Aniplex has announced OCTOPinbs, a social-deduction style firefighting action game developed by Lasengle and tri-Ace. The upcoming title is planned for release in Spring this year for PC (Steam). In this online-only multiplayer game, players take on the role of Firefighters responding to a blaze while infiltrators (called Artists) lurk among their ranks. Rounds support from 3 to 10 players.
In OCTOPinbs, Firefighters are equipped with firefighting gear, while Artists disguise themselves as firefighters and secretly set fires around the scene. The Firefighter characters appear to be designed with an octopus motif, while the Artists are modeled after squid.
The objective of players on the Firefighter side is to either keep extinguishing flames until the map’s stage incineration drops to 0% (which will seemingly prove tricky witch active Artists out and about), or identify all Artists and throw them into Octojars to win. Meanwhile, players acting as Artists aim to secretly start fires and raise the incineration rate to 100%, or throw all the firefighters into Octojars.
OCTOPinbs’s stage is a facility made up of multiple rooms and floors, with fires breaking out throughout. Players can move the camera to peek into rooms above, below, and to the sides. Firefighters will need to watch out for suspicious behavior from other players while carrying out their firefighting duties. If a player seems suspicious, they can be captured and thrown into one of the Octojars found throughout the map, which will reveal their true identity. If a Firefighter mistakenly dunks an innocent player into an Octojar, they’ll lose a precious ally, making things harder for themselves.
Interestingly, Artists can also choose to reveal themselves voluntarily. When they do, a gauge they have built up by setting fires around the map will determine the strength of attacks they can pull off. At that point, the game shifts into something resembling a PvP action game, allowing the Artist to attack the Firefighters and potentially turn the tides by wiping them all out.
Although OCTOPinbs is a social deduction game, its defining feature is that it does away with any kind of conversation-based gameplay like negotiations and bluffing, instead focusing purely on action-driven gameplay.
The game’s developer, Lasengle, is a subsidiary of publisher Aniplex, which is primarily responsible for the game adaptations of the Fate series, including Fate/Grand Order. Co-developer tri-Ace is known known for the Star Ocean series.
