Many of you are here for the update on Shin Megami Tensei – The Roleplaying Game: Tokyo Conception. We’ve got both bad news and good news. Let’s start with the bad.

Print Issues

The books arrived at our warehouse three weeks ago. I'd planned to send this newsletter out immediately, but I held off until we could fully unload and inspect the inventory. Having been in the book and board game business for nearly eight years, I’ve learned the hard way that even after files are approved and proofs are clean, things can still go wrong during final mass production. And that’s exactly what happened here.

From the outside, the books look fantastic. But inside, there’s a major issue: the entire print run is affected by an ink density problem. After opening books from every carton, we concluded that the problem wasn’t isolated; every copy was impacted. So, what’s the issue? In short, the black ink used during printing was too heavy, causing images to become overly saturated. The text looks great, as do many of the illustrations. But equally as many don't look great. In a full-color book, ink density issues would be noticeable but not a huge deal. In a grayscale book—especially one where fine detail and contrast matter—it’s a much bigger issue.

The demon compendium is particularly affected. Many demons now blend into their gradient backgrounds, making them extremely hard to see. Other areas, like the PC illustrations, have lost their detail due to oversaturation. You can see side-by-side comparison photos further down in this update.

What Went Wrong

We’ve never encountered this issue before across our five previous books. But Murphy’s Law struck, and of course, it had to be on this release, our biggest one to date. What makes it worse is that the mass production sample I reviewed and approved didn’t have this problem. It printed exactly as expected. Only during the actual mass run did the ink calibration go off. We’ve since learned that this was due to the operator not properly calibrating the press for the paper type used. Like all of our books, Tokyo Conception uses a special uncoated stock, which requires specific printer settings. Those weren’t applied during the final run.

Even more frustrating: despite halting all distribution once the problem was identified, a small number of books somehow reached UK retailers. We're currently working with our distributor to understand how this happened and to prevent further sales. I assume that, with our distributor being acquired by another company and subsequently laying off most of its logistics staff, there was a gap in communication, which resulted in the UK stores not receiving the Hold Order I issued to our distributor. Please know that those copies do not reflect the final version that the rest of the world will receive. There may still be a few copies floating around; I'd encourage folks not to bother. You owe it to yourself to wait for the reprints.

The Good News

We’re reprinting the book in full. The printer has taken responsibility for the issue and has agreed to cover most of the reprint cost. They’ve also prioritized the project in their queue. That said, printing will still take approximately three weeks, and freight shipping will take an additional five weeks, so we're now looking at a summer release. We know this is a huge disappointment—for you and for us. This book has already seen a delay from its original November release, and now we’re pushing it again. But I wasn’t willing to ship a subpar product, not for Shin Megami Tensei, and not under the LionWing name.

That said, I do understand that some people may have been fine receiving the book as-is. For those folks, I apologize. But we’re holding ourselves to a higher standard here.

Make-Goods for Preorders

To thank you for your patience, we’re including several bonuses with all LionWing Shop preorders:

• Raidou Sample PC: To celebrate the upcoming release of RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, we’re adding Raidou Kuzunoha as a fully playable Sample Character. He'll be included in the White Vortex packet, which is exclusive to preorders.
• Quick Reference Guide: All LionWing Shop preorders will now receive a physical Quick Reference Guide to help players jump right into the game. This is a great tool for newcomers to TTRPGs or anyone who wants quick gameplay info at their fingertips.
• LionWing Shop Voucher: Every customer who preordered the game will receive a 10% off voucher for any future LionWing Shop purchase (excluding the SMT core rulebook). We recommend you… hee-ho(ld) onto it!

Even Better Than Before

One silver lining: this delay allowed us to correct a few remaining typos and minor errors that had slipped past the editing team. Therefore, the reprint will be the cleanest and most polished version of the book yet. Once printing is complete, we’ll send out another update to let you know where things stand. We’ll also provide more frequent updates going forward, so that no one is left in the dark.

Thank you again for your trust, patience, and continued enthusiasm. This setback was unexpected, but the final result will absolutely be worth the wait.

Lastly, for those wondering: the White Vortex PDF will now be released this summer, slightly ahead of the physical book’s arrival.

Above is a photo of the final sample - the one we approved for mass production (how the book is supposed to look)

Above is a photo of the product we received (how the book is NOT supposed to look)

Above is how the book is supposed to look

Above is how the book is not supposed to look

Above is how the book is supposed to look

Above is how the book is NOT supposed to look

Above is how the book is NOT supposed to look (this is the page that was hit the hardest)