Japanese developer Idea Factory has announced the establishment of IFChronicle – a new label specializing in visual novels and text adventure games – and its upcoming debut title ICONOLOGY. The game is planned to launch for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite with English support.
ICONOLOGY is a crime suspense adventure game in which the heroine teams up with detectives to investigate highly advanced crimes. Gameplay revolves around a unique premise of extracting the contents of suspects’ minds as “paintings” and analyzing them for clues.
The story is set in a near future where increasingly complex and heinous crimes have become commonplace. The Metropolitan Police Department has secretly established a special division called the Experimental Task Force, which conducts investigations using the “White Cube,” an innovative device capable of extracting images from a person’s mind in the form of paintings. However, deciphering these “mental landscape images” requires a special talent.
The heroine, Haruho Tsubakiya, is an art university student whose exceptional ability to interpret paintings catches the attention of the task force, leading them to recruit her as a special investigator. Having lost her parents in a horrific unsolved case ten years ago and driven by a desire for revenge, Haruho teams up with the cast of eccentric detectives to take part in investigations, approaching the minds of suspects as a “second crime scene.”
During investigations using the White Cube, you’ll analyze the beautiful yet distorted “mental landscape paintings” output from a suspect’s mind. From there, you’ll use the truths you uncover to probe suspect about their motives and traumas during interrogations. As you push them towards admitting their crimes, the suspects will become more likely to provide decisive evidence.
ICONOLOGY offers multiple endings, and your outcome will change as you deepen your relationship or clash with members of the investigation unit and other characters. Making mistakes when deciphering paintings during investigations or choosing the wrong options can apparently cause a case to go cold, leading to an inescapable bad ending.
As mentioned earlier, IFChronicle is a new label under Idea Factory, which gamers probably know best for its Compile Heart and Otomate brands. The new visual novel label aims to become a “global brand originating from Japan,” with the goal of bringing dialogue-driven adventure games to audiences around the world.
For its debut title, IFChronicle has brough together an impressive team, with character designs handled by Teita, who is known for their work on Fate/Grand Order and Charade Maniacs. The scenario is being written by Makoto Fukami, who has worked on the PSYCHO-PASS anime series as well as the CG films Resident Evil: Vendetta and Resident Evil: Death Island.
ICONOLOGY is planned to release for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite.
there’s nothing that says in the PR that it’s an otome game. if it was it would be from Otomate and not a new subbrand