I’m back with a new project for my blog! To be honest I never thought I’d be actually posting it on a public blog but all the fun I had working on this raised my confidence to share it with other people. It started out as a way to practice and improve my English (and Japanese) that’s why the text’s probably slightly chaotic but I hope that doesn’t bother anyone too much.
Let me explain what this is about:
I picked a Japanese game to summaries the chapters. At least that was the original plan but it kinda got out of hand and doesn’t look like a summary anymore lol. I’ll still list this project under game summary though because I don’t know what else to call it.
What’s this thing called Tsugino?
Tsugino or Tsugi no Giseisha o Oshirase Shimasu (I’ll Let you Know Who the Next Victim is) is a mystery/horror Visual Novel series for PSP developed by Boost On.
- First Game: Tsugi no Giseisha o Oshirase Shimasu: Kimi to kono Hateru Kotonai Kurayami o
- Second Game: Tsugi no Giseisha o Oshirase Shimasu: Shi to Zetsubou o Norikoete
- Third Game: Tsugi no Giseisha o Oshirase Shimasu: Houkai Suru Sekai ni Shinigami to
Each game’s telling the same story with the same cast of characters but from a different POV. You can find reused dialogues and scenes in the second and third game but most of it’s new with a different outcome and other characters dying/surviving. In order to get the full picture you’ll have to play all games.
I’m only focusing on the first game and can’t say yet if I’ll take on the other ones as well. The VN’s aren’t really long with a reading time of 10-11 hours per game but going through the game and taking notes/writing about it takes up a lot more time than expected. I’m already at 12 hours and only at the end of chapter 1.
Story:
14 people are kidnapped and brought to the 49th floor of an abandoned building.
They can’t remember how they got there but one thing becomes clear pretty fast. All of them are forced to participate in a killing game and the only way out is to win said game.
Who will survive this hell?
Can they find out who the mastermind behind this crazy game is?
Characters:
Noboru Morisaki
Age: 18
Job: high school student
Voiced by: Takahiro Mizushima
- protagonist of the first Tsugino game
- your average kind guy
- somewhat dense
- trusts people way to easily
- Kana’s ex-boyfriend
Kana Aoki
Age: 19
Job: college student
Voiced by: Harumi Sakurai
- heroine of the first Tsugino game
- tsundere
- way too much into science
- pretty smart if it comes to machines, computers and stuff
- likes to tease Noboru
Kaede Asakawa
Age: 21
Job: college student
Voiced by: Chiwa Saitou
- protagonist of the second Tsugino game
- cool beauty
- seems kinda emotionless and cold
- likes to confuse others with words
- good at thinking objectively and observing her surroundings
Miki Sasaki
Age: 19
Job: college student
Voiced by: Fumie Mizusawa
- heroine of the second Tsugino game
- athletic girl with excellent reflexes and physical strength
- always full of energy
- not very smart
- calls Kaede onee-sama
Keisuke Sakahashi
Age: 14
Job: middle school student
Voiced by: Takayuki Kondou
- protagonist of the third Tsugino game
- has a strong sense of justice and acts arccording to it
- can’t leave people alone who are in trouble
- a little too overprotective towards Kasumi
Kasumi Mikami
Age: 13
Job: middle school student
Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa
- heroine of the third Tsugino game
- a very shy girl
- doesn’t talk much to others (Keisuke’s an exception)
- likes romantic stories
- not good with blood, corpses and similar things because of a trauma
Tsumuji Kashiwagi
Age: 12
Job: elementary school student
Voiced by: Tomoe Tamiyasu
- acts like he’s much older
- hates to be treated as a kid
- doesn’t trust others and doesn’t listen to adults
- don’t make his younger twin sister Haruka cry or he’ll hate you forever
Haruka Kashiwagi
Age: 12
Job: elementary school student
Voiced by: Tomoe Tamiyasu
