Kura5: Bonds of the Undying
A downloadable playable fanfiction for Windows and Linux
3D Boktai Fangame
Kura5 is a non-canonical fan game for the Boktai series and it's successor, Lunar Knights. It's neither a full remake nor a sequel, but a remix of both familiar Boktai staples and new elements that seek to recreate the magic that we all loved from the series. Kura5's weather system knows where you are in the real world, so there's no need for a solar sensor. In-game events may even play out differently depending on if you play in darkness or in light... And that's just the start!
NOTE: If the game isn't running, please make sure it's marked as an exception for your antivirus, as WeatherSync sometimes causes false positives. Weathersync also may not work properly if you are using a VPN.
Features
- Play as two halves of an unexpected duo: Annie, the Solar Gunslinger, and Emil, the Vampire Swordsman!
- Utilize their abilities in tandem to overcome a common enemy.
- Weather Sync reflects the time of day and weather in the game with that of the real world!
- The world and play changes based off of weather!
- Play during the daytime and use the Pile Driver to purify the remains of Immortals with sunlight...
- Or play at night and utilize vampire magic to eliminate your foe.
- You can turn Weather Sync off and enjoy the game without need for an internet connection.
- An original soundtrack containing tracks both familiar and new!
Windows PC Requirements
- DirectX 11 or higher GPU
- 2.20GHz or higher processor
- ~2.5 GB available hard drive space
- ~6 GB RAM
- A functioning sun
- Moon (optional)
Note that these are rough estimates. If you're not sure if your computer can run the game, try playing it on the "Fastest" setting on startup.
Contact/Support
If you like this game, please follow us!
Dev Blog: kura5.tumblr.com
Support: [email protected]
Bluesky: boktai3d.bsky.social
Discord: Kura5 Discord
BandCamp: LiteralLapin
SoundCloud: LiteralLapin
Updated | 4 days ago |
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, Linux |
Rating | Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars (52 total ratings) |
Author | ChickenHat |
Genre | Adventure |
Made with | 3ds Max, Unity, Blender |
Tags | 3D, Action-Adventure, Anime, Isometric, Stealth, steamdeck, Unity, Vampire, Western |
Average session | A few hours |
Languages | English |
Inputs | Keyboard, Gamepad (any) |
Accessibility | Configurable controls |
Links | Homepage |
Download
Install instructions
Simply download the .zip file, extract it, then double click the Kura5.exe icon to start the game. Please glance at the README before playing.
For WeatherSync to work, please make sure that you are not connected to a VPN or proxy.
Already played a previous version? You can continue from your previous session by copy pasting the save.bok file into your PC's AppData folder.
If using Windows: AppData\LocalLow\Kura5\Kura5BOTU
If using Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Kura5/Kura5BOTU
The story/gameplay will change depending on the weather/time of day so make sure to time your playthroughs.
Development log
- Quick Fixes6 days ago
- Kura5 Week 1 Patch10 days ago
- Kura5 FULL RELEASE18 days ago
- Kura5 Chapter 4 PatchSep 25, 2022
- Tiny Shadow PatchAug 01, 2022
- Kura5 Ch4: Patch (ver 071)Jul 31, 2022
Comments
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Having gotten two of the four scrolls, I have to ask: What exactly is the charge button? Is it the one marked "Taiyoh" in the controls config?
Correct! Taiyoh/Ankouku button twice. But you can't use the combo yet until you've finished the Archives area.
Wait, so even with the scrolls, I can't use the techniques described until much later? That's a of a blueball don't you think?
Is there new game plus?
Edit: Nevermind just found out on my own by reading it elsewhere. For those curious, yes, the game does have new game plus.
how do I apply the updates?
Just redownload the game! Your saves will still be there.
How do I get the in game time period I want since I did a twilight run now I want to do a morning run but I can only play at the night time. Setting my PC's clock to AM didn't seem to do anything.
Edit: It works if Weather Sync is on. I had it off.
Edit 2: Only affected title screen not the actual game.
If you turn weathersync off then set your PC clock then restart the game that might work
How do you get Dead Weight out of your inventory?
How do you get the Leviathan transformation?
Bookshelf in Annie's house if I recall. Gotta interact with it as Emil.
