At Anime Expo 2026, I was able to take a little time to speak with the team behind the Alliance Arts games Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis and the upcoming Drunken Goddess Reflux. If you haven’t heard of Drunken Goddess Reflux, it’s a Russian roulette drinking survival game between you and a demon. Sound interesting? Let’s find out more from Fuyuki Hayashi, Chief Creative Artist and odyk, Character Designer, Art Director, and Animator.
GT: Where did you get the idea to do a game about drinking with a demon?
AA: I got the idea to do a game with a demon character first, and then I got the idea to do a game with a Buckshot Roulette or Inscryption idea, and then I got the idea to do a game with shots as an idea, and then I got the idea to do a game with shots.
So, they make a game with a demon, with some kind of demon in it, and at the same time they were playing Buckshot Roulette and Inscryption, I don't know if you're familiar with those games, but if you see it you'll probably recognize it, but they're these roguelike games.
And in one of them, you shoot a shotgun and you try to shoot the other person down, and we're like, okay, shotgun, shot glasses, shot alcohol, we kind of made that connection, and we kind of jumbled all those ideas together to come up with a drug and goddess game for us.
Yeah, and in regards to the demon girl motif, we’ve always been a fan of deep demonic girls, so we’ve always been talking about it, and it's finally taking shape.
Not a satanist or anything, just like demon girls.
GT: So, is the game mostly or only about drinking, or is there more story to the game as well?
AA: There's a little bit of story to the game, but I think one of the main concepts of the game is that I want somebody to enjoy this game at least a minimum one night, and if they don't play it beyond that, that's okay too, so just like drinking, I want somebody to enjoy this game at least a minimum one night, and if they don't play it beyond that, that's okay too, so just like drinking alcohol, you don't want to continue to drink over 12 hours, 24 hours or something, you want to drink and then kind of stop and continue to enjoy your life, right?
So yeah, there is a story, but it's not a really long story, it's nice and short and to the point.
GT: How would you describe the style of the gameplay? How did you translate a drinking game into a computer game?
AA: Ah, as an experience. Yes, as a gameplay experience. How would you describe the fun you get when you're drunk?
Not obviously, but we both like drinking and we both enjoy drinking, we both enjoy being drunk or tipsy per se, so we really worked on how to embody that in the game, so we worked really hard on trying to almost replicate the drinking experience within a video game, and another thing is we really enjoy being drunk, we really think that girls are really cute when we’re drinking, we wanted to kind of get that in the game as well.
So, when you're drinking alcohol, sometimes you black out, you forget what happened last night, or you get really hungover the next day, so that part of drinking was...
GT: Is that included in the game as well?
AA: So, one of the things that happened in the game is that the character is cute, so yeah, there is a little bit of the bad side of drinking in there as well, to keep it real.
GT: The game is called Drunken Goddess, but you drink with a demon. Is it a demon or a goddess, or a little of both? Is there something behind that?
AA: Your name is Drunken Goddess Reflex, and you're a goddess, right? But the person you drink with is a demon. Does that make sense? Yeah, so there might be a little bit of a spoiler, so we'll keep this to the point. Some demons were perhaps goddesses themselves, fallen goddesses per se, maybe. So, there are goddesses in mythology that have become demons, so I think that's where the connection can be made.
GT: So, the art style of this game is similar to Yunyun. What inspired this kind of art style in your games?
AA: Well, first and foremost, he did work on Yunyun as an animator, and for this game, he's the main anime person, so yes, you will definitely see similarities because it's done by the same person.
As for this game, I've been interested in the design since Helltaker, but I don't think there's anything special about it. So, they didn't really talk about, you know, take this game and make it yours.
They did get some inspiration from things like Helltaker and a cartoon or anime called Has-Been Hotel. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but yeah, they take inspiration from there, but it's not a copy this kind of deal. It's like, yeah, get inspired by it.
GT: So Yunyun featured a kind of a Denpa character, and from what we've seen in the trailers for Drunken Goddess Reflux, she seems a little like that as well. What attracts you to making games without characters like that?
AA: Well, she's a DJF girl, and for Yunyun, she's definitely a Denpa girl, but I think DJF girls have that kind of element as well, but I think she's particular about making characters.
Ah, she's cute. So first and foremost, they need to be cute.
GT: Will the Drunken Goddess soundtrack be similar to Yunyun as well, the Denpa-style music too?
AA: Well, it's not really one type of soundtrack, but I talked with a music-oriented guy, and he was talking about electro-swing at first, and I thought it'd be nice if there was some kind of dark, aggressive element to it.
Well, since it's a bar, it's kind of a swing, but it's not just a swing, it's more of an electro-swing than a game, so the atmosphere is kind of an electro-swing at first, but there's also the presence of Ham Chan.
There's an aggressive vibe to it, so I thought it'd be nice if there was some kind of phonk, or something like that.
GT: Did you say punk?
AA: P-H-O-N-K. Obviously, as we mentioned, Yunyun features a lot of Denpa songs, even in the title of the game, at least the Japanese version, but for this game, we wanted to kind of go with a swing kind of music that would be fitting of a bar, and from there, we're like, okay, since it's a video game, we'll make it electro-swing, and then we wanted something dark and also aggressive, so I'm not familiar with it personally, but funk music, kind of like a Gothic-style music.
I don't know if they're two in the same thing, but that's kind of the direction we wanted to take with the music, so to answer your question, I don't think the music from Yunyun and DGR would be very similar. They would be very different from each other.
GT: Are there any connections between the games, either story-wise or in the same universe, or are they just completely different games?
AA: We'll let the player decide.
GT: Okay, I like that answer.
Is there anything about the game that you would want players to know that they wouldn't necessarily see by, say, reading the Steam page or, you know, press on the game?
AA: Yes, there is. As far as I can tell, I think it's the same as drinking, but I don't know how it feels to be able to feel good when you drink. I don't know how to put it in words, but it's a bit of a hassle. I think there's a bit of a feeling that you can get by experiencing the game, in terms of music, tempo, etc.
It's really hard to put into words how it feels to be drunk, so in a way, this game is kind of similar to that. There's going to be aspects to this game that you won't be able to feel until you play the game, and you won't be able to get just by reading the Steam description of the game.
That's a combination of art style, the tempo of the game, and the music in the game.
GT: Do you recommend that players drink while they play the game?
AA: I'm really struggling with that right now. We’ve put some hard thought into it, and still hasn't come to a decision. I definitely think that there will be people who will play while drinking. But we’re sure that people are going to be drinking and playing. Some people will be drinking and playing this game. For example, this game is a joke.
Let's just say that one hundred million people play this game, and a few of them are drinking and playing this game. We’re afraid that somebody might overdose from drinking, so we’re very careful with how we want to present this game in that fashion.
GT: Do you have any ideas for your next game yet, and if you do, are they going to be the same kind of style, or do you want to go in a different direction?
AA: I think there will be a new rock theme in Denpa Song, such as alcohol, but I don't have any ideas. So we’ve gone from Denpa Songs to alcohol, and we want something cool, something rock and roll almost. If you have any suggestions for him, we'll be more than happy to hear them. We’re all yours.
GT: Okay, I'll let you know. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us!