you can block again. Let go before 2 seconds and there's no penalty at all — so the orb isn't just "better shield", it's a choice every time you press the button.
When that longer wait is over you'll hear a chime and see a blue spark gather into you: that means your shield is back. You only get it after a long block — an ordinary one recharges quietly like it always did.
Special abilities
Six orbs are brand-new moves, on buttons you already use — four you'll find lying about, and two only the dealer has:
Two 瞬 Flash Step orbs change the move — a second one doesn't make it longer or stronger, it hands you the stick. See Flash Step expanded, in The rare orbs — dealer only.
Clan abilities
Three clans fight differently in the ring. Join one at its shrine and its power is yours in every round — you can't buy these, only swear for them. They only work while a round is on.
盗 Steal Mischief — Icewhisker. Face a kitten who is wearing orbs and press Action — E (player 2: I), or B / ○ on a gamepad. A ring in your colour appears round her feet: she's marked. Hit her within 5 seconds, before the ring shrinks away, and one of her orbs falls onto the floor. Nobody can pick it up for 4 seconds — then it's anybody's, so be ready to grab it.
Then you wait 40 seconds before you can use it again, even if you missed. A stolen orb is only borrowed: when the tournament ends it goes back to the kitten it came off.
息 Dragon Breath — Windwhisker. Press Action — the same buttons. Your kitten throws her head back and breathes in, so everybody can see and hear it coming, then breathes fire in your colour for 1 second, wherever your stick points. Keep walking and you can swing it across more than one kitten.
Hitting her won't stop it — only knocking her out does. It drops your own shield while you breathe, and then you wait 40 seconds to use it again.
🐼 Panda — Pandapaw. Grow a big panda first (see Raise a panda) and it follows you to the arena. Stand next to it and press Ride — Q (player 2: P), or Y / △ on a gamepad — to climb on. Then Slash — F (player 2: J), or X / □ — swipes its claw, which hits harder than a katana and reaches further. Press Ride again to hop off.
The panda has its own health. Knock it out and it shrinks back into a cub and stays one — walk back to the Pandapaw shrine and press Action to make it big again, no bamboo needed.
A cub can't be hurt, and it looks after you. When you're down to about a third of your health, it runs over and licks you, and gives you a little health back for as long as it stays beside you.
Dealer's Stall & Trading
A dealer opens a stall in the market and buys and sells orbs for the points you earn knocking things over. He's dear on purpose — a fair share of the world's points buys about three orbs — and he stocks the four stackable kinds plus one of each special move. Selling gives some points back, and it's the only way to free up a slot when all eight are full.
Out of points? Win in the arena. Each win pays a purse worth one orb, so the ring is how you keep buying — see The arena.
Trade with each other too. Open CHARACTER PROFILE — from the pause menu or the stall — and everyone gets her own cursor. Offer an orb, and both of you confirm before it moves, so nobody can take one off you. You can put points on the table as well.
Quests & achievements
Do one of these before the ending and you earn a free power-up orb: a little gold orb starts circling you — that's your promise. At 100% there's an award ceremony where they all turn real, one kitten at a time, and the griffin waits until the last of you has had her turn. Anything done after 100% doesn't count.
Everybody can do these:
- ⛩️ Six oaths — swear to all six clans.
- 📐 Student of the circle — spend 45 seconds in the Dojo of the Turning Circle.
- 🐼 Panda keeper — raise a panda until it is fully grown.
- 🐉 Dragon pilot — fly Ryuuseki from the front seat.
- 🦁 Lionheart's Honor — beat Shadow Lionheart on MEDIUM or HARD in the Dream Dojo. This one counts any time, even after 100%.
Only one of you gets these — and they're special:
- 🎯 Beam gunner — be the first to ride Ryuuseki's second seat for 45 seconds.
- 💥 The very last one — knock over the last piece of mischief.
- 🏮 Most mischief — knock over more things than anybody else.
- ⭐ Star finder — find more dragon balls than anybody else.