The game doesn't explain how to beat the mid boss of Chapter 4, how do I do it.
As far as I remember, there's not really a puzzle for the mid boss for Chapter 4 off the top of my head but been awhile since I've fought that one.
Can you make a google doc game guide of all the features, secrets, and ways to get gud?
I don't have time to make a full guide by myself right now, but to get you started here's a mini guide that one of the testers typed up.
Hey there, I think the download for the 32-bit Windows version is broken? I tried switching to it because the 64-bit Windows version wasn't working properly for me and I keep getting the same error right before the download finishes, while the other download worked just fine
Hey I have no clue how that happened, but I just re-upped it to itch and it seemed to download fine after that. If it still doesn't work let me know!
Still broken for me so my best guess is that it's some issue on my end :/ thank you for helping anyways though!
NVM it finally worked! So excited to get started for real
I notice there seems to be a glitch in chapter 3 where Emil will not rejoin the party when he is supposed to after the Annie solo stealth segment. How do I undo the glitch?
If you didn't save over it, download the game again and the issue should be fixed.
If you DID save over it, send the save.bok+whatever slot file to [email protected] and it can be fixed.
Super sorry about that!
[EDIT] the save file should be in AppData, in the LocalLow/Kura5 folder
Will note he did rejoin when I triggered the segment where he goes berserk and gains wolf power and you can beat the Huntress den boss without him so you are not soft locked.
Thanks for the linux release! Excited to give this a go :0
I've known about this fangame for years but didn't get around to playing it until recently. It's very fun and honestly quite beautiful. I played the Boktai series as a source of inspiration for my own vampiric stories, so this was just up my alley. I must say the references to Mega-man Battle Network were amusing. This game is definitely a love letter to Boktai and its fans. I get lost in it-- figuratively and literally lol! I eagerly await the final planned chapter, and any new passwords. If the megabuster comes back that'll get a chuckle out of me! I can tell there's been a lot of love put into this, give my compliments to the chef(s).
(I think it could use one more save file slot; I used all of mine up)
Well, recently decided to download and play Kura5. Been doing about a chapter a night. You can also guess what's my preferred playstyle.
I hoped to finish Chapter 4 on night 4 but having difficulties with the last few fights. My laptop may not be strong but my will makes up for it.
Really enjoy the game and looking forward to going through the undead dungeons afterwards. Been a bit too engrossed with the plot and the smiths' quests to explore them. So anyways, ANKOKU!
Where could you get the Passwords from Lunar Knight and Boktai again? I do remember seeing those when I played them, but it's a long time ago and I am unsure if I can get my old DS to run them anymore...
Hey there! You can get the Lunar Knights passwords by beating the game on either Normal, Hard, or Nightmare Mode.
I really enjoyed this game. I like that there are some differences between the path of light, path of twilight, and path of night. The hijincks in chapter 2 were especially fun, but I also like the story throughout the game. Can't wait to see what happens in chapter 5!
welp i almost beat it all night chap 4, uh there are something i found a combat glitch if you stand too close to the some enemies you get stuck in stun lock which is really hard to break out of beyond dying and switching to the other character, and 3 out of combat glitches 1. in town after chapter 3 sometimes when you switch you get sent inside the shop, 2. sometimes in the chapter 4 secret hallway sometimes the loading zone doesn't see you, and 3. in the area where you freeze the lake, the elemental box doesn't have the best hit register when in the water, still amazing game like i never expected to hear of a boktai fan game back when this first came out you and your team rock, thank you for everything and whatever else comes out
Hey there! Thanks for reporting on these issues. Number 1 has been patched. 2 and 3 may come in later fixes. Glad you enjoyed the game!
What a joy to play. I really missed the game series that gave the option to make my entire inventory chocolate covered and got surprised with how much I liked the original ideas it puts on the table.
I liked how Emil as a character its not "just" a vampire, instead of being an egotistical inmortal he is more like someone from a different culture that is just enjoying the situation more than he is showing.
In gameplay he takes the good parts of the vampire from the second game and the parter sistem of Lunar Knights, while also adding an alternative way of purification, all of that in a natural way.
