Japanese developer MyDearest Inc. held a successful Kickstarter campaign for its virtual reality (VR) novel Tokyo Chronos last summer, managing to raise over $90,000 USD from 970 backers. Now the studio has launched a Steam page for the title and with it a free demo for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive owners.
Tokyo Chronos is scheduled to launch on 20th March 2019, with PC users now able to download a teasing preview of the mystery novel experience – the full title will also support PlayStation VR and Oculus Go.
“This is an adventure game where the player truly gets transported to a brand new world, and will become infatuated with the numerous characters, plot twists and mysterious to solve throughout the game,” MyDearest Inc. explains. “With a world class staff and voice acting talent, this will be as close to living in an animation that you’ll get! We always strive to bring the greatest gaming entertainment from Japan to the world for all to enjoy.”
Featuring eight characters, Tokyo Chronos mixes VR entertainment with comic book aesthetics. The protagonist in the story is a 16-year old high school student called Kyosuke Sakurai. Sakurai and the other students suddenly wake up in the “Chronos World”, set in Shibuya, an empty, deserted district of Tokyo, Japan, where time has frozen. As events progress each of them disappears one by one, with the synopsis stating: “I am dead. Who killed me?”
MyDearest Inc. is working with Los Angeles based publisher and developer Sekai Project who specialise in the localization of Japanese media and entertainment. Tokyo Chronos is being created by a veteran team of industry professionals including producer Kazuma Miki (Sword Art Online), scenario writer Kou Segawa, director Haruki Kashiwakura and character designer LAM. The studio’s previous titles include Innocent Forest, another interactive VR novel.
Should any further details be released ahead of next month’s launch, VRFocus will let you know.