Game launches in Japanese, Chinese, English this summer
Game development companies Hyde and LiTMUS announced on July 8 that they are developing a new game in the Ao Oni horror game series titled Forbidden Ground – Lair of Aooni – (Kinsokuchi ~Aooni no Iwaya~) that will launch for the Switch and PC via Steam this summer.
Hyde has a booth for the game at the BitSummit 13 event in Kyoto this weekend.
The game will be available in Japanese, Simplifed and Traditional Chinese, and English, but will only have Japanese audio.
Hyde describes the game’s story:
Five children set out to search for their missing parents.
Worried about their classmates who have not returned to the abandoned school where they were buried, a young girl, Himari, also sets foot inside.
Himari meets Komari, a Japanese doll inhabited by a grudge spirit, and the two work together to escape from the abandoned school where blue demons roam. In the process, they learn of a tragic incident that occurred in the past.
Why did the blue demons come to roam, the mystery of the abandoned school… What is the true identity of “Komari”?
And what is the truth behind Himari and her friends’ visit to the abandoned school?
Himari and Komari’s escape plan begins.
The company Game Studio and creative agency UUUM recently released the Ao Oni: The Horror of Blueberry Onsen game for Switch on April 25. The game launched on PC via Steam on May 1.
© LiTMUS / noprops / Game Studio Inc.
The original Ao Oni horror game by noprops makes players solve various puzzles and riddles in order to escape a demon in a locked or enclosed space. The game debuted for free online in 2004, and it is available in both Japanese and English.
The game inspired the Aooni The Blue Monster (Ao Oni: The Animation) television anime series, a collection of comedic shorts, beginning in October 2016. It also inspired the Ao Oni: The Animation anime film, which tells a new story not from the original game or any of the other adaptations. Crunchyroll streamed both as they debuted in Japan. The franchise also inspired two live-action films in July 2014 and July 2015.
The sequel smartphone game Ao Oni 2 launched for iOS and Android devices in December 2016. The Ao Oni 3 sequel game launched in December 2017. The Ao Oni Online game launched for iOS and Android devices in September 2018.
J-Novel Club is digitally publishing the novel series adaptation with story by Kenji Kuroda (Ace Attorney manga) and art by Karin Suzuragi (Higarashi manga). The novel series began in 2013 and ran for seven main volumes and one side-story volume.
Sources: Hyde, Gamespark
