Broken Beyond Despair

SHINRAI – Broken Beyond Despair is an interactive murder mystery, developed using the Ren’Py visual novel engine.

Story:

On October 30, 2010, a group of ten friends gathers at a secluded mountain resort to spend the night of All Hallows’ Eve together.

However…

What was originally intended to be a fun little Halloween party quickly turns into an actual night of horrors.
When one of the attendees is found dead, fear and uncertainty spread among the group as the friends realize they are trapped with a murderer.

As they try to unveil the identity of the killer, they slowly begin to learn to what atrocities despair can drive a human being…
once its trust has been broken.


Characters:

(Click on a character to open their introduction card)


Interactive Elements:

SHINRAI features a variety of interactive gameplay elements to help you feel like an actual detective:

  • Make Choices that will not only contribute towards your Detective Rank, but also influence the story and unlock bonus content upon its completion.
    And who knows? Maybe you will even be able to save a life!
  • Investigate certain locations inside the resort and interrogate your classmates in order to collect clues and evidence, which will help you solve various mysteries throughout the night.
  • Present Evidence to back up your claims as you unravel the truth and reveal the identity of the culprit. Be careful with your deductions, however, or you might end up accusing someone innocent of the most heinous crimes!

Features:

  • Character Profiles which provide you with additional information about the characters as well as their current status (Alive, Dead, Missing, Unknown).
  • Diary which summarizes the story’s progression.
  • Notebook which is frequently updated to help you keep track of gathered information and evidence.
  • 5 Endings (4 Bad Endings & 1 True Culprit Ending).
  • Unlockable Gallery encompassing CG art, miscellaneous art, bonus scenes & additional diary entries.
  • Original Soundtrack consisting of 24 unique tracks as well as a couple of variations. You can listen to some BGM samples on our YouTube channel.
  • 150,000+ words in length.
  • 8-10 hours of playtime, depending on your reading speed and how thorough you are.

Steam & Console Features:

The Steam, Playstation and Xbox versions of SHINRAI also feature the following:

  • Trophies/Achievements (15 in total)
  • Trading Cards (including Badges, Emoticons and Profile Backgrounds – Steam only)

Demo & Manual:

A demo for SHINRAI is available and can be downloaded here (119.53 MB).

This demo contains the prologue as well as the entire first chapter and amounts to approximately 35,000 words.
Its main purpose is to introduce you to the setting and characters, as well as to some of the interactive/gameplay elements.

You can also download the Digital Instruction Booklet (1.25 MB) if you want to learn more about the characters, features and mechanics of SHINRAI.

Buy SHINRAI:

The PC version of SHINRAI – Broken Beyond Despair is currently available on itch.io and Steam.

The console version is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X.

(Click on the icons above to get linked to the respective store pages)

Buy Soundtrack:

You can also buy the complete soundtrack which contains a total of 33 tracks, adding up to an overall playtime of 1:20:41 hours.
All tracks come in mp3 format at 320 kBit/s.

Reviews:

Unsure whether or not SHINRAI might be your thing? Check out our Steam Reviews, or any of the console version reviews listed below!