Back in 2023 (dear lord, time flies fast), Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo was a surprising release by Square Enix. By that company’s standard, it was a humble and straightforward visual novel, but clearly the execs had seen the success of Danganronpa, AI: The Somnium Files, Famicom Detective Club and others and wanted a piece of the pie. The…
Jen Williams has seen the future, and like many of us, she’s worried about it. The studio lead at Cherrymochi, the Japan-based indie outfit behind the cult hit Tokyo Dark, spent the early 2000s working with Hewlett-Packard on GPS-triggered gaming experiments in Bristol. Back then, everyone was certain they were…
After introducing Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse at last week’s Nintendo Direct Partner…
Idea Factory International has announced a late May release date for Birushana:…
I am genuinely surprised by the launch of the two Quintessential Quintuplets games in this “double pack” (Memories of a Quintessential Summer and Five Memories Spent With You). They’ve been published by MAGES, one of the legends of visual novel development. They’ve also been published by Spike Chunsoft, one of…
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Aksys has a habit of finding the most wonderful visual novels to localise… and Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch looks like it continues that form. This is a coming-of-age story mixed in with a “mystery stretching back hundreds of years.” It also looks like it has some light…
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I have a particularly strong attachment to the original Cupid Parasite… indeed I think that it is that game, above and beyond any of the others that I’ve played, that convinced me that “hey, I have to make my own one of these visual novel things.” The result may not…
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After playing Read Only Memories: Neurodiver, I am absolutely up for another visual novel that explores the idea of memory. Chromatic Memories is a bit different, though: instead of chasing a villain erasing the memories of others, it’s you that is accidentally erasing your own. The game is set in…
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Spike Chunsoft knows its way to my heart. Put pretty anime girls in swimwear and, well, I can’t help but buy the thing now, can I? It’s actually a requirement that I do so. So that’s what the Spike Chunsoft team is doing to me in collaboration with MAGES with…
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My impatience for, well, anything is well-documented at this point. Waiting five years for a game seemed completely unfeasible but I have done it! I have waited half a decade for Read Only Memories: Neurodiver (ROM: Neurodiver), the sequel to 2015’s 2064: Read Only Memories. When I was offered a…
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One of the things I’ve learned in making my own visual novel is that scope can very easily blow out. Every new scene, character, idea, and story beat that you add in means more backgrounds, CGs, character costumes and music. Then it all becomes very expensive. And so, in most…
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Nearly a year after Agate launched Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 to mixed reviews, the developer is trying its hand at bringing otome visual novel Celestia: Chain of Fate from story app Memories: My Story, My Choice to PC and Nintendo Switch. This isn’t something I’ve seen done a…
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During the past two years, a trilogy of titles have been released as part of the Pixel Pulps series developed by LCB Game Studio: Mothmen 1966, Varney Lake, and Bahnsen Knights. These games don’t fall into the common trap of “more content!” – instead, each is a perfectly reasonable length…
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There is massive money on the table for the first localisation outfit that can produce high-quality translations of Chinese-developed games for their Western release. Unfortunately, we don’t have that localisation infrastructure yet. It has only been in the last decade or so that games from Taiwan and/or China have started…
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