She came to New York to become a jazz singer, but she is also a magus. It is the 1920s, the height of the Jazz Age. KONAMI’s all-new Rhapsody in Scarlet is an action-adventure game in which you play as her: Ellie Myers.

In the city where she came to sing, Ellie gets pulled into the schemes of a mysterious mafia organization and a conflict between magus organizations. She fights with magick and with animal partners called beasts.

Rhapsody in Scarlet was announced at September’s State of Play. It is a single-player game for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam), and it includes English text and English voice acting. A release window has not been announced, but the game can already be wishlisted on all three platforms. The official videos so far are an announcement trailer, a story trailer and a special video for the theme song, and all three are up in English on KONAMI’s official YouTube channel.

Ellie, seen from behind in a red hood, swings a long staff across a rocky wasteland as an arc of blue light and bursts of fire strike a ring of purple creatures

Fire wolf, lightning bird, water shark: how do the beasts fight?

Ellie fights side by side with her beast partners. One of them is Sköll, the name Ellie uses in combat for a wolf wreathed in flame. A bird that wields lightning and a shark-like beast that wields water fight at her side as well. In battle, these beasts appear one after another and keep a string of attacks going.

Ellie’s own weapon is magick. By combining magick with beast abilities, you choose whether to hit enemies up close, pick them off from a distance or launch a wide-area attack. Which beast do you use, and which move do you link next? You adapt those choices to the situation in each fight.

KONAMI’s Takanori Murayama, a Co-Producer on the game, explains that the aim is to create action gameplay in which players can combine magick and beasts to link combos however they like and develop their own fighting style. The development team also points to the flexibility magick gives combos as a selling point, and says players can enjoy flashy attacks.

Because close-range, long-range and area attacks come from combinations of magick and beast abilities, combo routes against the same enemy look likely to differ from player to player.

The theme song “Cool/Hot” pairs a jazz singer with a band

The theme song, “Cool/Hot,” is by jazz singer Emi Meyer and the band SOIL&“PIMP”SESSIONS.

Ellie in a red hooded cape holds a staff in front of a huge wolf covered in glowing orange crystals, on a street at night with a lit theater marquee and a vintage car

In the city she came to sing in, who stands with her and who clashes with her?

In the English cast, Cherami Leigh plays Ellie and Hannah Grace plays Ilya Jones.

Ilya is the young leader of the Seekers, a magus organization. She was rigorously educated by her father, the head of the Sorcellerie Quarter. Ilya values order, and she often clashes with the free-spirited Ellie. Even so, as they keep fighting together, the two slowly come to understand each other.