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Shuugoku no Seventh Heim is an Indie Game released on PC, August 20, 2021 and on Nintendo Switch by PC and port studio YMCAT (yes, the same YMCAT that's existed since 1984 or so), March 24, 2022, produced and developed by Abasiri, with music produced by "Gin" (who has also worked on various notable Queer and Furry-targeted games on mobile), about a group of 7 people who suddenly wake up with little to no memories, with their bodies suddenly changed into "Beasts" (or Furries). Jinkuu, the lead, without a clew, is awaken by Garam, a doctor of sorts, who finds him on the lower floor of what looked to be some-sort of prison facility. There, they meet with the other group: Johan, Calamity (real name Carla), Gietto, Lina, and Yukou.
After the group meets and gathered, the door that was "locked" in the resting spot, suddenly opened to Jinkuu being with them, and then their journey through this facility, begins... There, they find out more about their past, their situation, why their bodies are this way, and what the state of the world is..
Each one with their own unique personality, specalities, and what not (Johan, for example has a love of information, books, and overall described as an Otaku), but all of them all have some sort of unique trauma associated with them. Through the game, their memories slowly begin to return, understanding their circumstances, and why they likely forgot everything. We also learn as to why all of them have the appearance of that of "Beasts" and what that means to them as a whole.
Trailers:
PC:
Switch :
Switch :
General Thoughts:
The game relies on an Adventure system, so to speak, where you are in each section or area, and have to solve to have a way out. Think of an escape room sort of thing. The game, in particular (and I mean this especially on the story beats) borrows heavy parallels to 999 and Zero escape. You need to find information in order to figure out how to progress through each area, and in particular, the game requires you to sometimes solve outright puzzles to progress. Each of these puzzles can range from fairly simple (such as rebalancing the elevator dumbbells or turning valves to cause some pipes to explode), but some of them.. less so (the dart puzzle I'm still not 100% sure how to solve and there's one particular puzzle in late game that can be particularly infuriating to figure out that threw me for a huge loop). Some areas also have some optional information you can read and gather data as to what happened too.
The game also have a relationship system, where you buy gifts from Yukou's shop, earned by finding Rusted Coins throughout the areas. Here, you'll find a lot of particular information with each character and learn more about them, as well as end up forming a particular bond with each cast member (Jinkuu and Garam seem to also be the most clear-cut where their route goes, with Johan being more-implied and everyone else less so). Ultimately, once you max out the characters relationships, you do get an interesting option at the very end, which I'll refrain from spoiling.
The game is also fairly simple to control as it requires minimal button options. While the game on PC makes use of the keyboard and mouse, it also has a fully mouse mode and touch-screen support as well, making it fairly accessible in my opinion.
The game primarily makes use of the B button as confirm and X for dashing, but the game made a curious decision to invert left/right on the joystick for the camera for regular traversal, but when you're in first person mode, it's properly left/right. Also in order to find objects and sometimes interact/solve puzzles, you'll occasionally need to switch into first person mode to see certain things, something the game does explain fairly well. Honestly, the game really tries to ease you in by giving you the needed information in order to progress.
The Switch version also added an extra feature to access the configuration menu at any given point and time with the B button on the controller (the equivalent mapping on the Xbox controller, A, does nothing), and made it easier to return to the title screen (whereas you have to use the save points and then choose to end the game session after saving).
One thing I need to talk about the game is briefly is the Switch version: The Switch version does NOT run well at all. In fact, it chugs quite a lot of the time. The game tries to target 60fps, but more-often than not, drops down to 30fps, 20fps, and in the worst case scenario (it's right before the last section in the game), dropped down to about 4-5fps. There was numerous attempts to get the game running on the Switch, resulting in some serious compromising, ranging from significantly reduced or changed lighting, texture quality heavily reduced, and other texture-effects eliminated or removed. It gives the game a noticeably different feel.
Some comparison shots (I'll get more later):
PC:
Switch:
PC:
Switch:
There is one problem that extends to both the PC and Switch versions and that's the camera. The developer didn't seemingly know how to properly have objects turn transparent/invisible during certain camera positioning, making certain sections of the game a bit difficult. In fact, the second to last chapter where there's a bit of pipes and satellite dishes where you have to move them around, in particular, is exceptionally annoying to navigate. Beyond just some gripes with two particular puzzles, this was legit one of the worst sections I had to deal with on fighting with the camera. Most areas, however, are fine and are not likely to cause you problems.
One other quirk I thought I'd mention is the PC version is pretty bare bones in terms of options, which is fine coming from a small developer. Only real gripe is the game doesn't offer a manual way to go into full screen mode in game and you also need to exit by closing out the executable manually. Really the only issue. That, and as mentioned, PC version does not have ease-of-access to the Configuration men like the Switch version does.
