DMM Games and Too Kyo Games recently announced the new multi-genre murder mystery game Shuten Order, launching September 5 on Steam and Switch.
Shuten Order is another ambitious and unusual project coming from Danganronpa and The Hundred Line creator Kazutaka Kodaka. Set in a religious cult advocating for the end of humanity, Shuten Order starts out as a story-driven adventure game, before branching out into five main routes – each of which brings a different genre and game system. Although the core of the game is cracking the underlying murder case of the religious cult’s leader, the different routes will range from detective-style investigation to stealth action, death games, and even a dating simulator.
What’s even more peculiar is Shuten Order’s protagonist – you play as the victim of the case you’re solving. The murdered cult leader is, as Kodaka explains for Famitsu, “resurrected by the power of God” and tasked with finding out who killed them (as they wake up with amnesia). The resurrection is incomplete, meaning that the protagonist has to solve the mystery within a given time limit or face permanent death.
Although her appearance is androgynous, the cult leader, called Rei Shimobe, is actually a girl. Shuten Order’s writers decided to make this “secret” known to the player (so you’re not being spoiled, don’t worry), but the characters around her assume that she’s a man, and many of the story’s twists come from the fact that the protagonist’s gender isn’t made clear. According to the devs, these circumstances complicated the game’s translation into English. This is likely due to the fact that the Japanese language makes it much easier to be ambiguous about gender when it comes to pronouns and the like.
This also adds a somewhat comical layer to Shuten Order’s dating simulator gameplay (in the Ministry of Education route), as the protagonist is tasked with earnestly romancing three female leads to complete her objective, despite “having no desire to fall in love with them.” Kodaka describes this part of the game as a “psycho school rom com,” rather than a typical school romance.
Shuten Order is scheduled to launch on September 5 for the PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.
