In the golden era of early 2000s rhythm gaming, a small but fiercely creative Japanese studio named iNiS was quietly shaping the future of interactive audio. Responsible for cult-classic masterpieces like Gitaroo Man (which recently received a triumphant re-release for the PlayStation 5) and Nintendo DS phenomenon Elite Beat Agents—as well as its Japan-exclusive predecessor series, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan—iNiS proved that music games could be narrative-driven, wildly eccentric, and deeply emotional.
Decades later, the creative DNA of those foundational rhythm titles continues to pulse through the independent studio Ichigoichie, founded by former iNiS developer David Ventura. However, with their latest project, Ventura is making a deliberate pivot. Despite the studio’s ongoing romance with musical themes, Tactichord: Glam Strategy trades fast-paced button-tapping for deliberate, cerebral turn-based combat.
For Ventura, breaking away from the rhythm genre is an exercise in shedding old expectations. "That’s always like the albatross around our neck that we have to battle with," Ventura admits. "Rhythm is really not a component of our games, but if I do say music, of course, people think Guitar Hero."
By leaning into the well-established framework of turn-based tactical games akin to XCOM, Ichigoichie is aiming for something more instantly accessible to strategy enthusiasts, while still packing the distinct artistic flair that has long defined the studio’s output.
Main Facts: A Prequel Built on Familiar Foundations
- Developer & Leadership: Developed by independent studio Ichigoichie, spearheaded by former iNiS developer David Ventura.
- Genre & Inspiration: A turn-based tactical game heavily inspired by the grid-based mechanics of XCOM, framed within an over-the-top 1990s glam metal aesthetic.
- Narrative Connection: Serves as a villain-perspective prequel to the studio’s previous puzzle-strategy hybrid, Backbeat.
- Funding & Support: Backed by Creative Europe, an EU grant specifically designed to foster story-heavy, narrative-driven video games.
- Availability: Currently heading to PC via Steam, with a playable demo available now for prospective tacticians and glam-rock fans.
Chronology of Development: From Backbeat to Glam Strategy
The genesis of Tactichord is deeply intertwined with the development cycle of Ichigoichie’s previous title, Backbeat. While building the world and mechanics for that complex puzzle-strategy mashup, the development team found themselves captivated by the antagonists of the narrative—characters who viewed their actions not as villainous, but as entirely justified.
1. The Villain’s Perspective
During production on Backbeat, Ventura and his team began conceptualizing an origin story centered on Diane, one of the game’s primary antagonists. They realized that exploring the world through the eyes of misunderstood or delightfully unhinged villains offered a vastly more compelling narrative canvas than playing a standard, morally upright hero.
2. Securing European backing
With a narrative hook in place, the studio pitched Diane’s origin story to Creative Europe. Securing a prestigious grant from the EU program for story-heavy games provided Ichigoichie with the financial runway needed to fully realize the project without compromising their creative vision.
3. Reusing Tech and Expanding Production
Rather than building an engine entirely from scratch, the team optimized development time by reusing the core graphics engine and level editor established in Backbeat. Both games share an isometric camera perspective—a staple of the tactical genre—allowing the development team to funnel their resources into upgraded asset presentation, UI design, and cinematic storytelling tools.
Supporting Data & Design Mechanics: The Art of 1990s Excess
Bringing the chaotic energy of glam metal into a rigid, turn-based tactical setting required creative solutions across art, narrative design, and technical engineering.
Setting the Scene: 1990
While Ventura holds a genuine affection for the glam metal genre, he is acutely aware of how contemporary audiences might view its high-lacquer, spandex-heavy aesthetic with retrospective irony. To navigate this tonal tightrope, Tactichord is intentionally set in 1990—a deliberate narrative choice acknowledging that the glory years of glam metal were already fading.
In this world, enemies aren’t just stoic military units or alien invaders; many are cynical youths who simply refuse to believe your band is cool anymore. In a delightful mechanical twist, any enemies successfully "defeated" in combat do not die—they are converted into devoted fans.
