City Shrouded in Shadow

City Shrouded in Shadow
Japanese box art
Developer(s) Granzella
Publisher(s) Bandai Namco Entertainment
Engine Orochi 3
Platform(s) PlayStation 4
Release
  • JP: October 19, 2017
Genre(s) Tokusatsu, Survival

City Shrouded in Shadow (Japanese: 巨影都市 Kyoei Toshi) is a video game for the PlayStation 4 developed by Granzella, who confirmed that it is the spiritual successor to their Disaster Report series of games.[1] The objective of the game is to escape a city ravaged by battles between giant monsters, kaiju, robots, and heroes from famous live-action and animated Japanese series such as Godzilla, Ultraman, Gamera, Patlabor, and Neon Genesis Evangelion.[2]

Plot

The game is set in the fictional Ichi City in Japan, which is being beset by sinister shadows and giant monsters.[3] The player will be able to choose between either playing as a man called Ken Misaki or a woman called Miharu Matsuhara (the character may be renamed), with the objective being to try to escape the city.[4]

Stage 1

The game starts with the player character in the rain at night, witnessing a brief purple flash in the sky. They immediately find themselves thinking about meeting up with a certain Yuki Kono (who can either be the player's childhood friend or lover depending on the player's choice) in a nearby park. Suddenly, the area is attacked by who appears to be Ultraman, who shoots bullets of light at nearby buildings & may end up stepping on the player should they get in his way. Eventually, the real Ultraman appears & battles with his impostor. In the resulting scuffle, the player accidentally stumbles upon an illegal transaction being made by Yakuza head Ryouji Shibata, who sends his partner Katsuhiro Muto to dispose of the player. Once the player gets away from them, Ultraman forces the fake to reveal himself as shapeshifter Alien Zarab, who knocks the hero away, notices the player, & fires madly at them. After a short encounter with journalist Hideyasu Otsuka, who is out to sell the story of the battle, the player & many others run from the rampaging alien. It is here that the player discovers that they can magically dodge danger quickly due to possessing a strange purple light. The level ends with the player meeting Yuki at the park & Ultraman shooting Zarab with his Specium Ray. A news report indicates that this is actually the first time Ichi City has encountered such monsters.

Stage 2

The player & Yuki are in a subway when their train stops & the power cuts out. One by one, as the people try to find their way out, they are attacked & killed by wandering Legion Soldiers, human-sized insectoids guarding a plant taking root inside the subway. Eventually, the player meets Otsuka's assistant, Risa Kashiwaga, who hands the player a new phone to replace the one they threw as a distraction for incoming Legion Soldiers. After escaping to the surface & evading more of the monsters, which have formed a horde & are feeding on the panicking crowds throughout the streets, they meet a police who offers to give them a car to escape while he intends to stay behind & hold off the incoming horde. As the players drive away from the Legion Soldiers, Gamera flies in to deal with the situation

Stage 3

On a bridge being struck by lightning bolts, the player suddenly finds themselves in a car chase, Shibata & Muto hot on their tail. Just as they are cornered, they are saved by the timely intervention of Detective Toru Fujiwara, who the Yakuza thugs seem to fear. The player then continues to try & make their way across the bridge, which begins to fall apart due to the overhead battle between Mothra & Battra, with Yuki almost falling off at one point. Riding a motorcycle, they barely evade Battra's eye beams & make it to the other side just as the bridge finally collapses.

Stage 4

Within a skyscraper, the player suddenly spots Shibata & Muto looking for them. They also come across Otsuka, who offers to distract the thugs for a prize. The player escapes to the basement, which is then broken into by a terrorist-piloted Grau Bear labor, which grabs Yuki & takes her hostage while targeting the player. Once they make it to one end of the basement, the mecha lets Yuki go & takes a vault full of valuable documents & money. Fire breaks out in the building as the player comes across Miho Yamamura, a girl who mistakes Yuki for her dead sister. The players can briefly encounter the Grau Bear, now dangling from a ledge, & take the contents of its open vault before the mecha falls. Pyro-Busters (firefighting Labors) enter the building, one even getting stuck as it tries to crawl through a narrow corridor, while an AV-98 Ingram police labor breaks in & finally rescues the player, Yuki, & Miho. As they share a quiet moment on the labor's arm, Muto & Shibata, still on one of the upper floors, stare down at the player.

Stage 5

While making their way across the city, the lights glows brightly as Sachiel the Fourth Angel arrives, slashing down several military vehicles trying to bomb it. In the chaos, Evangelion Unit 01 is deployed to fight the angel, which shrugs off the bullets from the mecha's minigun. After having dinner in a curry restaurant, Sachiel gains the upper hand as it grabs the Eva & spears it in the eye. The Eva goes berserk, &, ripping apart the angel's protective A.T. force field, beats it to death with its bare hands. The player eventually arrives to the hospital to meet Miho's father, Shinji (not to be confused for the Evangelion pilot). As Miho is sent away, Yuki admits that she isn't Miho's sister, while Shinji thanks her & the player for bringing his child to safety.

Stage 6

By midnight, the player, stranded in the middle of the sea with Yuki, are taken in by a ship called Shibazakura, which, on the behest of young researcher Hitomi Fukazawa, is out to investigate large marine life in the area. The level is relatively silent & peaceful, with the player & Yuki allowed in the sauna & having conversations with Captain Mitsuo Katagiri, who plans to retire soon, & his second-in-command Tetsuya Oda, who asks the player for assistance in helping him express his love for Hitomi. By midnight, the ship finally meets its target, Godzilla, who razes the ship with his atomic breath in anger. The level ends with both the player & Yuki, the only two survivors of the attack, stranded once more in the middle of the ocean on a boat, coming across a picture of Oda & Fukuzawa.

