Dramatic Create announced today that Shinsou Noise ~Jushin Tantei no Jikenbo~ will release for PlayStation 4 in Japan on February 28th. The game was announced at the end of October, and is an enhanced port of the original Shinsou Noise released for PC in 2016.
The game stars Kazuma Tachibana, a boy who has the power to read minds. He can control his power well, but that wasn’t the case in the past, which made him go through a complicated childhood. Because of that, he’s distrustful of others and doesn’t really know how to read the mood and blend in socially. Moreover, while he can read minds, he can’t always know whose mind he’s reading.
The story starts when Kazuma moves to the seaside town of Shizunomiya, where the game takes place at, and transfers to Shizunomiya School. In order to help its students enjoy school life and nurture themselves, the school has a policy of grouping a small number of students together randomly, making them do mandatory, various activities during the year. Kazuma is made to join a group with seven other students, and also ends up solving a case of thievery in the girls’ changing room, and becomes knows as the “Psychic Detective” on campus.
Here are the official descriptions for the eight characters in Kazuma’s group. Their portraits are listed in the same order in the gallery below.
- Kazuma Tachibana. Our protagonist. He’s unvoiced.
- Sakura Yukimoto, voiced by Yui Kusuhara. She’s a serious, adult-like class president and doesn’t mingle with others, except Moka, her sole friend. Because of that, and how she always spends lunch break on the rooftop, there are rumors going on about her, like how she’d like to see someone fall from there.
- Moka Momozono, voiced by Choco Moka. She’s a bright and innocent girl. Because of that, what she says and what Kazuma “hears” when reading her mind is identical, and he can easily discern her “mind voice” among others. She has a hard time figuring out what people really mean behind their words and sometimes doesn’t understand things that everyone would think as logic. However, she’s much better at understanding things if she experiences them herself, and has an excellent short-term memory. Most classmates pamper her and consider her like a little sister, but there’s also some who make fun of her, calling her stupid. She’s part of the library’s student committee.
- Natsuki Kazuma, voiced by Mao Tachibana. A girl who loves sports, being part of the swimming club, and hates losing. She always says what she thinks and has a strong personality. However, she has a complex about her chest size. She’s the type of girl who’s very respectful towards older students and people she doesn’t know, but once they leave a good impression on her, she tends to get pushier with them.
- Saaya Kurotsuki, voiced by Hana Akino. A sociable girl but with a mysterious atmosphere. She always carries a teddy bear, sometimes look at empty places as if there’s something there, and does good-luck charms. Her grades are among the best in the school, so despite her weirdness, no one actually thinks of her as weird. She claims Shizunomiya School is a place with a lot of spiritual power, and doesn’t get along with Natsuki, who don’t believe in supernatural things.
- Yuriko Ootori, voiced by Rino Kawashima. She’s an intelligent, cool and refined lady. She’s the sole daughter of her prestigious family. Her natural talent paired with the top-class education she received makes her the best at everything. Because of that, everyone respects her, but she has no real friends she’s close with. She has a strong sense of curiosity, and will try to learn everything about something once it piqued her interested, even if it’s something vulgar. She’s part of the drama club.
- Youichi Kitagami, voiced by Manaka Sawa. He’s a sportsman with a simple personality and doesn’t hide his thoughts. He’s really bad with words and doesn’t like thinking too much, so you’d think he’s an idiot, but he actually has great intuition which makes him realize things others wouldn’t. Because of the contrast between his sharp expression but naive personality, he’s very popular with girls, who think of him as a kid. He’s part of the baseball club.
- Shunta Takanaga, voiced by Takezou Koike. He’s the kind of guy who acts friendly with everyone. He’s handsome, and wants to get popular with girls, but isn’t, because of his bad personality: He’s the kind of teenager who only thinks about girls’ breasts. He also gets scared very easily. He was in the soccer club last year, but feels like joining the fine arts club now.
Kazuma will get tangled in more and more mysteries as the game goes on. New screenshots were also published showing the riddle-solving side of the game, using the information you get by reading people’s minds. You can take a look at them below along with the game’s opening animation sequence.
Shinsou Noise has a good reputation among visual novels, so I’m looking forward to trying it one day. It would be great too if it was localiazed.
