We first reported on the formation of Aniplex.exe back in February 2020. They launched the formation of the new subsidiary with the announcement of two English language visual novels which were scheduled to hit digital store shelves at some point in 2020. In a new press release sent out on Friday, May 1st, Aniplex.exe announced that they have launched official demos for both visual novels on Steam ahead of their June 2020 full worldwide launches.
The first game, ATRI -My Dear Moments-, was developed by studios Frontwing and Makura and written by one of the co-authors of another visual novel If My Heart Had Wings, Asuta Konno. Art and character designs are being created by Yusano/Moto4 and Fuminori Matsumoto will compose the background music.
They also announced the full voice cast as follows:
Atri：Hikaru Akao
Kamishiro Minamo: Minami Takahashi
Nojima Ryuuji: Yoshimasa Hosoya
Catherine: Yoko Hikasa
Nanami Ririka: Anzu Haruno
The opening movie seen above was created by yo-yu and features the song “Hikari hanate!” by performed by Mami Yanagi.
Aniplex.exe describes the story for this one as:
In the near future, a sudden and unexplained sea rise has left much of human civilization underwater.
Ikaruga Natsuki, a boy who lost his mother and his leg in an accident some years earlier, returns disillusioned from a harsh life in the big city to find his old countryside home half-swallowed by the sea.
Left without a family, all he has to his name is the ship and submarine left to him by his oceanologist grandmother, and her debts.
His only hope to restore the dreams for the future that he has lost is to take up an opportunity presented to him by the suspicious debt collector Catherine. They set sail to search the sunken ruins of his grandmother’s laboratory in order to find a treasure rumor says she left there.
But what they find is not riches or jewels; it is a strange girl lying asleep in a coffin at the bottom of the sea.
Atri.
Atri is a robot, but her appearance and her wealth of emotions would fool anyone into think she’s a living, breathing human being. In gratitude for being salvaged, she makes a declaration to Natsuki.
“I want to fulfil my master’s final order. Until I do, I’ll be your leg!”
In a little town slowly being enveloped by the ocean, an unforgettable summer is about to begin for this boy and this mysterious robot girl…
The demo for the game is available here and will sell for $20.99 at launch.
The second game demo to be launched over the weekend is for the visual novel Adabana Odd Tales developed by Liar-soft and with a scenario created by Umihara Nozomu. Character designs will be created by Ryuko Ooishi while Momoko Sapporo and Shinichiro Matsumoto will compose the background music.
They announced the voice cast as follows:
Kurofude: Wataru Kato
Shirohime: Saki Minami
Hanasaka Jiisan: Yuki Tamai
Otohime: Yuki Kuwahara
Urikohime: Natsumi Takamori
Momotaro: Haruki Ishiya
KIZAWA produced the opening movie seen above and features the song “Adabanayumeutsutsu” performed by Rita.
Aniplex.exe describes the game as:
A girl finds herself in a dark and unfamiliar forest when a monster appears out of nowhere and attacks.
A mysterious boy, wielding a brush like it was a sword, appears just in time to cut down the monster.
He calls himself Kurofude, and he addresses the girl in familiar tones as Shirohime.
Yet she does not recognize him or the name he calls her.
She has lost all of her memories.
According to Kurofude, they are in the land of Adabana, a realm of illustrated books.
Their tales are like dreams; no matter how deeply one immerses oneself in them, once one wakes up, they are gone.
Thus the name Adabana—a name given to flowers that will never bear fruit.
Their duty is to travel through story realms and look for signs of distortions in the tales.
Shirohime, a girl with seemingly all the agency of a doll, accepts this explanation and opens a book handed to her.
The title: Hanasaka Jiisan.
As she opens the dilapidated illustrated book with its pages riddled with worm-eaten holes, the pages glow brightly and whisk the girl and boy away to a fairy tale realm…
The demo for the game can be found here and it will sell for $17.99 upon launch.
Source: Press Release
