Hanako: Honor & Blade

Hanako: Honor & Blade launched on September 14, 2021 after 14 years of development by a small volunteer team. The game transitioned to free-to-play on December 10, 2021. That F2P patch notes post had outlined plans for a Samurai Royale battle royale mode, new classes, a new map, and a challenge system — content that was never delivered. The game then went completely silent for nearly five years. On August 29, 2026, the developer posted an explicit statement confirming the studio sunset the game approximately four months after launch (around January 2022), and that the developer has since moved on to a new project called Twin Hooks with a new studio, Laser Lighthouse. This directly explains the long silence and confirms that Hanako: Honor & Blade is no longer in development. The previously announced content (Samurai Royale, new classes, etc.) was abandoned when the studio wound down. The game shipped as a free-to-play multiplayer title with cosmetic DLC, and that is its final state. Both DLC items (the Founder's Edition and Soundtrack, released September 18, 2021) are fully shipped.