Visual novel maker Key announced that they would have some news to celebrate their 21st anniversary (rather than their 20th anniversary) earlier this week, and it has been revealed to be Heaven Burns Red, an RPG genre game headed to iOS and Android.
The game is a collaboration between Key and Wright Flyer Studios, the studio behind smartphone hits such as the Shoumetsu Toshi series, and the developer of ForwardWorks’ Wild Arms: Million Memories (which is ending service soon).
The game is being touted as the first full return of Jun Maeda as full creative head in 13 years since Little Busters!, and features Yuugen (whom you might know from the Mysterious subseries of the Atelier series) as character designer. The game’s theme song has been revealed, and it’s ‘Before I Rise’, sung by Nagi Yanagi.
Here’s a messsage from Maeda via the game’s teaser website:
“Key’s latest game is an RPG that is played on smartphones, with me being in charge of the original story and the main scenario writing roles. In this current era where the culture of playing visual novels on PC is disappearing, this latest project for the widespread smartphone platform is our hope for the Key brand to survive. However, how we create our games has not changed.
It’s a fun game with moments you can empathize with, and will make you cry at the end.
In these few years, we’ve worked hard alongside WFS and Yuugen in order raise the curtains on a new age of Key. We’ve finally made it to the teaser reveal of our project.
It’s a few months away before we begin service, but we’ve revealed the vocal theme song, so please follow our official account and give it a listen.
I hope you enjoy Heaven Burns Red.”
Heaven Burns Red will begin service on iOS and Android in 2020. You can listen to the game’s theme song on the official site here.