Story wise and characters, there's a lot going on that I'm trying very hard to not spoil, but a lot of the characters really explore what it is to be "together", what it means to be a "Beast", and what it means to them, as well as their individual personalities and traumas for that matter. It's one of the games that I related to with the most and I never thought I'd find a game that hit me as hard as it did. But it really did. Making choices. Being okay with them. Being okay with aspects of your life, your actions, the consequences, and finding a sense of belonging or family. It's definitely a game through-and-through aimed at the furry and queer community, especially with it's themes likely relating to a lot of us who gone through some stuff.
Johan, in particular, I related most similarly too, and it's actually really scary how similar the two of us our, down to our weird quirks of spewing information that may-or-may not be relevant to the situation, are love of knowing random pieces of knowledge, and even the name is eerily close to mine.
I will note though, the last part of the game threw me for a loop and was a little upsetting to me:
At the very end of the game, you need to make a "choice", and it gives you options as to what to do, one that is extremely unclear what to do at first. When I got there, I was absolutely done with this game, and was extremely upsetting to me, especially given everything that led up to that point. I had to do some digging a bit and did find out what you were supposed to do, but it made me really upset when I went through this section.
Music wise, though, Gin's score is really, really, good and in fact, I found myself listening to it over and over again. Chapter 5's area music, in particular, was not what I expected at all, sounding like a dance club remix while also exploring an laboratory. It's such an odd choice, but fits very well. The game also excels at emotions pieces, times where you have sit back and relax, and even brief moments of doubt set into the cast, it really fits all the mood in a manner I really appreciated and enjoy. The ending song, "Tashikametai", is especially good, with the lyrics, music, and vocals too (sung by Anna Okazaki). The visuals to accompany the ending is especially good too.
One thing I do wanna talk a little bit on the accessibility front. For the most part, language barrier aside (as this is a separate issue for the most part), the game is fairly decent and doesn't really have any issues. The fact you can play the entire game with a single mouse and touch screen controls, which I was shocked was available, is good (unclear if the Switch version left this on, as I didn't play the game at all in portable mode), it does have one particular problem and that's the Dart puzzle.
Part of the issue is the game, even though it does try to explain how it works, requires you to understand how Darts work on the point system and can be somewhat complicated to understand. But we have another issue and it's the bigger problem of the two: The darts are color coded and it's required to solve it. This, in itself, is a huge problem for those who have color blindness and could potentially soft lock the player here as a result. You need to know what darts are what, in order to solve the puzzle and figure out the code to get into the one room. There is a silver-lining is that on the creator's site, he included a full walkthrough and guide available to players who get stuck (I only used this for a couple things and this was one of them) and this does make this a bit easier to deal with, but I'm unsure if many players are aware the guide is available on the site (and if the person discovered it via the Switch eShop, not sure how like they're going to be searching online for this).
This is really the biggest issue I can think of and it's, honestly, really unfortunate given how everything else is on the game for accessibility.
Getting into playability of the game for non-Japanese speakers: I'm going to be blunt, I cannot recommend the game unless you have some level of grasp on the language. I'd recommend at a bare minimum of roughly N3 level, with N4 really pushing it, due to the usage of Kanji and there being complex medical terms on it. If you do have some level of understanding how the language works, you'll absolutely need to be looking up things a fair bit, but it's doable.
The game has no voiced dialogue, nor furigana available (outside of a few odd terms and only when they initially show up), so this will be a bit of a rough experience. It was for me, and I know I absolutely may have missed some information (friend of mine helped me with some stuff, as I was struggling a bit in a few sections to understand what was being said). Some puzzles also require some level of language knowledge, especially for the Darts explanation.
Final Thoughts:
Generally a really strong game, one that really hit some strong cords with me, as a person, and had one of the most positive impacts on to me as a person in a long time. Visually, it may not be the best looker, but a lot of care went into the models, and the 2D artwork in particular is really strong, showcasing the individual personalities and emotions of the cast really well. The few instances of CG (Character Graphics) that show up are also drawn with strong water-color-like-textures and a really good sense of individual identity. Ending credit sequence in particular is really well done, including the very last few shots featuring full (even if somewhat limited) animation. As mentioned before, the entire package really holds the game together, the story, the writing, the music, presentation, and though simple, the gameplay was engaging.
The game is fairly short (12-14 hours if you can read quicker than I could, but the game took me about 23-ish hours over all), but it kept me going and I spent two days non-stop playing it.
I would recommend it but I'd advise you to know some level of Japanese and understanding how Grammar and Kanji Structure works (especially if you need to be looking up stuff).
Where to Purchase:
The game is available on the game's website, via DLSite or Fanbox. You can find links to them here. The Switch version is available on the Japanese eShop page, which you can also get here. The PC version is a slightly better deal overall, as it comes with the Soundtrack, but as of this posting, the Switch version is currently on sale (33% off). As noted, the game is available in Japanese only and there is currently no fan patches.
