Weekly Update #189: GENBA Page Update

As you might have already noticed, yesterday I updated the GENBA no Kizuna section of our website again, adding a quick plot summary, a list of features and even a couple of screenshots to it. So for today’s blog post, let’s look at some of this new info a little more closely, shall we?

Starting with the plot summary, there isn’t really much I want to add at the moment. I’d like to keep it vague for now, since I obviously want to keep the details of the case a secret. Besides, just as it was the case with SHINRAI, this game isn’t as much about the overall story itself as it is about the individual characters and they’re backgrounds.

Though on that note, there is at least one thing I do want to focus a bit more on. The last sentence of the plot summary says that the team not only needs to “unveil the identity of an unknown man but also reconstruct the events leading up to his untimely death“.

In SHINRAI, we already knew all the characters by the time the murders started to occur in the very presence of our protagonist. GENBA is the exact opposite in that players will not only start the game after the victim has died, but also with no information as to who they are. As a matter of fact, the identity of the victim is going to be the first big mystery Keiichi and the others will need to solve.

Earlier this month, I talked about the story structure of GENBA a little, which looks like this:

Prologue > Preparation Phase > Initial Investigation Phase > Discussion Phase > Core Investigation Phase > Final Discussion Phase > Epilogue.

Basically, the story can be divided into two halves. The first one will deal with figuring out who the victim is and will end after the first Discussion Phase. Afterwards, the second half of the game will entirely focus on how exactly the victim died, which will then be unraveled in the Final Discussion Phase.

That’s really all I want to say for now, but I hope it gives you a better idea as to what you can expect.

Now, if we take a look at the features, there isn’t really anything new in there if you’ve been following our blog posts ever since last June. You probably already knew about the four playable characters and the gameplay aspects slightly changing, depending on who you’re playing as. This will be a topic I will cover in greater detail in the future as not everything has been set in stone yet. But to give you a little bit more of an idea, let’s take Rei as an example.

Rei is going to be the one who will investigate the actual scene of the incident in search of clues, while everyone else will be busy taking care of other tasks. Naturally, this means that most of the background investigation segments will be played through Rei’s perspective. However, that’s not really what distinguishes her from the other characters. She will also have a few unique actions at her disposable. There is a reason why she’s carrying a camera around, for example, and as the forensics expert, only she will be able to search for hidden blood traces and perform a DNA analysis.

The idea is to really have all four characters do different things so that they truly feel like a team that can only reach the truth by actually working together.

Again, there exist a lot of conceptual ideas right now, but there is always the question as to how much sense it makes to implement some of them. So I don’t want to talk too much about this yet until I have a much better grasp on which of my ideas will actually end up in the final game.

One thing I definitely want to do again, however, are multiple endings depending on who you end up picking as the culprit. You can imagine this to work very similar to how it did in SHINRAI. Although, just like with everything else, I’m planning to take it another step further this time around.

As for the unlockable extras, there is of course going to be a CG gallery again as well as some miscellaneous art, but I’d also like to add some special scenes, too. However, as that’s something I will focus on once the main game is finished, I can’t really tell you much more about it right now.

Anyway, I guess that’s about it for now. If you’re still curious to learn more about GENBA, consider checking out our Patreon!
I’ve posted an early look at the crime scene there recently and used the opportunity to detail the way I go about BG creation, as well.
You can also read some more of the script and even get a look at all the suspect characters!

If you want to try out the actual game though, you won’t have to wait much longer. The demo is almost ready for public release.
I’m still contemplating when to release it, though. I really would have loved the idea of April 1st, but April 2nd would probably be a better idea for one specific reason I don’t want to get into right now.

But there is also the question whether or not everything will be okay after Natsu has implemented the most recent changes (she’s currently 95% done), or if there will still be any issues left. And if we can’t get everything ready for Monday, we would “have” to wait a whole ‘nother week for the release. Might sound excessive, but this also relates to the one specific reason alluded to above.
I guess I’ll see tomorrow.

So yeah, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until the demo release or next Saturday by the latest, take care! :3