Annie is more on the generic side on the boktai series, but hey, if it isnt broken dont fix it. I like her personality and the chemistry betwen her and Emil, it kinda bugged me that she speaks differently than the other people and that gave me a feeling that she dosent entirely belongs on san miguel, but going by some hints like how she gets called a witch that may as well be on purpose.
It blows my mind the weather system, not just because its an original substitute to the solar sensor, but because I expected only to work in places like the USA and Europe, but it took me by surprise when it worked in a place like Chile.
I only found two bad things:
The summons on Annie, because they feel too good and there is no reason to not have them on all the time, it feels like they sould have cost over time on "on use" instead of just when they are summoned.
There is not an option to choose wich enemy you lock on, this gets specially bad with many enemies on screen, not really a problem with Emil, kind of a big deal with Annie.
Other than that i had one hell of a time with Kura5 showing that this is a work of love to the series with things like the mandatory MMBN crossover, the Django headband/glasses being on Doomy, and many more.
I'm so happy you enjoyed the game so far! Yeah WeatherSync is designed to work everywhere, there are only a select few places where the data may not be as accurate but most of the time it's fine.
You can toggle through targets but the buttons to do so may not be clear, I'll put it on my list. I will also think about summons some more. Thank you for your feedback!
This is *amazing*. I defeated the first immortal playing at night. I really like the idea of the dark piledriver, instead of just being forced to play the game during the day to beat them.
The style of the game is impeccable. It brings me straight back to the Boktai games in all the best ways. It also feels like you brought in the best elements of Lunar Knights without any of the garbage.
The writing is great, I love the chemistry between the two main characters, and I love how sassy and pompous Emil is about Annie's brashness.
Really, I'm just happy to find out someone else loves this series as much as I do, enough to try to make a game based on it. I'm writing a tabletop RPG ruleset in a similar vein!
Hey there!
Super happy to hear you enjoyed the game, and thanks for stopping by on the Discord! If you continue to the 2nd immortal let me know what you think!
Finished this demo in 2 parts. A very enjoyable experience. The WeatherSync system is a welcome addition to the Sun Sensor of the original Boktai series. If you played Boktai or Lunar Knights then this game will take you back to those times. Even if you haven't this game plays like a game made back in the 2000's Excellent work
Now I feel like booting up my DS and playing Lunar Knights
I forgot how warm the sun once felt when I play Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand. Thanks for making me miss those days. The last year of high school and near the early years of college. I... I... I cannot dwell on the past.
I have a question, will Emil get the weapons based on the Immortals in the game if Annie purifies them? In addition, will the ending change based on how many Immortals Annie vs Emil defeat?
Taiyo~h! Anko~ku!
Hi there! I'm really glad you enjoyed the game so far : )
If you purify an immortal (daytime) then Annie gains a new magic spell. If you assimilate an immortal (nighttime) then Emil gets a new weapon.
The cutscenes overall will change depending on which immortals are purified vs assimilated. Even in this demo!
Damn, I originally bought Lunar Knights cuz it looked cool. I'm glad this is a thing, you bringing me back.
I keep getting softlocked on the train, after defeating Oakley I can't leave the room. There's a blinking arrow to say I should be able to go down, but I can't. Also can't even reset the room with the Dark Card, and after restarting the train section three times I still get the same result.
Linux build, in case it matters.
Oh no, sorry that happened to you, I'll look into it right now, do you happen to have a save file? (save.bok in Kura5 Data)
Ah, nevermind, I found the issue and will update immediately. In the meantime, you might be able to go through the exit by rubbing up against that wall if you haven't tried that already.
Train's all good now, but, uh, I think I broke everything sleeping in Annie's room. I even talked to Nero and saved like the dummy I am...
(luckily I managed to bail myself out by just editing the save file to move my coordinates, but yeah whoops)
Oh dear. Do you have a repro for this? (As in a way to trigger this bug?)
Figured it out after some further prodding, I can get the clip to happen if I'm holding up-right to run into the bed while pressing A.
Thank you for the help! I'll add it to the bug list for next year's version
Thank you so so much for making this. I only recently found out about Boktai and I beat the first game last night; part of me felt a bit sad that there are only 4 games out there, but then I came across this project and I felt really excited to know that somebody is continuing to breathe life into this underrated franchise. I look forward to finishing the other 3 games and playing this as a final hurrah. Best of luck!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I look forward to hearing about your playthrough.
