You might have recently seen an apology video from Nippon Ichi Software aboutBokuhime Project,and having no idea what this is all about. Plus, if you’ve been following DualShockers closely, and I thank you for that, you might have noticed we never wrote about Bokuhime Project, seeing time didn’t permit us to cover this game in the past. If you’ve never heard of it,Bokuhime Projectis a brand new IP published by Nippon Ichi Software and developed by Wizard Soft. It was first announced by Nippon Ichi Software in July 2017, all while mentioning its development was halted. As explained in theYurutto Nippon Ichi #40 stream,Bokuhime Projectwas initially supposed to be an “infiltration action cross-dressing game”, but to avoid going over budget, it became a visual novel.
Moreover, Nippon Ichi Software first wanted to gauge interest in the game and avoid risks. As such, a manga version titledBokuhime sama to Otome Shugi, drawn by Daikokudou Ikuya,was first serialized online.Nippon Ichi kept promotingBokuhime Projectover the months, most notably with goods artwork, and Twitter campaigns, promising the game’s development would resume if itsTwitter accountreached 10,000 followers.
The follower count was reached, and on July 30, 2025, Nippon Ichi Software announcedBokuhime Project’s development restarted, for PS4 and Switch. A first trailer was then revealed:
Bokuhime Projecthas character designs by Fumika Matsushima, is directed by Tatsuya Shiina and the scenario was written by Kento Jobana. The game’s protagonist is Minato Ikusa, who infiltrates a school with 99% of female students to find out what happened to his sister Marisa, who ended up in a coma. In order to get closer to the truth behind the incident, Minato needs to cross-dress as “Erica” and participate in the election for the Four Princesses, the four girls who self-govern the school.
During the game’s promotion and development, Nippon Ichi mentioned how they wanted to do a truly all-ages crossdressing visual novel on consoles and advertised the game as such. Seeing Japanese media in general with similar themes is nothing uncommon, but visual novels tend to have explicit content.
However, now thatBokuhime Project’s development is nearly complete, it ended up receiving a Cero B rating, meaning 12 years and older. Announcing this, Nippon Ichi published a hilarious apology video, begging forgiveness for “betraying the trust of all grade-schoolers in Japan” who supposedly will be unable to play the game:
Following this apology, Nippon Ichi Software is now advertisingBokuhime Projectas an “almost all-ages cross-dressing game”. The reasons behind the Cero B rating are also explained. According to Cero, the game features “kissing, hugging, depictions of sexually-themed delusions, swimsuits and costumes, depictions of bleeding, and abuse”.
That was a pretty long joke to explain, but I’m looking forward to this game and hope to have the occasion to cover it some more.Bokuhime Projectlaunches in Japan on April 23, on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It wasn’t announced in the west.
Nippon Ichi Softwarewas in troublein 2019 after Disgaea RPG’s disastrous launch but managed to get back to its feetand relaunch the game at the end of 2019.
