Arc System Works and voice actor Tomokazu Sugita has released Getsuei Academy -kou- [???? -kou-, Getsuei Gakuen -kou-] on the PlayStation Vita on Octor 10, 2013 (JST).

Tomokazu Sugita and Hajike Odate wrote the story for this game. This game will include Kenji Ito's beautiful composition, Kohaku Sumeragi, Yomi Sarachi, and Ryou Kanai's captivating illustrations and character designs, and Akito Kumagawa, Kazuya Negishi, and Kikakuya's [???] (a game scenario group) dramatic scenario.

Although several of the promotional videos and articles often advertise Tomokazu Sugita and Arc System Works working on the project, Getsuei Academy -kou- does not rest with these two. They have utilized their energy (and budget) to bring the player the best cast and staff to this project.

SYNOPSIS

On January 9th, Kou Touyama transfers to Getsuei Academy. On the first night of his transfer, a grotesque creature, named “Hazard”, attacks him. Without any means of resisting, Kou was about to be killed by this monster until he was saved by his fellow first year, Eiri Mizuki. Just when he was relieved, the girl kills him with her own hands… or it seemed.

Kou awakes and finds himself back again on the morning of his transfer, January 9. Noticing the same occurrence repeating once more, he realizes that time is repeating itself. Chained to inevitable and devastating destiny, Kou decides to fight against his inherent death and to find out the truth by joining Getsuei Academy Student Council, an anti-Hazard organization.

While fighting against the irregularity, Kou gradually forms bonds with his allies and strengthen his resolve to live. As he fights with his friends, the truth gradually reveals itself. Will he be able to evade his death and find out the truth? 

KEYWORDS

Hazard – These grotesque creatures appears during the night. Various citizens of Monou-chou (tr. Monou Town) have witness these monsters suddenly emerging from dark spheres out of nowhere. An ordinary human cannot stand up against the creatures' overwhelming strength.

Getsuei Academy Student Council – On the surface, the organization appears to be student body council committed to crack down on school rules violation. However, their real identity are anti-Hazard organization, a collected individuals from Kuzuryu family with gifted abilities. The organization is managed and operated by the Kudoin family. The student council president is Taiga Mizuki, the older brother of Eiri.

Kuzuryu (tr. Nine Dragons) – They are the descendent of humans who saved a demon clan from a disease. Having communion with the demon, they have inherited the demon’s abilities. Those descent now presides over Monou-chou with absolute power as the nine main families, called the Kuzuryu. Among the families, the Kudoin family governs the whole city and collects individuals with special power among the Kuzuryu to stand up against the Hazard.

Hazard & Kuzuryu – Due to the presence of Hazard, Monou-chou has restricts nighttime activity. Kudoin head family has gathered the gifted individuals, including Eiri and Taiga Mizuki, among the Kuzuryu to fight against the Hazard. The protagonist Kou Touyama joins the fight after finding out about his ability to fight the Hazard.

PROTAGONISTS

Touyama Kou – Voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya (Arata Wataya from Chihayafuru, Kentaro Oshio from Corpse Party)

He moves to Monou-chou to protect his grandparents from his own parents. He transfers to Getsuei Academy; however, due to a certain events, he joins the Student Council to oppose the Hazard. Kou has an introverted personality and detests his parents for their actions.

Eiri Mizuki – Voiced by Saori Hayami (Saki Morimi from Eden of the East, Ayase Aragaki from OreImo series)

The story’s main heroine. Being born among the Kuzuryu, she fights against the Hazard along with her prestigious brother, Taiga (she also has a brother complex). Despite her rare physical abilities and acute perception to danger, she can be pretty clumsy at times.

GAME ORIGIN

Cosplaying staff of ARGS (left to right): Akihito Kumagawa, SP Tanaka (Co-host of Sugita's radio show), Tomokazu Sugita cosplaying as Eiri), and Tsuyoshi Usui (?)

