What is Holocure? The Hololive fan game taking VTubers by storm

If you’ve watched a Hololive stream in the last two weeks, there’s a very real chance you tuned into see some Holocure gameplay. The shoot-em-up fan game inspired by the VTuber agency has taken the internet by storm ⁠— and it’s not just a flash in the pan.

Trends come and go in the streaming landscape, and VTubers aren’t immune to that. Some games just scratch the itch of the community, and then all of a sudden the entire sector is swept away ⁠— absorbed into one hive minded experience even for just a fleeting moment.

Fan-made game Holocure is like that.

The indie shoot-em-up game has made waves in not just the Hololive fandom (as the name would suggest) but beyond. What started as a one-man fan project at the start of 2022 has since become the most popular game for Hololive stars to play, and other VTubers have also been jumping in on the action.

Developer Kay Yu was only expecting a handful of people to take notice of his little side project. A full-time animator, Holocure was a fun little project away from the storyboarding and detailed nature of anime and bigger games ⁠— a throwback to their university days dabbling in Gamemaker.

All expectations were blown away very quickly after the game’s June 25 launch.

“We anticipated maybe a few thousand people to play, which seemed reasonable, but it turns out there are almost 50,000 downloads in less than 24 hours… it’s pretty insane, but I’m super thankful for you all playing,” they said on Twitter.

The game has a similar feel to Magic Survival and Vampire Survivor ⁠— the latter was very popular in Hololive circles just a few months ago. Yu cited the latter as a big inspiration for the project, although with more of a “focus on specific character traits and effects, and less focus on just the weapons and evolutions.”

How Holocure captivated Hololive

In Holocure you are trying to “save the fans”. Yes, really. After VTubers took over the world (virtually and literally), an evil force brainwashed them with blinding love for their idols. And you have to fight back against them.

That means you’re playing as one of the idols yourself, trying to clear hordes of enemies from the battlefield. You level up by slaying these ‘monsters’, powering up your character (currently one of the Hololive English girls, but this will be expanded soon Yu promises). Being able to step into the shoes of your favorite talent ⁠— with special powers and items based off their personality and lore ⁠— is a thrill.

Let’s also just say the number of in-jokes and references in the game is immense. A-Chan welcomes you into the game in the shop screen, sitting at a desk like one of her usual streams. The BGM is inspired by Hololive original songs Suspect and Shiny Smily Story, just in an 8-bit form to fit the graphics.

Some of the powerups, from BL Book to the Cutting Board to smaller things like Piki Piki Piman (a reference to Korone’s chat spamming bell peppers). There’s an adage to the beloved Asacoco duo in two items. You can even ‘collab’ powerups together. Plus one of the main enemies? Shrimps.

It’s like stepping into a fever dream of Hololive, and that’s why it’s got the internet going crazy. You can be the judge about how well the “save the fans” tagline plays into idol culture, and the relationship between VTuber and audience.

At the time of writing, Holocure has been the focus of more than 50 individual streams by Hololive members. Even those outside of Hololive have been addicted to the game ⁠— VShojo star Ironmouse said as much on Twitter.

“It’s a free game with such high quality,” Matsuri said on stream.

“There’s a part of you that’s like: ‘I want to give them my money!’” Polka added, talking about paying the developers for the fan-made game (they’ve denied taking any money for the project).

It’s also got a bright future ahead of it that suggests it could be here to stay ⁠— maybe not as a permanent mainstay but as a popular choice for the idols to play on stream. After all, it’s basically self-promotion right?

There’s a genuine interest from Yu and the small team behind Holocure to expand out the content, eventually making all the Hololive idols playable in game. Buffs and nerfs are planned for balancing the game out ⁠— although some of the idols play into this by cheekily demanding buffs of their own characters (like Kiara).

The replayability with leaderboards (soon to be reimplemented) and more fleshed out systems and levels are on their way.

If you want a dose of Hololive without just watching through archived streams, there’s no better antidote than Holocure. After all, the fans do need salvation at times.