I've never played Boktai before, but I stumbled on this demo today and I loved it! Great job, I'm looking forward to the final game.
Awesome, thank you! Looking forward to putting it out there.
This game is AWESOME!!
Thank you!
reminds me of boktai :)
You may be excited to see some familiar faces in the game then ;)
very good this game, great work, thank you for the version for LInux, I'm already indicating to friends. : D
Thank you so much!
wanted to drop by and say this is an outstanding piece of work here, my only concern was the sol guns being your primary way of killin stuff at the start, but it was nighttime when I was playing, so I couldn't play much. Looks good, handles good d-pad is a lil touchy when it comes to knocking on walls ( like, you get stuck on the wall un-intentionally ) but that's always been a boktai thing.
I told everyone I know about this, can't wait to sink into it while my sun's out ;3
Thank you!
You will get another character later on to help you at night. And I really appreciate you telling your friends!
I thought the characters felt a little stiff; like the end lag preventing movement on shooting Annie's gun especially was a little much for me, and seeing as how you can cancel any lag by lock on spamming or by just rolling away anyway I don't see a reason for its existence...
UH BUT OTHERWISE - BRILLIANT??? I LOVED this. Anything Boktai brings joy to my heart and it helps that this was a pretty quality experience. I for some reason didn't expect to really care for the new cast, but any interaction between Annie and Emil was immediately made entertaining and had me smiling for miles. I love them.
AND DUDE when at the very end in the train car - even as basic as it was - A BOKTAI BLOCK PUSHING PUZZLE appeared before me I freaked. Boktai2 was KING on those, and yal better not sleep on the block puzzles! I need them!!!
I fell into the floor and got stuck once, and the music stopped playing at one point, but I feel yal know you are doing and everything will get polished up as we go on. Good stuff!!!
Oh gosh thank you so much! This is some great feedback.
Do you have any other examples of the characters feeling stiff? I can see about sending annie and emil to the chiropractor.
The stiffy-ness mostly just stemmed from the attack animations, really. Like basic movement and rolling I was pretty okay with. Now that I replay it though - I think Emil has the same amount of end lag after his sword swings I could also do with less of. Also that screen shake when he attacks in general ahhh not too big a fan? Obviously you need some of this stuff; the end lag and the shakyness to make attacks feel a certain way, I just think maybe they could be slightly lessened?
Hmm some other random tangents... I had some problems swapping lenses when using my 360 controller's analog stick; presumably because it was accepting extra inputs or something when I moved the stick a direction and it just kept rolling over my desired lens. I was able to avoid this by either making reaaaally delicate stick inputs, or by just using the DPad for lens swappings. Something could prob be done about that. ALTHO I just now realized this issue seemingly doesn't exist if you play the game on Fastest with the lower framerate; so the FPS being increased on higher settings seems to be the prob
Also... really petty but... Boktai 2 had a sort button for its item menus... I long for it so much here... My item menus got so dirty and disorganized. Is there one and I just didn't notice it?
Ok! I can't do much about Emil's sword combo, but the controls should have been tightened up a bit, and the frame swap issue fixed too.
Let me know if there's anything else you have in mind, thank you!
Nice demo, though I think Emil's Shadow Binding needs a bit better duration, his combo needs a bit less end lag, I found it easier to just use 1 attack, wait, 1 attack so I didn't combo, and you need to get more sun for your time(I was playing at Noon with WeatherSync off and was only getting 2 bars) I know its winter and all but still, it shouldn't be that bad, I mean I can get a good 3 or 4 from reality on Boktai2 in goodish weather right now so it feels wrong
Also loved some of the secrets, David Iroquois Pliskin was my immediate giggle, and at some point I might dig around for more then just the few readable graves
Oh yeah and there's some issues with hitboxes lingering too long, namely sometimes pools of darkness will keep striking you even if you get knocked away, and mummy explosions hurting even when the graphic fades, speaking of mummies, in Boktai the state of burning can actually stack, increasing the damage with each flame on them
Very impressive composition. I'll keep a close eye on it, the weather thing is very nice :)