Getsuei Academy originally started as a d?jin novel written by voice actor Sugita Tomokazu and writer Hajike Odate. Freelance writer Akihito Kumagawa, who originally worked at âge, wrote the scenario for the novel. Sugita thought up most of the story, as Kumagawa wrote it to fit a novel format. Ryou Kanai (pixiv), a freelance illustrator, drew the illustration for the novel. Their novel was released during Comiket 2010, under the group name ARGS.

This eventually led ARGS to work with freelance music composer Kenji Ito (former musician & composer at Square Enix) and animator and illustrator Mamoru Yokota (frequent attendee of Fanime Con). This doujin game was named Getsuei Gakuen ergØ and was released during Comiket 2011.

In 2012, Arc System Works' producer and game designer Toshimichi Mori approached Sugita, telling him that he would be interested in developing a game. The game was then revamped by numerous of splendid staff and casts.

THE STAFF

An amazing thing about this game is that both staff & casts are luxurious and share the goal to depict the story’s true potential.

First off, voice actor Tomokazu Sugita wrote the story. He has a distinguished history as a voice actor, known for his role as Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya and Gintoki from Gintama. We also know him for being an avid anime and game fan. He would invested his time to share his enthusiasm and insight in both areas in his radio shows and TV appearances. He is now distributing a game he has worked on himself. It'll definitely be an appealing work to both gamer and otakus, and see the world he illustrate from his experiences and hobbies.

Another interesting information is the scenario writers. Akihito Kumagawa was a former scenario writer for âge, a Japanese video game publisher. This company is famous for publishing several adult-themed games, especially the Muv-Luv series. Although Kumagawa is no longer employed at the company, he still contributes his works to its games as well as other game companies. Having an experienced writer to work on the scenario, we can expect that he have polished Sugita's work towards perfection.

In addition to Kumagawa’s contribution, light novel author Kazuya Negishi will be assisting in writing the scenario. Negishi has published his first work, a novelized version of the manga O/A during 2011. He later published his first work Eichi Gakuen no Under Heart on March 2013, and has two volumes ongoing. Having two successful volumes released in one year, Negishi will definitely have the skills to bring some comedy and romance to Getsuei Academy scenario.

When Arc System Works is working on the game, Toshimichi Mori comes with it. Game designer and producer of the famous Blazblue series, we can expect great game mechanics when it comes to Mori's work. Although Blazblue has been oriented towards 2D fighting games, I'll point out that Blazblue's story element is played out similar to a visual novel, where it is a text-based interactive story. The company also recently released their own adventure game, Xblaze - Code: Embryo. Producer Mori stated they have renovated Getsuei Academy, starting the whole game from scratch. He stated that he found it very interesting to make a voice actor’s story into an actual game.

As a guest scenario writer, Makoto Kedoin was brought on board. As a writer of the successful and gruesome Corpse Party series, Kedoin is famous for his horror writing. With Corpse Party's success in Japan and reaching over to the American market, Suigta stated that Kedoin's writing was brought a whole new level of story writing compared to his and Kumawaga. Although Sugita was the one who wrote the plot, he stated Kedoin brought something that was different and better than the original. Kedoin stated that he was honor to contribute to Getsui Academy, which he believes it may leave a mark on history. Kedoin also stated that he was given a lot of freedom to write as much horror elements as he wanted, which nearly raising the CERO rating (similar to the ERSB rating).

As the story contents are the dominant feature of visual novel, without the right music you can't get the right feel to it. Kenji Ito will be this games musician and composer. His previous employment with Square-Enix has left memorable works such as Mana and SaGa soundtracks. Sugita stated quite rare for Ito to compose one whole soundtrack for one work by himself. One request Ito received was for the opening and ending theme song to be BGM only, similar to Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. Suigta commented Ito was very pleasant to work with and was sincerely cooperative. Despite being a start-up game, Sugita and the staff commented they were thankful to have such prestigious composer to work with.

