A few weeks back, a shocking development swept through the visual novel fan community as the creators behind the acclaimed series Danganronpa and Zero Escape announced their partnership in a newly formed developers studio. Dubbed “Too Kyo Games”, the company consists of the two main writer-directors Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi as well as core members of their past respective teams. During the announcement livestream, the duo had revealed that they have four projects in the works. Earlier this week, they gave more details on one of them, a murder-mystery game titled Death March Club.
According to Kotaku, Death March Club is the only project of the four that has any sort of concrete details, and has a planned release date in 2020. The game follows a dozen 12-year-old school kids that mysteriously end up in an underwater amusement park while on a class trip. There, they are forced to play a Battle Royale-style murder game (a trademark of Kazutaka Kodaka’s Danganronpa series) by a clown character.
According to Famitsu Magazine (reported via Kotaku), this would be the last “murder game” by the creative duo. Previously, both of the writers’ respective series revolved around murder games with heavy puzzle and mystery elements, so it makes sense that the two would want to branch out into other genres. In the Tokyo interview covered by Kotaku, the developers stated that they wanted to make this game the culmination of the best elements of their series, an ultimate game that sets itself apart as the epitome of the genre. Given that Kodaka left Spike Chunsoft from being in a creative rut and wanting to experiment with new ideas, it’s no surprise that the direction of the duo’s projects going forward will depart from their usual comfort picks.
There is no concrete release date for Death March Club, but the game has only been announced for the PC for now and is being published by Izanagi Games. Only time will tell whether the two titans of the murder-mystery visual novel genre can successfully deliver the swan song that fans expect from their acclaimed track records.