- 🔮 Orb collector — collect more Kotodama Orbs than anybody else.
A special orb is a lucky dip — it could be any of the ten kinds, even one of the two rare ones. Tie for "most" and you both get it.
Your Character Profile has the list: a ★ is an orb you'll get if the game ends now. You can wear eight at most.
Ask Payne
Payne is the goblin in the robot helmet in the market. Walk up and press INTERACT.
She gives you these quests in order, from the panda to the very last one, and shows which you've done and who's winning the three races for most.
Turn HINTS on and if you're stuck for two minutes she pops up on your screen, calls your name and marks where to go on your map. She might laugh at you a bit too.
Do all her quests and fight three rounds in the arena, and she'll teach you a secret goblin move.
The Dojo — learn the maths
West of town, a whole island is a giant unit circle on graph paper. Walk on and you become the point — the game draws your angle θ and the two sides labelled sin θ and cos θ, live, from the numbers that move you. A board plots both waves as you walk, all on its own — nothing to switch on.
Why it's here: I built the Dojo to teach my nieces that maths — even geometry and trig — isn't scary. It's fun, and it's real: the orbs draw their own sin/cos as they circle you. — Uncle Rich
The Dream Dojo — VR arcade
Lionheart runs it. Step into the tube in your colour and you wake up in his simulator: ten training islands to practise on, as many times as you like.
Your holo kit: a copy of the orbs you wear — nothing you own is touched. Orbs you win and the clan you swear in here are kept for next time, in the (HOLO) PLAYER PROFILE.
Lost? Talk to Lionheart, or check the 地図 MAP. Stand on your ring to come back out.
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Kotodama Gallery
Learn what every orb does Every Kotodama orb on a pedestal. Try its drill — win it, and that orb is yours in here. -
Clan Trial Hall
Learn what every clan does All six clans. Swear an oath, then pass the trial that needs its power. -
Tameshigiri Range
Sword control: timing and aim Three sword drills: ONE SWING, COMBO 60 and CLEAN CUT. -
Kata Trace
Watch, remember, copy Lionheart dances a kata on nine marks. Copy it back on the beat — a new one every day. -
Kudamono Storm
Read where it will land Cut the holo-fruit out of the air before it lands. Leave the purple viruses alone. -
Sine Gauntlet
Read the wave, beat the clock An obstacle course of laser bars, one kitten at a time. Duck, jump and dodge — the fastest time wins. -
Holo-Sentries
Dodge, guard, strike back Sentries that shoot back, always with a warning. Dodge or raise your Ward, then hit the core. -
Bamboo Infiltration
Patience and timing Sneak through the bamboo past the watchers. Hide while they look, move when they look away. -
Arena School
The rules of the arena The tournament, practised: the Feast's animals, a round of every league, and the scoreboard. -
Shadow Lionheart
Everything at once Lionheart's Shadow, on three levels. Beat MEDIUM for a special orb; beat all three for his 凶 Cross Slash.
凶 Lionheart's Cross Slash: beat his Shadow on EASY, MEDIUM and HARD and yours strikes with 凶 and hits 1.25× as hard.
Saving your progress
The game saves itself. Once you have been playing for five minutes it writes your adventure down every thirty seconds — no button to press, nothing to remember. To pick one up again, choose LOAD A SAVED GAME: on the title screen, or in the pause menu under PLAY SETTINGS. It keeps the last five games — one row each, however long you played.
Want to keep a game for good? PLAY SETTINGS → END THE GAME → SAVE & QUIT GAME marks it ★ kept, and newer games can't push it off the list. Before five minutes that button saves nothing at all — it says so, and it asks first.
Everyone who played is in it — even a kitten who put her controller down an hour ago. Pick her up and she has her points, her clan, her panda and her orbs back. Orbs she left behind with DROP HER ORBS are still lying where she dropped them.
⚠ The saves live in THIS browser on THIS computer. They do not follow you to a phone or to another machine, and clearing your browser's site data throws them away — along with the record board, your controller calibration and your settings, which are kept the same way.