With countless games released on Steam every single day, Japanese games from smaller independent devs tend to get lost in the shuffle, but there’s no shortage of unique titles featuring original ideas with their own distinct identity. So, AUTOMATON has recently decided to start “Steam gems from Japan you might be missing out on”, a new series which aims to shine a spotlight on these overlooked indie gems by highlighting one game per article and sharing its appeal.
A “financial adventure” on the moon that bridges “dreams” and “money”
For the sixth article in this series, I’ll be writing about WORLD END ECONOMiCA, a visual novel from the indie development team Spicy Tails. With a story by Isuna Hasekura, known for his work on the original Spice and Wolf light novels, this title is set on the moon’s surface across three distinct episodes. Originally released independently in 2011, the first episode received a Steam release in 2014. Episode 2 followed in 2015, and the story was concluded with the release of Episode 3 in 2016. All three episodes are now available for purchase as a complete bundle at a discounted price point, and a Nintendo Switch port has been made available as well.
The story is set in the future, over 16 years after humanity began migrating to the moon. An enormous metropolis has been constructed on the moon’s surface, and countless people are chasing their dreams in this new land. The protagonist is a boy named Haru who was born and raised on the moon and dreams of one day setting foot where no one has ever set foot before. Haru requires tremendous funds to make his dream a reality, so he turns to the world of stock trading, where incredible fortune can be made in practically no time and be lost just as easily. What makes this title interesting is the way it links two seemingly incompatible subjects – science fiction and finance – through the single thread of Haru’s dream. Despite the grandiose premise of the colonization of the moon’s surface, Haru’s goals have nothing to do with saving the world or securing a better future for humanity. His self-interested desire to have the money to go wherever he pleases leads to his embroilment in the vast system of the stock market.
As a work that deals with the stock market, you may imagine that this title is full of complex business jargon that sounds like it comes straight from an Economics 101 textbook. However, WORLD END ECONOMiCA’s primary focus is the drama that unfolds between people. Stock fluctuations represent more than a simple change in numbers – they impact the characters’ dreams, ambitions, and convictions. Success is more than just acquiring wealth, while failure can mean the loss of the very things they believe in. What defines this game are two simple rules that dictate the stock market: First, never take a loss. Second, never forget the first rule. These fundamentals must be maintained if one wishes to earn their fortune trading stocks, but in actual stock trading, human emotions like greed, fear, and impatience can impede rational judgment. As such, this title’s setting isn’t so much a stage to showcase the characters earning their fortunes, but rather a place that serves to put their humanity to the test.
The tale does not unfold simply as “Haru’s success story” . In Episode 1, shortly after leaping into the world of stock trading, he encounters a girl named Hagana who is a genius investor. While Haru chases fortune for the sake of fulfilling his dreams, Hagana has her own goals in mind. As the pair clashes, each drawn to the stock market for different reasons, and each with their own abilities and ways of thinking, the subject matter shifts from finance to a coming-of-age drama. The interesting part is how this title treats the stock market as a “stage for adventure.” In typical adventure stories, the heroes explore unknown lands, battle powerful foes and discover treasures. In WORLD END ECONOMiCA, however, the unknown land is the stock market itself, and the foes are the fluctuations of stock prices, corporate machinations, and the heroes’ own desires. There’s no singular “right answer” that can be prepared in advance, yet the outcomes of one’s decisions inevitably return as cold numerical figures. Although it deals with as realistic a subject as economics, the story still carries the kind of hot-blooded passion you’d see in a shonen manga about the heroes forging their own future. As the story progresses into the second and third episodes, the plot skips ahead four years at a time and Haru’s personal circumstances fluctuate wildly alongside those of the lunar surface’s economy, much like stock prices themselves.
In WORLD END ECONOMiCA, the economy is more than just a backdrop that pushes the story forward. The themes of earning money, fulfilling your dreams, trusting others, and figuring out exactly what one wants all converge around the stock market itself. The game dives deeply into technical financial concepts and processes, but this is not simply for the sake of filling the player’s head with information. Rather, it serves to illustrate the reality of what Haru and the others are putting at stake, what they stand to lose, and what they hope to gain. As such, even those unfamiliar with the basics of investing, like myself, can follow the story’s developments without issue.
Despite being a story set on the moon with a focus on financial affairs, the game depicts more than a simple tale of numbers. It shows a human story that asks just what its characters are willing to put on the line for what they want. Money exists as a means to realize one’s dreams, but to succeed in the stock market means to confront one’s own fears and desires. Though it may look like a niche visual novel centered on stock trading at first glance, once you peek inside, it actually turns out to be a classic coming-of-age tale packed with all the excitement of chasing dreams, intense high-stakes competitions, and the passion of forging one’s own path in life. It’s quite rare for a Japanese visual novel to put economic matters so squarely at the center of its narrative, making this title a truly remarkable gem even over than a decade after its release.
WORLD END ECONOMiCA is available now on PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch.
Related articles:
