Sekai Project hosted its panel at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, for the traditional visual novel extravaganza.
The first announcement is 9 -nine- by Saku Saku developer Palette. The project includes multiple episodes focusing on one heroine each. The first features Miyako Kujo.
Shiromitsugawa City. An academic city with no particularly special characteristics. There had been projects to revitalize the city by drawing in tourists, none of which succeeded. Yet, unexpectedly this city has drawn the attention of the world.
In the city lives a young man by the name of Kakeru Niimi. Though he is prone to being blunt, he is a reliable individual who lives life with a strong sense of responsibility. For what it’s worth, he has a kind personality and treats those around him with great importance. Though it seems like he lives a peaceful life as an ordinary student, with the destruction of a sacred relic of the Shrine of the White Serpent’s Relic, his life has changed.
In the midst of all this appear youths with supernatural powers. It was just a town with no particularly special characteristics and a very unassumingly normal student. Kakeru Niimi finds himself wrapped up in this mysterious fate caused by the appearance of these supernatural individuals…
Below you can check out the Japanese opening cutscene, some screenshots, and artwork. It’ll release in Q4 2018. A 18+ version will be provided via Denpasoft.
We then move on to Last Stanza by InnocenceInnocence, a slice of life/drama visual novel dealing with the consequences of a tragic event from different perspectives.
“It was a day in the last week of December 2009, when I found out that slowly dripping tears had a shivering yet uneasy feeling. The winter turned the air thin and cold, the clouds blocked the sunlight that normally reaches the ground making it feel like the sun was absent.
Days after, I was back on my daily routine, as if nothing had happened, trying to conceal my anger and confusion, slowly regaining control of my thoughts, opening my heart to friends old and new, trying at any cost to find a new place for myself.
But it’s in the peaceful moments when the storms settle and the turbulent oceans lose their motions, that any rock can set a chain reaction creating an infinitude of waves, bringing back to the shores of my thoughts the emotions that I had kept away for so long.”
Below you can check out the opening animation and the main visual.
Re;Lord 2 ~The witch of Cologne and black cat~ is also coming from Escu;de. It’s the second game of the “strip RPG” trilogy by the same name. Even here a 18+ version is coming via the usual alliance with Denpasoft.
“Our hero Wilfred and his companions are back once again. After retaking Herfort, he sets his sights on doing battle with the witch, Iris, in order to liberate all of Groessen.
Cologne, a land filled with grassy plains and home to the country’s fishing industry and the popular tourist spot, Bebra Lake, is under the control of the witch Iris who has turned the denizens of this peaceful land into crow familiars, spirits and devilish fiends.
While he questions why the witch Iris has taken this territory, for the sake of retaking this land he goes into battle once more.”
Idol Connect -AsteriskLive- by CreativeFrontier is also coming to a Steam near you down the line. The game is based on a mobile game, but it has been transformed into a full-fledged visual novel.
“Sometime, somewhere in the future.
In a tiny little idol production office that you run, nine girls — idols — are gathered. With no dreams, and no goals. But the moment they stand on stage, something in them changes.
This is a story of how ordinary girls eventually bring their voices to the world. A story of how ordinary girls eventually connect as idols.
“…Just what is an idol?”At the Asterisk Live, an idol festival that happens once a year… You alone, as their producer, can guide them to the answer that awaits them there.”
You can check out a trailer and the key artwork below.
Harumade Kururu by veteran studio Sumikko Software is next in line for a Steam release, with Denpasoft again offering an 18+ version.
“A Certain Situation
Of course, even if I put it that way there’s no way I can explain the situation I’m in…
In any case, I find myself with 4 other girls on a long spring break far away from civilization. To emphasize how middle of nowhere this is, there isn’t even a convenience store here. I don’t have a cell phone and despite having some rather good laptop computers, I have no way to connect to the internet. All that’s here is a large dormitory the likes you’d see at a hot springs resort and a school that looks like it’s on the verge of closing down. There’s a farm that’s closed and fields with ripening winter vegetables. In the distance you can see snow capped mountains and the beautiful, clear waters of the sea.
…and out in the distance stood a tower of unimaginable height who’s purpose was anyone’s guess which stretched into the depths of the sky.
This wasn’t a fantasy, or something out of sci-fi or even a mystery. With all that going on, the only intent was to spend some peaceful days with these four girls but that was totally not what was about to happen. One girl. In a quiet summer that’s quite prone to crazy happenings. And these words that come out of her mouth.
“We’ll make this place a harem for him!”
Wait, when you say harem, uhm… well… Huh????
I wondered what she meant by that as she took off her clothes and the events of that summer unfolded…”
You can enjoy the opening cutscene and a gallery of screenshots and artwork.
qoobrand’s Witch’s Love Diary (Majo Koi Nikki) was the next announcement, coming to Steam from Sekai Project and in 18+ version via Denpasoft.
“In a barbershop of the shopping district, lived a girl named Alive Nanjo.
In the spring, which marked her 2nd year at the academy, there was nothing particular about it as the same train she’d always take shook as it moved across town and she spent time as usual with her friends.
Then one day.
While Alice and her friends were investigating a clock tower in a forest on the outskirts of the academy, she picked up a mysterious diary that fell from the tower. Taking it home, she gently opened up the diary and there she found the contents of a young man’s daily life.”
Below is the opening cutscene and plenty of artwork and screenshots for your perusal.
Last, but not least, is Nekopara prequel Nekopara Extra ~The Kittens’ First Promise is finally coming on July 27th, detailinetails life in the Minaduki household when Chocola and Vanilla first arrive. It will be released alongside an OVA, while the Nekopara manga’s first volume will be released in August.
“After being taken in by Kashou and his little sister, Shigure, the young kittens, Chocola and Vanilla find it difficult to fit in. Despite the warm welcome the other Minaduki catgirls give to them, they act with trepidation as they adjust to the pace of the family.
As they slowly interact with their fellow sister catgirls, Chocola and Vanilla begin to open up more and it’s here we see Kashou’s kindness towards them that builds up their feelings towards him.”
You can take a look at some screenshots and artwork below.
