Nine months on from its initial announcement, we finally have more details about Tokyo Chronos sequel, Altdeus: Beyond Chronos.
The game, developed by MyDearest, is coming to the Oculus platform first in Q4 2020. It’s a full sequel to Tokyo Chronos which, you may recall, was a stab at adapting the visual novel genre popular in Japan to VR headsets. We didn’t think that attempt was entirely successful, but Altdeus is making some intriguing changes, as the trailer below shows.
First up, the sequel is set 300 years after the events of the first time, casting players as a survivor in post-apocalyptic Tokyo. You follow Chloe, a supersoldier that fights to protect humanity while hiding secrets of her own. Standard visual novel stuff, then.
Here’s the two key changes, though. First, there’s more interactivity in this sequel. The trailer shows cockpit mech battles that could well still play out in a scripted way, but at least get players interacting with some UI elements. The original game had you simply tapping through text, at least for its opening few hours.
A press release also confirms that Altdeus will release with English voice acting as well as Japanese. Now, normally, I prefer to watch anime and Japanese movies in their native language, but in VR glancing down at subtitles before looking back up to see their context 20 times in a minute can be a real chore. English voice acting for Altdeus does away with one of my main gripes about Tokyo Chronos. Let’s just hope it’s good quality.
Consider me slightly more optimistic about this one again, then. There’s no specific confirmation of exactly when the game will launch, but it’s coming to Quest and Rift first, with more headsets to be announced. You can keep up with the game on its official website, too.
