Juliet Starling is officially back in Lollipop Chainsaw 2 Back2Back, and we won't even have to wait until 2027 to see her with a chainsaw in hand, since a demo is already playable at Tokyo Game Show 2026, which has just opened its doors in Japan. Dragami Games announced a few weeks ago that a sequel to the first Lollipop Chainsaw was in the works, but nobody expected we'd get our hands on it quite so soon. A lovely bit of luck for anyone who made it to the Makuhari Messe today.
Developed by studio JP Universe and published by Dragami Games and Nada Holdings, this new instalment naturally brings back the ingredients that made the series' name: Juliet the bombshell, zombies, heaps of garish colour and a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humour. This time, though, the young zombie hunter returns in a brand-new outfit and in a San Romero that has changed completely. The city has now become "Jaredwood", a vast metropolis built entirely around the film industry. And it's precisely this new identity that provides the backdrop for the adventure. A mysterious filmmaker has decided to trap Juliet inside his own zombie movie, forcing her to take on a horde of creatures in a reality that's gone completely off the rails. Alongside her allies, she'll have to work out what lies behind this strange conspiracy and face down the Corrupted Realm zombies, a new threat that looks particularly nasty.
Hajime Tabata, game director of Final Fantasy XV, at the helm
For this sequel, Dragami Games has also brought together several veterans of the series. Hajime Tabata, director of Final Fantasy XV, is part of the team, alongside Masahiro Yuki, co-producer and writer on the original Lollipop Chainsaw, as well as NekoshowguN, who handled Juliet's character design in the first game. So part of the original team is back on the project, even if several iconic names are missing. Suda51 had already sat out Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP (the remaster, that is), while James Gunn, writer on the original game (yes, really!), isn't involved in this sequel. Either way, these first gameplay clips from the Tokyo Game Show demo show a sequel that's as offbeat as ever, with a more fleshed-out approach to combos. Juliet also gets about on roller skates, while the blood still flows by the bucketload. Visually, Lollipop Chainsaw 2 Back2Back is still pretty rough and we imagine the budget wasn't enormous, but the game will try to stand out in other ways.
Release is planned for sometime in 2027.
