Butterfly Soup Dev's Next Game Is Pentiment As A Chinese Folktale

The Crane Rider's Tale is a visual novel/adventure game about solving a murder mystery while riding on a giant crane. Players control Mourn-No-More, who has a crane named Snowfall and can carry passengers. Early in the game, Peach Blossom is killed mysteriously, and the player works to uncover her murderer. The player ferries townsfolk back and forth, chats with them, and must choose who to pick up because time in the day is limited. Certain choices include skill checks similar to Pentiment, where failure still allows progress. A Disco Elysium-like skill tree lets players invest in abilities such as Birdsong, Third Eye, and Whimsy to unlock different reactions and gain clues. The game features art inspired by public domain paintings and Chinese woodblock-style portraits, with music composed by Starling Tan.

"It's called The Crane Rider's Tale, a visual novel/adventure game about solving a murder mystery while riding on a giant crane. You play as Mourn-No-More, a man with a giant crane named Snowfall who happens to be able to carry passengers. Early in the game, your friend Peach Blossom is killed mysteriously, and you'll work toward solving her murder while ferrying townsfolk back and forth, chatting with them as you go. You only have so much time in the day to give rides, so you have to judiciously choose who you pick up."

"There are Pentiment-style skill checks on certain choices where failure still allows the game to continue, and Mourn-No-More has a Disco Elysium-like skill tree that lets you invest points in abilities like Birdsong, Third Eye, and Whimsy, which will enable you to react to situations in different ways and hopefully gain more clues."

"The Crane Rider's Tale looks beautiful, too, with some of its backgrounds repurposed from centuries-old public domain paintings, and character portraits mimicking Chinese woodblock prints. The music, too, sounds fantastic, and I was thrilled to see it's being composed by Starling Tan, who is also working on another game with great music I'm excited for: Delphinium."

Read at Kotaku