Two weeks ago Adelta posted some information about the release date of their newest game, Ōe (大穢)! The R18 visual novel is scheduled to be released fall 2023, though they’re also planning on releasing some other Ōe-related projects like an all-ages TRPG (tabletop role-playing game) version of the game (fall-winter 2023) and a digital format novel (somewhere in 2024).
Story synopsis
It’s the 30th year of the Showa era (1955). Detective Ōsaki travels to an abandoned fishing village located on the remote island of Ōe-jima, south of Tokyo. After receiving a strange request from his client, he attends the commemoration of an actress who passed away three years ago. During his stay on the island a series of strange events happen. The ship that is supposed to pick them up never arrives, no one has heard anything from the event organizer and there seems to be an unexplainable hatred and fear between the people who gathered on the island. Stranded on this ominous island, ten people unravel the mystery of their shared past and the death of the actress "Ōe".
The game focuses on the ''Closed circle mystery'' element that can often be found in detective fiction, which refers to a situation in which a crime was committed and the culprit is one of the people who was present at the crime scene. The chaotic atmosphere peculiar to post-war Japan will also be noticeable in this story. The genre is ‘’Mystery x Detective x Japanese horror’’, but it won’t have any ghosts or extremely gorey content. This is also the first Adelta game which will have a top protagonist (all of the other guys are bottoms, who are also supposedly ‘’straight’’ lol!).
All nine attendees, who are also all murderers, will have their own routes, although some routes might be shorter than the others (4 full main routes). The servant who dies at the beginning of the game will also have his own route. When one route is cleared, more choices will be added to the game and more routes will unlock. Some newer blog updates also showed that there’s actually a 10th route? Which probably unlocks after clearing all of the other routes. The newest blog update also shows that the writing is almost completely finished, just the final route left...!
Characters
Every character's personality seems to be inspired by the Buddhist fundamental earthly desires (workings of life that are believed to cause one psychological/physical suffering and impede the quest for enlightenment). I looked up the kanji that were used in the image below and added some translations/definitions of each term.
Ōsaki (大崎) - Main character
Detective, calm and collected
Ariake (有明) - Disregard (Anapatrapya 無愧)
Mortician, helps out others
Shimbashi (新橋) - Stinginess (Mātsarya 慳)
Screenwriter, prideful, germaphobe
Hinode (日出) - Wrath (Krodha 忿)
Junior high school student, aphasia
Shijoumae (市場前) - Shamelessness (Āhrīkya 無慚)
Surgeon, big-hearted, open-minded
Shiodome (汐留) - Restlesness (Auddhatya 掉挙)
Folkorist, energetic, loud
Funeno (船野) - Sleepiness (Middha 睡眠)
Servant, timid, a kind-hearted big man
Toyosu (豊洲) - Regret (Kaukritya 悪作)
Monk, soft, a bit of an airhead
Takeshiba (竹芝) - Lethargy (Styāna 惛沈)
Magician, cheerful comedian, Kansai dialect
Aomi (青海) - Envy (Īrṣyā 嫉)
Music teacher, quiet beauty
Side characters
Daiba Shizuma (台場静馬): Client, seems pretty identical to Ōsaki
Shinagawa Zakuro (品川柘榴): Junior detective, always tired
Shinkiba (新木場): Manager, likes reading books
Image sources: [1] [2] Characters and illustrations belong to Adelta.
The official Adelta Twitter account frequently posts new updates about the game, so I recommend turning notifications on! You can expect background illustrations, CG previews, lineart, sketches and some other art related to the new game (also possibly some Hashihime/Uuultra C content).
By the way, in a previous blog post it was mentioned that 大穢 will be used to refer to the 18+ BL visual novel version of the game which will be released first, and 大江 for the all-ages TRPG version, though both seem to have the same reading (just a disclaimer why the images still display ‘‘ 大江 ‘‘ instead of ‘‘ 大穢 ‘‘, I think this decision was only made later!).
I’ve played all of Adelta’s other games so naturally I am very excited to play this one, the other games had so many CGs and backgrounds, I’ll be patient and wait until the game’s released in fall!
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