Video Game / RUBATO

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HERO OF THE STARS AND SKY

After a world-ending bioweapon was unleashed, GGSAI CO/"The Company" has remained in universal power for centuries, with the company's subsidiary on Earth running a weapons development program as people start disappearing. However, the solar system (sans planet Earth) ends up being destroyed as a result of three workers playing pool, putting the three at risk of being fired or killed by "Higher Management". With this, Rubato has to go collect Planet Bits across Earth to help undo the damage.

However, as the story unravels, things aren’t as simple as they seem...

RUBATO is a physics-based 2D collect-a-thon platformer, developed & published by 'dconn', with Headcannon of Sonic Mania fame handling the console porting and publishing. It released on March 20, 2026 for PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, & Xbox Series X|S.

Official website👁 Image

Previews: Release Date Trailer👁 Image
, Launch Trailer👁 Image

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Rubato contains the following tropes:

• All the Worlds Are a Stage: Mystery Toilet X is a mash-up of everything that came before, only with more obstacles, tougher enemies, and absolutely no checkpoints. Good luck.
• Anvil on Head: Tokki unleashes many, many of these on a Space Police soldier who threatens Luna.
  "A BRO IS ALWAYS ANVIL."
• Arc Number: 2012, which is also the year Gangnam Style was released. That's not a coincidence, as that was the year that the world ended, with Gangam Style being one of the only artifacts left of humanity.
• Arc Symbol: The sky, which is used as a visual shorthand for self-realization and enlightenment. After coming to grips with her past and mastering her Heroic Willpower, Nico's soul is often overlaid with the sky.
• Big Bad: "Higher Management", an Eldritch Abomination employed by GSSAI Corp to develop new products for whatever strange business they employ. Their current goal is to make reproduce-able, immortal soldiers patterned after Rubato and Tony.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Bernie, Tony, and Mikey, respectively.
• Bittersweet Ending: Tony, Hugo, Bernie, Mikey and Maia all defeat Higher Management with the help of Rubato/Nico, but the frog is permanently killed by Higher Management in retaliation. While each character vows to live for a higher purpose now that GSSAI Corp has stopped paying attention to Earth, the The Stinger implies that Earth is still on the proverbial chopping block, as an unknown voice working for the corp agrees to Earth's "scheduled demolition". The only solace is that Rubato may have still reformed given a small post-credits scene, but it's kept ambiguous.
• Bleak Level: Area 4, The Forest, has its silly moments but is overall rather melancholic compared to what came before it. Rest assured- it gets darker from there.
• Bonus Dungeon: Getting all 132 Planet Bits, and completing the game at least once, grants you access to Mystery Toilet X, which counts as its own post-game area. Hopefully you've mastered your abilities by now, because you're going to need all of them.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The boss of Area 2 is Weaponized Tokki, who has a much more feral appearance and the directive of taking out Rubato.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The game begins as a wacky offbeat comedy and ends as a melancholic journey into self-realization.
• Death Is Cheap: Deconstructed. Rubato and Tony's ability to reform themselves leads Higher Management to view them as potential valuable assets, wishing to use one of them as a template for their mass-produced "product".
• Defeat Means Friendship:
  • Justified in King's case; he mistook Rubato for the Space Police at first and was only trying to defend his bakery.
  • Hugo is the boss of Area 3, but he's a completely idiotic Ditzy Genius with No Social Skills, so actually beating him is trivial. Once Rubato and co. make it out of the city, he tags along as the Sixth Ranger in spite of everyone in the party thinking he sucks.
• Foreshadowing: When Mist tries to comfort Luna after the boss fight of Chapter 2, she says to "always keep [your] chin up". When she says this, her Voice Grunting momentarily switches to Tony's, hinting at their connection.
• Genre Mashup: Primarily a collect-a-thon platformer, but with divergent gameplay segments throughout and plenty of physics involved. Later on, it becomes a dramatic Visual Novel with Cosmic Horror elements.
• Gender Bender: Nico is referred to with feminine pronouns, while their reincarnated form as Rubato is referred to with masculine ones.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: A certain number of Planet Bits are required in order to enter the boss room for each world.
