HAKANAGE 儚げ - A Visual Novel

Greetings and salutations!

Thank you for checking out this project! I hope you enjoy the game, although it is still in early development.

About the project

A mystery/detective interactive novel set in contemporary Tokyo, Japan. You will (eventually) be able to play three different timelines, which one of them is the victim's. Each timeline will unlock an essential part, or the whole of the "smoking gun", and generates an alternate ending.

This is version alpha 0.1 - Only one of the character's timeline is available. And as far as storyline goes, only the prologue and chapter 1 are available, with very few choices. Of course, more choices and functionalities will be implemented as the game develops (such as the log and "inventory").

No Patreon page for now, nor the near future, since this (pet) project has a very loose schedule. However, any contribution is still greatly appreciated! As I do need a bunch of assets to make this possible and just like I want it to be.

This is a work of fiction.

WARNING :

** The story depicts sensitive subjects such as mental health, suicide, and murder. Please be advised. **

** For the moment, the story line is in FRENCH only! **

(And of course for you French-enabled individuals, there's a shit ton of grammar mistakes. As game dev goes, this is the least of my worries for now. )

The Story

December. Tokyo. The body of a young Montreal woman is discovered in Nihonbashi, in the heart of downtown Tokyo. Distraught over the cruel lack of information about their daughter's death and the bureaucratic nature of the Japanese legal system, the victim's parents call upon Sean Takahashi, a close family friend, and professor at the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Law.

Apparently killed by strangulation, Takahashi also learns that a handwritten note was found on the victim: "Lived in ephemeral suffering, died in eternal happiness". This signature is identical to those found after a series of murders committed in Japan ten years earlier by followers of the Eien no shinri kyodan - the cult of Eternal Truth. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and deep depression due to past experiences with this cult, Takahashi will have to face his demons again to try to find out more about the death of the young girl.

But the investigation seems to have been botched and the case is officially declared as a suicide. The note, a simple fake. With the certainty that it is not a suicide and that the cult is active again, Sean will have to become a private detective despite suffering from a heavy depression. Being in unfamiliar territory, he will team up with his former student, Kentaro Osawa, now a detective-interpreter with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, not only to help his grieving friends find some answers, but find some answers of his own.

Roadmap

Alpha 0.2, roughly around spring 2022:

English optionChapter 2Another character timelineAbout me

I'm currently doing a Master's in philosophy and hope to teach this discipline one day. I'm also interested in coding and game design!

I initially started this project as a "regular" novel (that would've never been published anyway). I've decided to adapt it into a visual novel as a sandbox to learn C#/Unity.

Bonne continuation et amusez-vous bien!

This game by ctslater is published for you by an automatic search aggregator xplay.me and is available for free to download right now. The total size of this game is 199 MB. Try other 2d and crime games to find your favourite. Check out the screenshots of the game to get familiar with the style, genre and gameplay. Share your opinion about HAKANAGE 儚げ - A Visual Novel to allow others to discover it. Find more games like this using search and tags.