In addition to Ito's contribution, Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer for the famous Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and Chrono Cross, also collaborated with the project. After receiving a call from Ito about the game, he readily lent his studio for the game’s music as well as composed for Getsui Academy. It was mentioned during TGS 2013 that Mitsuda composed the ringtone for the protagonist's cellphone.

THE CAST

According to statement by producer Mori, the budget spent on the cast surpassed Blazblue series. He commented that they chose talented voice actors to voice their characters.

Kou Touyama voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya

Eiri Mizuki voiced by Saori Hayami

Taiga Mizuki voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura (Gray Fullbuster from Fairy Tail, Hazama from Blazblue)

Ritsu Sigiryo voiced by Ai Kayano (Meiko “Menma ”Honma from AnoHana, Mayaka Ibara from Hyouka)

Tsuyoshi Futamura voiced by Kazuya Nakai (Zoro Roronoa from One Piece, Toshiro Hijikata from Gintama)

Satsuki Aso voiced by Aoi Yuuki (Kaname Madoka from Madoka Magica, Platinum the Trinity from Blazblue)

Mei Aso voiced by Rina Satou (Mikoto Misaka from ToAru series, Naomi Nakashima from Corpse Party)

Ruru Ajiki voiced by Yukana (C.C. from Code Geass, Azusa Takai from Corpse Party)

Kyoichirou Godo voiced by Akira Ishida (Kotarou Katsura from Gintama, Amane Nishiki from Blazblue)

Takeshi Sato voiced by Daisuke Sakaguchi (Shinpachi Shimura from Gintama, Tadayasu Sawaki from Moyashimon)

Taro Tanaka voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto (Germany from Hetalia series, Azrael from Blazblue)

Maria Segawa voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (Fujiko Mine from Lupin III, Carl Clover from Blazblue)

Kei Eito voiced by Rikako Yamaguchi (Fumi Kanno from Devil Survivor 2, Aiko Niwa from Corpse Party)

Taka Eito voiced by KENN (Hibito Nanba from Space Brothers, Akihito Kanbara from Kyoukai no Kanata)

Kai Shigyo voiced by Jouji Nakata (Kirei Kotomine from Fate series, Alucard from Hellsing)

Izumi Kaneshiro voiced by Sakura Tange (Sakura Kinomoto from Card Captor Sakura, Red Saber from Fate/Extra)

Asakura voiced by Shouma Yamamoto (Yamikawa from Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, and Kamen Rider Rey from Kamen Rider Kiva)

Yuuki Mizuki voiced by Kaito Ishikawa (Ledo from Suisei no Gargantia, Mitsuo Yanagisawa from Golden Time)

Akane Kudoin voiced by Houko Kuwashima (Chizuru Yukimura from Kakuoki series, Tomoyo Sakagami from Clannad)

Shitsuji (tr. Butler) voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (Ragna from Blazblue, Yuuya Kizami from Corpse Party)

It has been pointed out that the crew ended up using similar voice actors and actress from Corpse Party and Blazblue. Tomokazu Sugita (the game’s writer), Toshimichi Mori (the game’s producer) and Makoto Kedoin (one of the game’s guest scenario writer) are much acquainted to one another. The recruiting was done by Sugita's agency Atomic Monkey. Due to familiarity of the three Getsuei Academy creators, the agency likely recruited the familiar set of casts from both games to match their game's image.  

CONCLUSION

With such talented individuals contributing to the game, I cannot deny to say that I desire this game to reach international release. With such brilliant cast to portray the character, the demo displayed the enchanting character stills to feel very animated and so sentient. Furthermore, we have Kenji Ito composing for this game! This adds another new element to the story and gameplay , making the game more fascinating to play as its mysteries unravel.

I would definitely like to see this game reach international borders. Although there are obstacles for the game to reach the states, the story, the crew, and the staff will hopefully bring success in the Japanese sales that will jab some higher-up to consider bringing it to our nearby stores.