• The Goomba: The small dumplings in the Bakery. They jump at you slowly for 1 damage and are defeated by grabbing them and throwing them at anything.
• Heterosexual Life-Partner: Tony and Hugo, as the two of them attempted to create a "universal cure" for human injuries for GSSAI Co. and thus help humanity recover from the disaster of 2012. Except, it's slightly subverted, in that it's strongly implied Hugo has romantic feelings for Tony which may or may not be reciprocated.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Higher Management has no real name, not even in the dialogue boxes. This is symbolic, as it represents his insane dedication to his position within GSSAI Corp, to an unhealthy degree.
• Identity Amnesia: Tony suffers from this due to events prior to the game's story, to the point where he becomes a completely different person and doesn't recognize Maia, his own daughter. We learn about what actually happened in the late game, during his playable Backstory This also doubles for Hugo.
• Level Ate: The first level Rubato gets thrown into is the King's Bakery.
• Mood Whiplash: Like you'd never believe. The game's own description sums it up well enough:
  It gets silly. It gets serious. Really concerningly serious. Uh. Is the guy who made this game okay..?
• Multipurpose Tongue: Being a frog, your can use your tongue to lick, carry, & manipulate certain objects.
• Overly Long Gag: If you choose to take the elevator in the Bakery, you'll be watching it slowly rise for more than two minutes.
• Precision F-Strike:
  Hugo, to Higher Management, during the story's climax: Shut up man, I don't give a shit. Alright everybody! Let's Gang That Style!
• Press X to Die: There's a dedicated button ('O' on keyboards) that can be held down to make Rubato explode on the spot.
• Punny Name: "Rubato" sounds like "ribbit-o" if you say it fast enough.
• Purposely Overpowered: The Jet Engine, which allows you fly in any direction for a limited time. You don't get it until you clear Area 4, and the final area is built around you having it. Aside from that, it's only useful for getting any Planet Bits you missed for 100% Completion, and for taking on the Bonus Dungeon.
• Racing Minigame: Dumpling Dude hosts a race in each of the first three areas. You get a Planet Bit for each one that you win.
• Red Herring: Hugo isn't actually Higher Management, as the first half of the game would lead you to believe.
• Revisit Reward: Some Planet Bits are locked behind items you don't get until defeating the area boss, or even clearing a later area.
• Rule of Funny: The game has an incredibly irreverent sense of humor, with multiple things given Stylistic Suck purely to enhance the humor. This includes multiple NPCs being bitcrushed 3D models, or characters snapping between idle poses.
• Shout-Out:
  • There are several nods to Gangnam Style, some subtle, some... less so.
  • An NPC during a Stealth-Based Mission suggests hiding in a trash can because "metal gear is better for sneaking than cardboard".
  • One sub-area has a mini-game about destroying blocks with the help of the (legally distinct) Guy Craft.
  • Collecting a Planet Bit may randomly display the text "But, do you remember how you got it?", a reference to Betterified VI: Bestified.
  • There's a world map NPC who looks like Hugo (but isn't) and is drawn in the style of EarthBound.
  • The "DOILUS STAGE" is alluded to by yet another NPC in a certain late-game area.
• Silent Protagonist: Subverted. While Rubato can't speak, their inner thoughts are semi-frequently voiced throughout the game. They still have to pantomime to the other characters in order to communicate certain ideas, but otherwise they're fully capable of articulating their thoughts. It helps that they used to be human.
• Stylistic Suck: Some dialogue portraits are drawn very crudely to indicate that character's bewilderment or nervousness.
• Token Non-Human: Of the four main characters, Rubato is a frog. At least, for most of the game.
• World of Funny Animals: Other than Rubato himself, there's a number of NPCs that are anthropomorphic animals (notably Tokki and Luna). For an unspecified reason, only frogs are unable to talk like humans in this world, which is why Nico was reincarnated into one by GSSAI Corp- so they couldn't protest against their predicament.
• Wreaking Havok: Physics play a large role in the game's platforming and level design, with many setpieces involving some kind of unique movement or physics toy to play with. On one hand, some levels offer unique challenges, like transforming Rubato into a ball or putting them into a UFO. On the other, some levels just have Rubato blowing up everything in sight because it's really damn hilarious.