Character Inspiration and Visual Design
The game’s protagonist, Joey, serves as an homage to the archetypal frontmen of the 1980s stadium-rock scene. "Joey is kind of a combination of David Lee Roth, the front man of Van Halen, and Joey Tempest from the band Europe," Ventura explains, "with giant blond hair, completely full of themselves, and doing all these crazy stunts while strutting around on stage."
To capture this over-the-top excess, Ichigoichie significantly upgraded their presentation metrics compared to Backbeat:
- Expanded Dialogue Portraits: Character portraits are rendered 40% larger to emphasize emotional expressions and dramatic flair.
- Comic Book Cutscenes: Key narrative beats are delivered via hand-drawn comic book panels, underscoring the theatricality of the genre.
- Dynamic Songwriting Integration: As players progress through tactical battles, they simultaneously select song lyrics. These choices ultimately culminate in full music videos that pastiche the stylistic trademarks of 1990s rock videos.
Low-Poly Optimizations and Cinematic Camera Angles
Despite utilizing low-poly character models and shared textures from Backbeat, Tactichord pulls off a remarkably cinematic presentation. Ventura noted that careful manipulation of lighting and camera placement allows the team to flatter the low-poly art style while hiding its limitations.
Furthermore, the studio resurrected a classic visual technique from Ventura’s past at iNiS. For facial animations, the team utilizes texture flip books—the exact technique deployed to animate character expressions in Gitaroo Man.
"It’s done entirely with textures with different cells," Ventura elaborates, "so when characters talk, they have expressions like smiling or mouth closed or open, eyes up and down, and then we program a sequence of them together. I think it looks pretty nice and adds bits of flavour that we didn’t have before."
During music video sequences, an automated camera dynamically frames actions based on character inputs—such as landing a punch or executing a special move. These moments are heightened by shifting skyboxes featuring digital flames or passing hurricanes, alongside color-grading tricks like solarization to mimic the burnt-out, pink-and-white aesthetic of vintage 1980s camcorders.
Official Responses and Creative Vision
The transition from music-heavy puzzle titles to a straightforward tactical framework was not taken lightly by the studio, but Ventura remains confident that the core appeal of Ichigoichie’s games—personality, rhythm of thought, and distinct audio-visual style—remains fully intact.
Reflecting on the challenges of managing public perception, Ventura emphasizes that while Tactichord drops traditional rhythm-game inputs, it doubles down on the theatrical personality of performance art:
"A lot of the music in the game is paying homage to a lot of those glam metal bands… The models are exactly the same and the textures are the same, but there’s certain angles with certain kinds of lighting that are flattering to that low poly style, and others where you need to break it up so that you don’t pay too much attention to the low-poly nature of the characters."
This commitment to stylistic reinvention ensures that even as the studio adopts a more familiar genre mechanical structure, the final product remains defiantly eccentric.
Implications for the Indie Strategy Landscape
The release of Tactichord: Glam Strategy carries broader implications for both Ichigoichie and the wider independent development ecosystem:
- Accessibility Meets Niche Aesthetics: By anchoring a niche historical subculture (1990s glam metal) within a universally understood gameplay framework (XCOM-style turn-based tactics), Ichigoichie is lowering the barrier to entry that hampered some players’ enjoyment of their earlier, more abstract puzzle games like Backbeat.
- The Longevity of Retro Techniques: The clever application of legacy animation tools—such as the texture flip-books derived from Gitaroo Man—demonstrates how indie studios can achieve high-impact visual flair and emotional expression without requiring massive, ballooning budgets.
- Narrative-Driven Grant Success: The project serves as a textbook example of how securing targeted institutional funding (such as Creative Europe grants) enables boutique developers to flesh out complex narrative prequels and experimental thematic premises safely.
As Tactichord: Glam Strategy prepares for its upcoming PC release, strategy fans and lovers of musical history alike can test the waters through the official playable demo currently available on Steam. Whether players come for the grid-based tactical depth or stay for the spandex and solarized camcorder aesthetics, Ichigoichie is proving that you don’t need a rhythm controller to rock out.
