Visual Novel Games: Exogenesis: Perils of Rebirth Has So Much to Offer

 

If you’ve played the games Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Zero Escape, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney or any other similar visual novel games before, then you’re going to enjoy this upcoming interactive visual novel game by Philippine-based indie game developer Kwan Studios titled Exogenesis ~Perils of Rebirth~.

 

Visual Novel Games: Exogenesis: Perils of Rebirth

 

As a big fan of visual novel games, the demo game of Exogenesis got me hooked right away. The well-made visuals and eerie background music got me glued to the screen as soon as I opened the game.

The game opens up with Yudai Sayashi (the player’s character) watching helplessly as his sister Miho, impaled with spears, dies in front of his eyes.

Set in post-apocalyptic Japan in the year 2071, the story revolves around Yudai (often called “yu” in the game) as he searches for a way to turn back time to prevent the death of his sister two years ago. After finding proof of the existence of the mythical “Noah’s Ark”, which is said to turn back time, he hopes to use it to revive his sister. However, he can’t do it alone. He has to once again employ the help of his former ragtag club of “treasure hunters”, the Durchhalten, which disbanded after Miho died.

Heavily inspired by Kotaro Uchikoshi’s (creator of Zero Escape: virtue’s last reward) work, the gameplay highly resembles his games. Similar to other visual novel games, Exogenesis heavily focuses on the story and the player’s decisions. Here, the player’s moral choices will decide the flow of the story, giving players the freedom to take control of how the story will end (the game has multiple endings, by the way – can you get them all?)

Aside from decision-making, Exogenesis also has the point-and-click-to-interact-with-objects type of gameplay in place (similar to Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward or Can You Escape). At this part of the game, it’s all up to the player’s puzzle solving skills to make it through.

If you’re not used to escape room games, you might find the puzzles baffling. The first puzzle in the demo itself made me eat two presto biscuits just to jumpstart my puzzle-solving brain engines.

Because of the post-apocalyptic setting; the dark, trashed, and completely run-down scenes and atmosphere gives me the same creep up the spine as when I played “The House” (yes, the scary game) while searching for clues and solving puzzles. At some point, I was waiting for a jumpscare.

Personally, I find the game crazy fun. The demo was very well-made that I died just after a few minutes into the game (bad decision, bad decision). The decisions you make here can really “make or break” the flow of the game.

The game is still under development and is scheduled for release before the end of the year or possibly earlier. It will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux platforms, but the developers are looking to port the game into other platforms (if they get enough funding).

Want to help fund Exogenesis? You can do so here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2921787/exogenesis-post-apocalyptic-tokyo-adventure-visual

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