With chapter 2, the investigation in GENBA no Kizuna is really going to get started. So right at the beginning, after the chapter intro screen, players will be prompted to pick one of our four investigators. Because of this, I had to design a little “character selection screen” and you can see the result below (which may not be 100% final yet, but pretty close):
Similar to the “pick a culprit”-screen in SHINRAI, you select a character first and then confirm your choice with the button below.
Each of the four characters has their own “investigation route”. Keiichi is going to meet up with two mystery witnesses, Rei is going to examine the scene of the incident, Shinketsu is going to take a look at the body and Himatsu is going to interview the members of Raptor Pack Productions.
After completing one of these routes, players will be sent back to the character selection screen, in order to pick another investigator. In the end, all four routes need to be cleared to advance the story, but they can be tackled in any order you’d like.
Of course, this is not going to be the only instance in which you can choose a character. Although the majority of the story will be told from Keiichi‘s point of view, there are a few more instances in which you can play as the others. Chapter 4, for example, will also start with this exact same character selection screen.
Right now, I cannot really say how much of the story will be experienced through the eyes of each of the other characters, as the chapters aren’t fully written yet. But I am trying to give all three of them an equal amount of spotlight. Of course, I am somewhat restricted by the story and circumstances of the case itself. Meaning that I won’t force myself to make all routes equally long if this would result in padding.
For instance, if Himatsu needs a higher word count to interview all the suspects than Rei does to gather all the evidence, I won’t artificially try to stretch out Rei‘s segments, just to make them as long as Himatsu‘s. So we’ll see how it goes.
Anyway, I hope that players will enjoy the different perspectives. I certainly have a lot of fun writing them and tried to come up with some interesting scenarios that really benefit from having the story told through someone else’s eyes.
To get back to the actual selection screen though, a variation of it will also be used for instances in which players will need to pick the “culprit” behind certain actions and, of course, the killer (outside of showcasing the four suspects instead of our investigators, the yellow text will be tinted red for those).
If you’re a patron and curious about the evolution of the screen’s design, be sure to check out this new Patreon post. And if you’d like to hear the “character selection theme”, you can have a listen right here.
Now, as always, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and have yourselves a merry little Easter! Until next Saturday, take care! :3
