Entergram and 07th Expansion announcedGensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope,orKaleidoscope of Phantasm Prison.It’s a horror visual novel for PS4, PS Vita and Nintendo Switch.Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscopefeatures a scenario by Ryukishi07, character designs by Itaru Hinoue, and music by Dai and xaki. The game will launch this winter in Japan.
Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscopeis described by Entergram as a “girls mental suspense” game. Ryukishi07 commented on the game, asking if we’re ready to plunge into the “bottomless”, “darkest” parts of his writing. He mentioned Itaru Hinoue’s designs have a feeling of cuteness and innocence you rarely find in other designs. He also said the story is about a group of four close friends who will get everything ruthlessly stolen from them. Ryukishi07 also comparedGensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscopeto the mix of joy and sadness one would get when destroying a tower of blocks they spend so much time piling up.
The official teaser site mentions further details will be published on August 16 at18:00 JST. For now, the names, seiyuu, and artworks for the four main characters have been revealed:
Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope’sfirst opening movie was published as well. Entergram purposefully mentioned it’s the “first” opening movie, meaning the game will have other openings as it gets more and more screwed up. The song playing is titled Beautiful World. The lyrics and the singing were done by Emily, and it was composed by Hisao Sasaki.
The official teaser sitealso has another illustration for the characters if you click on the card, along with the game’s logo. The alternate illustration is much darker, with each character wearing a collar.
Some of the staff and cast also published comments on Twitter:
Himika Akaneya mentioned it was a dream come true to work with Ryukishi07 on a game. Akaneya previously played protagonist Rose Haibara in the stage play adaptation of Ryukishi07’sRose Guns Days. Akaneya also mentionedGensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope’srecording was pretty “heavy” on her heart, and how she still remembers the comfortable, exhausted feeling she felt once it was over.This means the game is really dark.
Minori Suzuki is happy that the game finally got officially announced. She mentioned she grew up watching Ryukishi07 related anime and looking at Itaru Hinoue’s illustrations, so she was extremely happy to work with them.
Fuuka Haruna said she’s happy the game finally got announced, and to look forward to it.
xaki said that as part of Higuumi Sound, the game’s sound team, each member expressed all the ideas and feelings of Ryukishi07 and Itaru Hinoue with the BGMs.
Dai mentioned he worked on the game as part of Higuumi Sound. There’s a BGM he made in particular which sounds a lot like aHigurashiBGM.
Illustrator Mizuki mentioned she worked on the game’s coloring design.
Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscope’s official abbreviation is “Gerokasu”. Gerokasu means “worthless”, but they definitely picked it as a reference toUmineko’s Bernkastel. She often uses that word.
Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscopewas first teased back in March 2018 under the code nameSangeki Sandbox. Back then, they revealed nothing but that it’s a project involving Ryukishi07 and Itaru Hinoue, but it was already enough to hype many, myself included.
While I’ve never been into horror, I’ve always liked Ryukishi07’s horror works as they rely on psychological horror. Despite being dark, his stories always have deep instances of friendship or family love and are full of positive lessons overall. They always make you feel these sleepless nights were worth it. I also like Himika Akaneya’s voice acting, as she’s part of Iris, a six-person idol seiyuu group closely linked to thePretty Seriesfranchise.
Anyway. I don’t really think you need an introduction for all the staff members I’ve cited if you clicked on this article in the first place, but here goes:
Ryukish07 is famous worldwide among anime fans as the writer ofHigurashiandUmineko, part of theWhen They Cryseries. The newest part of the series,Ciconia When They Cry, has its first episode launching on October 4. MangaGamer is supposed to simultaneously release the game in English. Ryukishi07 recently spoke in detail aboutCiconiaand alsorevealed it’ll have 4 Episodes in total.
While Itaru Hinoue is currently freelance, she was one of the founding members of Key. She’s one of the most famous character designers when it comes to visual novels, as she worked on Key’s most famous games,Kanon, Air,Clannad, Little Busters, etc.
Dai and xaki both worked onUmineko, creating many of its awesome BGMs.
Gensou Rougoku no Kaleidoscopewill definitely come west at some point seeing Ryukishi07’s popularity.
