Otogirisō

Otogirisō (弟切草, lit. St John's wort) is a visual novel produced by Chunsoft. A sequel, Kirigiri Sou, was released in 2016, produced by Spike Chunsoft and serving as a crossover with and prequel to the Danganronpa series.

Otogiriso
Cover art
Developer(s)Chunsoft
Publisher(s)Chunsoft
Director(s)Koichi Nakamura
Designer(s)Kazuya Asano
Writer(s)Shûkei Nagasaka
Composer(s)Chiyoko Mitsumata
Platform(s)PlayStation, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
ReleaseSuper Nintendo Entertainment System
  • JP: March 7, 1992
PlayStation
  • JP: March 25, 1999
Virtual Console
  • JP: August 28, 2007 (Wii)
  • JP: July 30, 2014 (Wii U)
PlayStation Network
  • JP: September 14, 2011
Genre(s)Visual novel
Mode(s)Single player

Production

Otogirisō was developed at the same time as Dragon Quest V.[1] Director Koichi Nakamura had previously been involved with the development of the previous Dragon Quest games, specifically Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest II and Dragon Quest III, and recalled that he was dating a girl at the time who did not play video games.[1] On showing her his involvement with the games, she tried them, and told Nakamura she did not really understand the games or what was supposed to be fun about them.[1] This led to Nakamura thinking he should make a game that he described as "for people who haven’t played games before.".[1] He though of older text adventure but even felt those were a bit complicated.[1] This led to Nakamura making a game that would be simplified even further by "having it be decision-based, where you’re just reading the story and it will come to a branching point where it’ll give you a choice: The character does A, B, or C. It’s very simple, but it also gives the player some level of interaction with the game. I figured something very simple like this would be something anybody could pick up, and maybe it would also lead them to playing other games in the future.”[1]

In contrast to the lighter comical action games and fantasy games at the time, Nakamura had worked on previously, Otogirisou was set in the real world and made in the horror genre.[1] Nakamura described the influence of developing a horror themed game at the time lied in the video game Sweet Home, stating that at the time of development “there weren’t any real horror games. But right around the time I was thinking of making Otogirisou, Capcom created Sweet Home. The thing that was really interesting about Sweet Home was that it so scary that you didn’t want to continue playing. I wanted to create an experience where the user would be too afraid to press the button to continue the story, too.”[1]

Release and reception

Otogiriso was released for the Super Famicom in March 1992.[2] Otogiriso was described as selling "quite high" in Japan by Rik Haynes of Super Play.[2] Famitsu scored it 30 out of 40.[3] Jeremy Parish of Polygon discussed the game in 2018, stating that it "could perhaps be written off as little more than a digital version of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books of the ’80s. However, the mature writing combined with the eerie atmosphere created by the graphics and music set the game apart from anything that had come before."[1]

The game was released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on August 28, 2007.[4]

Legacy
Main article: St. John's Wort (film)

A film adaption of the game was released in Japan on January 27, 2001.[5][6] It was released in both an English-dub and subtitled edition by Asylum Home Entertainment on March 23, 2004.[5]

Main article: Kirigiri Sou

Kirigiri Sou was announced and shown in the October 2016 issue of Famitsu by Spike Chunsoft, as a "sound" visual novel for personal computer systems Windows and OS X.[7][8] The game was developed Danganronpa Kirigiri author Takekuni Kitayama on request of Spike Chunsoft,[7] The game is a crossover sequel to both Otogirisō and features elements from the Danganronpa series.[9]

References
  1. Parish 2018.
  2. Haynes 1994, p. 17.
  3. プレイステーション - サウンドノベル・エボリューション1弟切草 蘇生篇. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.19. 30 June 2006.
  4. "Virtual Console" (in Japanese). Nintendo. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  5. Galbraith IV 2008, p. 417.
  6. Timpone 2002, p. 60.
  7. Wada, Takamitsu (November 19, 2016). "Kirigiri Sou was made only by Otogirisō fans. Interview with mystery writer Takekuni Kitayama, who also works on Danganronpa Kirigiri". Famitsu. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
  8. Vidéa, Bob (October 27, 2016). "Danganronpa launches rumored Kirigiri Sou on PC". KK News. Daily Headlines. Archived from the original on January 29, 2021. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
  9. ボンバーマン (27 November 2016). ダンガンロンパ3 –The End of 希望ヶ峰学園–. 講談社. ASIN B01I9BL1WM – via Amazon.

Sources
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