- looks and acts like she’s much younger
- a little crybaby
- doesn’t understand the game and its rules
- always does what her older twin brother Tsumuji tells her
Kaoru Sumeragi
Age: 24
Job: policewoman
Voiced by: Rina Satou
- has a strong sense of justice
- very disciplined
- knows how to use a gun
- wants to protect everyone (even the serial killer Jack)
Jack
Age: 55
Job: no job (serial killer)
Voiced by: Takorou Nakakuni
- Jack’s just his nickname
- enjoys killing people or making them suffer
- thinks participating in a killing game’s a good thing
Hideaki Kashizawa
Age: 21
Job: college student
Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama
- very good at logical thinking
- could be described as a model student
- acts and speaks politely
- likes thinking up plans
Yuyu Kouenji
Age: 22
Job: college student
Voiced by: Ryouko Shintani
- daughter of the Kouenji-group’s president
- natural airhead
- you never know what she’s thinking
- likes flowers a lot
Yoshiisa Nishino
Age: 56
Job: diet member
Voices by: Hitoshi Bifu
- thinks he’s better and more important than everyone else
- likes to order others around
- thinks everyone has to protect him
Koharu Sakura
Age: 23
Job: nurse
Voiced by: Yuuko Gotou
- a level-headed, sexy woman
- doesn’t stand out in any way and only talks if it’s necessary
- has a unique sense of value about life and death
Prologue: Darkness
As Noboru regains consciousness – Kana punches him awake – he finds himself in an unfamiliar place with his former girlfriend sitting on top of him. At first he think’s it’s just a dream because why would Kana be here? The girl he hasn’t seen like in over half and a year but it seems to be real.
Kana woke up in this room a little earlier and doesn’t have a clue how they got here (she thinks Noboru kidnapped her because he missed her so much lol). The room they are in looks like an old, abandoned office. There’s a big hole in one of the walls. It’s dark outside and a strong wind blows through said hole. As Noboru looks ouside the only light he sees comes from the beautiful moon and the stars. It’s impossible to guess the height of the building because if you try to find the ground you’re greeted by darkness. Somewhere close to the building seems to be water, at least Kana can make out a faint smell of salt.
Kana guesses that it’s roughly around 200 meters until the ground. She’s good at calculating stuff like this and her obsession for science and research never dies down. Unfortunately, she also likes to test her experiments out on her surroundings, which includes Noboru. Sometimes he’s glad that he isn’t her boyfriend anymore.
The two of them decide to look around the room, or more like Kana orders Noboru to do so but yells at him a moment later because he was about to leave her alone. Yeah, that’s a tsundere for you. However, before they can do anything they hear a girl’s voice. A young woman appears in the room overly happy that she found someone else in this building. She’s not alone, with her’s another woman. Noboru thinks she looks very beautiful.
Looks like we got two more participants.
What do you mean by that?
The energetic looking girl points towards her wrist revealing a strange-looking device. Is that a wristwatch? It’s the first time Noboru and Kana realize that they both wear exactly the same thing. You can’t take it off, smash it or strech it. It’s not known for what purpose they all wear this device.
Kana: “…wait, who the hell are you guys, and where are we?!”
Girl 1: “Sorry, for the late introduction. I’m Asakawa Kaede and this is…”
Girl 2: “Sasaki! Miki!”
Noboru: “Eh? Which is it?”
Miki: “I’m Sasaki Miki~”
Noboru: “Ah I see, my name’s Morisaki Noboru”
Kana: “I’m Fukusawa Yukichi. You can call me Yuuki”
Noboru: “….what are you!”
Miki: “Morisaki and Yuuki. Nice to meet you two!”
Noboru: “Don’t believe her so easliy!”
Even thought Kana refuses to say her real name, Kaede already heard Noboru say it earlier. She still tries to deny it but it’s no use.
