Kamaitachi no Yoru (lit. "The Night of the Sickle Weasel"?) is a sound novel developed and published by Chunsoft. The game was first released on November 25, 1994 for the Super Famicom. It became available on the Virtual Console in February, 2007 for 800 Wii Points. The story-line was written by Takemaru Abiko and production was directed by Kazuya Asano and Koichi Nakamura.
Kamaitachi no Yoru was the second sound novel developed by Chunsoft, and its popularity brought a myriad of other companies to develop similar games. The term "sound novel" was originally a registered trademark of Chunsoft, but is now regarded as a whole genre of its own. The game sold close to a million copies (including remakes and ports), making it a financial success as well.
Kamaitachi no Yoru has been ported on the PlayStation as "Kamaitachi no Yoru Tokubetsu Hen" (December 3, 1998) and the Game Boy Advance as "Kamaitachi no Yoru ~Advance~" (June 28, 2002). It has also been released on the J-PHONE as "Kamaitachi no Yoru mini" (April 1, 2002), and on PC as "Kamaitachi no Yoru internet" (July 1, 2002). i-mode began its own release on January 30, 2004. The main story was also included in the PlayStation 2 sequel Kamaitachi no Yoru × 3, with minor changes made to the script.
The game plays similarly to a gamebook. The player reads the text from the game screen, and makes choices which will affect the outcome of the game.
Though the concept of the game is simple, it is rather difficult and time consuming to finish the game with every single different ending. Clues are often misleading, and in scenarios where the player must point out the villain, solving the mystery is nearly impossible without fully understanding the trick used in the murder. Hints are often hidden in seemingly obscure or ridiculous statements made by Toru and other characters.
Kamaitachi no Yoru 3: The first two volumes of Kamaitachi no Yoru sold a total of 1.7 million copies in Japan. With such impressive numbers, Sega and Chun Soft release a third game in the series which takes place one year after the events of Kamaitachi no Yoru 2 where Toru and Mari had to find a way off Mikazuki Island.
In the new Kamaitachi game, Toru Yajima and Mari Kobayashi reprise their roles and return to Mikazuki Island. The pair stay at the cursed "prison" mansion once again and are joined by a cast of characters including Yosuke Mikimoto, Toshio Kubota, Seiichi Kayama, Keiko Kitano and a woman named Haruko. A murder mystery is afoot where gamers go through the story from the viewpoint of four characters who look at events from different perspectives (both literally and figuratively) in order to deduce the identity of the killer. Seiichi Kayama, a portly middle-aged gentleman is the initial protagonist.
The visuals in the game are made up of photorealistic locations with blue silhouette characters that are modeled to look like rounded plaster constructs. Since the releases in the Kamaitachi series are sound novels, vibrant music and sound effects such as chairs grating against the floor add to the atmosphere and direct the mood of the adventure.
The game is played by selecting choices during junctures in the game which affect the way the story forks towards the conclusion. Multiple endings are possible depending on how one chooses during the adventure.
MANUFACTURER'S DESCRIPTION:
"Banshee's Last Cry" trilogy is finally complete! The introduction of the new system that the story progresses in the first series of multiple hero. While managing the action in 5 minutes time chart of increments to follow the story. By switching the hero to be to interfere with the progress of each other, the three mysteries, the three trap-three alleged to be scattered scenario entanglement complex, it is gradually approaching the truth.
FEATURES:
- First person perspective.
- 2D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- Mystery & Horror themes.
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