{"id":68886,"date":"2026-06-26T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=68886"},"modified":"2026-06-26T18:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:56:18","slug":"key-developers-thought-anemoi-might-be-their-last-full-priced-visual-novel-at-one-point-but-theyre-now-convinced-there-should-be-a-next-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/key-developers-thought-anemoi-might-be-their-last-full-priced-visual-novel-at-one-point-but-theyre-now-convinced-there-should-be-a-next-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Key developers thought Anemoi\u00a0might be their last full-priced visual novel at one point, but\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0now convinced there should be a next one\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Anemoi<\/strong>, the latest visual novel from&nbsp;Clannad&nbsp;and AIR developer Key, released in Japan in April&nbsp;2026, with a global Steam release also planned down the line. With Summer&nbsp;Pockets&nbsp;having launched&nbsp;back&nbsp;in 2018, Anemoi is Key\u2019s first new full-priced visual novel&nbsp;in about 8 years.&nbsp;In a&nbsp;recent&nbsp;interview with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamer.ne.jp\/news\/202606250001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gamer<\/a>, the title\u2019s director Shun Sayuki and scenario lead Kai&nbsp;talked about what the studio had been up to in the&nbsp;meantime,&nbsp;and&nbsp;how they view the potential of long-form visual novels&nbsp;going forward.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Kai, Key was already discussing its next full-priced title not long after Summer Pockets\u2019 REFLECTION BLUE expansion released&nbsp;in 2020. However, the studio grew busy with other parallel projects, like the live-service title Heaven Burns Red,&nbsp;and several short-form \u201ckinetic\u201d novels like&nbsp;Loopers&nbsp;(a&nbsp;collaboration with Ryukishi07)&nbsp;and Stella of the End.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1274\" height=\"714\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1274px) 100vw, 1274px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68890\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-001.jpg 1274w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-001-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-001-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Key was laying the groundwork for its next full-price game&nbsp;throughout&nbsp;this period, Kai says the kinetic novel project was partly born from the fact that&nbsp;PC visual novels were beginning to gradually disappear from the market, due to their&nbsp;poor&nbsp;cost-effectiveness among other factors.&nbsp;Additionally,&nbsp;he comments, \u201cToday&#8217;s entertainment landscape also moves incredibly quickly, with&nbsp;anime trends shifting&nbsp;every season. If you tell someone a game takes&nbsp;40 hours&nbsp;to finish, many&nbsp;will&nbsp;hesitate.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Due to these factors, until midway through&nbsp;the&nbsp;title\u2019s&nbsp;development, Kai thought&nbsp;Anemoi could potentially&nbsp;become&nbsp;Key\u2019s&nbsp;last full-priced game.&nbsp;However, he says his perspective&nbsp;changed&nbsp;while he was working on&nbsp;the Summer Pockets anime adaptation, which aired in April 2025.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany of the people who became fans through&nbsp;our older&nbsp;full-priced titles like&nbsp;Kanon,&nbsp;AIR, and&nbsp;CLANNAD&nbsp;are now working&nbsp;within&nbsp;the industry,\u201d he says.&nbsp;\u201cThose games have continued to leave a&nbsp;strong&nbsp;impression on them.&nbsp;If only full-priced games can create that kind of lasting impact, then I think we should continue making them so we can keep leaving something that&nbsp;resonates with people&nbsp;in that way.&nbsp;That\u2019s&nbsp;why&nbsp;I&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;think&nbsp;Anemoi&nbsp;will&nbsp;be our last,&nbsp;there\u2019s&nbsp;bound&nbsp;to be&nbsp;another full-priced game.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sayuki adds that \u201cWe&#8217;ve even had composers join the company because they played&nbsp;Summer Pockets.&nbsp;That&#8217;s&nbsp;how&nbsp;our&nbsp;history&nbsp;continues, and I think&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;a sign that we should keep making these games.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1270\" height=\"711\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1270px) 100vw, 1270px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-68891\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-002.jpg 1270w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-002-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260626-68886-002-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s&nbsp;worth&nbsp;noting that Anemoi is&nbsp;a&nbsp;roughly&nbsp;60-hour&nbsp;game. Rather than sizing down the content, Key decided to adapt to the times by&nbsp;making sure the game can be played in manageable stretches, with plenty of points that make it easy to stop for the day and continue later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/key.visualarts.gr.jp\/anemoi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Anemoi<\/a>&nbsp;is out in Japan for PC. A global&nbsp;released&nbsp;via Steam is planned for a later date.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/clannad-air-developer-visual-arts-has-fully-maintained-its-creative-autonomy-three-years-following-tencent-acquisition-says-ceo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Clannad, Air developer\u00a0Visual\u00a0Arts\u00a0has fully\u00a0maintained\u00a0its\u00a0creative\u00a0autonomy\u00a0three years\u00a0following Tencent acquisition, says CEO\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key scenario lead Kai and director Shun Sayuki talk about how they rediscovered the impact of full-priced visual novels despite the gaming scene moving away from the genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":68889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[{"did":"did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2","date":"2026-06-26T14:00:42+00:00","uri":"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mp746g3c5d2k","response":"{\"uri\":\"at:\/\/did:plc:uzrrhkfyjrfdsynj2voztcf2\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3mp746g3c5d2k\",\"cid\":\"bafyreihr2uivujxofljs4gsgl2w4po2ywxnttxjtdzogh7aeqdrnhtcpqa\",\"commit\":{\"cid\":\"bafyreiainzez6yc2zrlsd4mfvvf2vofq5tfmklfqit4cyvumxmiqxy6gx4\",\"rev\":\"3mp746g3nud2k\"},\"validationStatus\":\"valid\"}"}],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-68886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Key developers thought Anemoi\u00a0might be their last full-priced visual novel at one point, but\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0now convinced there should be a next one\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Key scenario lead Kai and director Shun Sayuki talk about how they rediscovered the impact of full-priced visual novels despite the gaming scene moving away from the genre.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/key-developers-thought-anemoi-might-be-their-last-full-priced-visual-novel-at-one-point-but-theyre-now-convinced-there-should-be-a-next-one\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Key developers thought Anemoi\u00a0might be their last full-priced visual novel at one point, but\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0now convinced there should be a next one\u00a0 - 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