Noboru: “There’s isn’t anything wrong about telling other people your name. It’s not like it’d kill you”
Kaede: “Right, we don’t have a Death Note, no need to worry”
Miki and Kaede are college students like Kana. They don’t know either what exactly this place is but there’s one thing they can say for sure. This is the 49th floor of an old building and it’s not possible to leave this floor. The elevator broke down and no stairs or escalator in sight. But how were they even brought here? A possibility could be with a helicopter.
More important is ‘why are we here?’ because that’s a question Kaede can answer. They all got a mail on their mobile phone. Noboru checks the unknown mail on his phone and finds a list of strange rules written in it.
Game Rules:
- Rule 1: 14 people are participating in this game
- Rule 2: It is not possible to escape this place until the game ends
- Rule 3: Among the participants the roles serial killer and citizen are distributed. Each person will be told his role in secret. There are three serial killers
- Rule 4: Each participant is wearing a bracelet to take part in the game
- Rule 5: Each turn consists of one hour of free time and eight minutes of nomination time
- Rule 6: During the nomination time participants decide who they want to kill
- Rule 7: At the end of the turn, the person who is nominated by the majority of serial killers will die
- Rule 8: At the end of the turn, the person who is nominated by the majority of citizens will die
- Rule 9: If all serial killers die, the citiziens win the game but if there is an even number of serial killers and citizens left, the serial killers win
- Rule 10: The role cop has been given to one of the citizens. The cop is able to protect a person of his choice to prevent his death. This can only be used on one person per turn
- Rule 11: The role detective has been given to one of the citiziens. The detective is able to find out if the person they choose to investigate is a serial killer or not. This can only be used on one person per turn
- Rule 12: The cop and detective nominations don’t count in rule 8
- Rule 13: The detective can only investigate a person who has been nominated by someone else
- Rule 14: If the serial killers nominate different people, only the nomination of the serial killer who has priority counts. Priority changes every turn
- Rule 15: If the citiziens nominate different people, everyone who is nominated will die
- Rule 16: If participants use violence or don’t nominate anyone during nomination time, they will be disqualified
- Rule 17: Once the winner is decided, all survivors of the losing group will be killed
- Rule 18: There are no restrictions to people’s movements as long as rule 1~17 are followed.
Apparently this is a popular chain mail going around. Kaede says that not only Noboru and Kana got this mail but everyone else as well so it can’t be a coincidence. According to her other people gathered in a big hall and she describes how to get there. Even with Kana telling Noboru to stop trusting people right away he goes straight to the hall to greet said other people. Kana doesn’t stop complaining until the very end.
Wow that’s awesome! Good luck with this project and don’t feel shy! I’m also doing this with an otome game. It’s challenging but think of it as practice. You can only ever improve and when you come back to replay this some day, you’ll see how much more you know!
Thank you! It’s a very time consuming but fun project so far and I’m glad I really started it. I hope at least some people will enjoy reading it even if my English isn’t that good and the text very chaotic orz.
This will probably take some months to finish because I’m taking long breaks between each chapter. If everything goes well and if I’m motivated enough I’ll do the same with another Japanese Visual Novel.
Aw not at all! Wow, English isn’t your first language? No way! It’s really good!!! What’s your native tongue?
I wish you the best of luck!!! I would love to see all the games you get to review! Looks like we both have a lot of studying haha
My native language’s German. I’m from Germany!
The same to you! I rarely write any comments on other blogs but I read some of your blog posts and found them to be interesting. Keep up the good work!
I don’t have any plans for reviews at the moment because I’m busy with other stuff but maybe I’ll write some later this year.
Wow that is sooooo cool! My parents speak German but they never taught me. I would like to learn it some day. ^^
Awwww Justy that is so kind of you. Thank you!! *hugs*
PLease continue with your proyect
Sorry for the lack of updates and thank you for reading! I plan to continue this but I was too busy with other stuff in the past months and still are. I actually wanted to post the next chapter back in May/June but I still haven’t finished it orz. I’ll get back to it (and blogging in general) once I’m done with what’s currently taking up most of my time.