https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-_BVKg0-is
The Japanese Xbox One team have made a concerted effort to get the console noticed in Japan. Apart from 5pb’s Chaos;Child, they’re also creating an entirely new VN with the publisher and developers Division 8 based on the Psycho-Pass anime series.
Psycho-Pass: Sentaki naki Koufuku, translated as Psycho-Pass: Happiness Without Choice, now has a teaser site for the game here, and a teaser trailer, featured above. The site’s available in English, so feel free to explore.
Psycho-Pass takes place in a near future where people’s state of mind and personality are measured, quantified, recorded, and processed by technology called the Sybil System.
The visual novel covers the time frame of the first six episodes of the anime. Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero) will provide the original outline and scenario supervision. The anime was set in the heart of a large city, but the game will move the cast to a remote island.
The new characters featured above, from left to right, are 25-year-olds Nadeshiko Kugatachi and Takuma Tsurugi, and 15-year-old Alpha. Players can play as either of the first two; nothing has been revealed about Alpha’s role in the story, yet.
The members of Unit 1 of the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, the cast in the anime, will return in the game. Kyoji Asano (Attack on Titan, Tokyo Marble Chocolate) will also be designing new characters based on Akira Amano’s original designs.
The visual novel will make use of the unique features of the Kinect and SmartGlass, although these features can be disabled and the title completed without their use. Players will also be able to send data from their smartphones to characters in the game. Altogether, it sounds like a thoroughly unique, new VN experience.
Psycho-Pass: Sentaki naki Koufuku is being developed exclusively for the Xbox One in Japan. There has been no mention of a localization for Western audiences.
The original animated series, Psycho-Pass, aired in 2012, and the sequel, Psycho-Pass 2, finished airing yesterday in Japan. An animated movie is supposed to be out any day now, too. You can catch up on this intriguing universe that way, while you pine for the game to make it to the West.