Stage 7

The Yakuza ambushes the player once again. After a chase & an intense hiding game in a warehouse, where they trap the thugs, they come across two Ingrams on a mission, one being the unit that saved them earlier. Just as the Labors crawl past, the player encounters the J-9 Griffon aerial labor come out of hiding, which defeats the military Abram labors sent to subdue it as they make their way through the docks & various warehouses to meet up with Risa. Coming across numerous crates, the player bashes their way through by piloting a fallen Abram labor. They meet Risa on the other side, who provides them with a motorcycle & tells them to follow her.

Stage 8

The players are once more in the city, being ravaged by gravity bolts. Making their way past the villainous three-headed space dragon King Ghidorah, who was locked in combat with his archenemy, Godzilla, they collect a package within the building of IT company Hyacinth Soft & move to the next district by train. As the monsters continue fighting & blasting beams at each other, causing the ground to shake & buildings to crumble, Risa, who doesn't make it in, tells them to go on without her & deliver the package to the National Cosmic Ray Research Laboratory. A news report reveals that several people have died in the ensuing battle, which took place around two in the morning.

Stage 9

The train is suddenly picked up by Kyrieloid, who eyes the people inside before tilting the train in an attempt to shake them out, only for Ultraman Tiga to appear & save them. After a brief scuffle, the two assume their aerial modes & take their fight to the skies. While making their way across the bridge, other survivors, who blame the player for the demon's arrival & further believe in this should the player show their powers, throw rocks at them. As they walk past the player, Kyrieloid falls from the sky & crushes them before resuming the aerial dogfight. Making their way through the chaos, the player & Yuki eye the combatants for one last time as they run off.

Stage 10

The player runs into the Yakuza once again. However, just as Muto corners them with his gun, he is swooped up by a Gyaos bird. While making their way through the burning, Gyaos-infested city, Yuki gets snatched by an incoming Gyaos. The player can either choose to hide so as to not let her sacrifice be in vain, at which point Yuki will somehow be able to return to them, or get snatched up by a Gyaos to save her from their nest on a building. As another angry Gyaos flies in & chases them on a walkway, Gamera comes up & saves them by blasting the Gyaos with a fireball.

Stage 11

Finally arriving at the NCRRL building, where the staff are bent on researching the strange lights in the sky the player saw earlier, the players suddenly find themselves besieged by Dada, a three-faced alien scientist walking & teleporting around the building, shrinking people with his ray gun for its own research. Once the player manages to retrieve needed data for the scientists, who finish their findings in the presence of Otsuka, they are once more ambushed by Dada, who, disguised as scientist he killed, shrinks another staff member & attempts to go after the player, who, with the rest of the NCRRL staff, manages to escape the building.

Stage 12

In the middle of watching a show, the building the player is in gets cleaved in two, revealing Shamshel the Fifth Angel, who is soon confronted by Evangelion Unit 01. The player, Yuki, & Risa, who was also in the building, escape as the Eva, at first seemingly retreating after the angel disarms it of its minigun, rushes at the monster's core with two knives while getting stabbed in the chest with Shamshel's whips in the process. They watch on as the Eva walks away, pushing the angel, which explodes in a cross of light soon after. As Risa leaves, Yuki & the player get knocked out by Shibata & Muto, who turns out to have survived.

Stage 13

Tied up in a building, the player & Yuki can only watch helplessly as Muto & Shibata look over the city, telling them that they know that monsters appear wherever they are. Their plan succeeds as Godzilla walks in & roars while they leave them to die. The player manages to scoot away & find scissors. After getting the ropes off, Mechagodzilla III "Kiryu" is dropped off to halt Godzilla's rampage. After a brief fight of beams, bolts, & missiles, during which the player researches about Shibata's shady W/P weapons company, Godzilla roars one last time at the mecha, which powers down as planes arrive to retrieve him, & walks away. Muto arrives to check on the players & finds them unbound, & tries to subdue them again. Just then, Kiryu goes berserk, walking towards & firing missiles at the building, allowing the player to get away from the thug. Yuki & the player watch on as Kiryu marches through the building & into the distance. A news report reveals that the machine run out of power after half an hour, allowing the government to retrieve it.

Stage 14

The player comes across a gamma wave shockburst, & see Ultraman Belial shrug off the combined attacks of Ultraman & Ultraman Taro. On the roof of one building, they find a scientist with a broken leg who refuses to leave & let go of the opportunity before her as she types down her research about the giants on her laptop. Yuki & the player carry her through the sewers as Belial continues to overpower his foes & drop her off somewhere else. Just as the evil Ultra seems to have beaten the two, Ultraman Zero appears & evens the odds. Cornered by the heroes, Belial resorts to hurling around cars before the three Ultras finally fire down on him.

Stage 15

Told by their previous savior Detective Fujiwara to meet him on a rooftop, the player & Yuki find Sahaquiel the Eighth Angel slowly descending over the city. Suddenly, Muto & Shibata ambush them again, trying to run them down with their car as Evangelion Unit 01, its hands pierced by the angel, strains to hold off the angel & prevent it from crushing the city. The player & Meeting with Fujiwara, they are then cornered by the Yakuza, who end up in a standoff with the Detective. Chaos ensues as Eva Units 00 & 02 rush in & help Eva 01 vanquish the enemy, allowing the Yakuza to grab Yuki & take her away. Fujiwara, who called them just to serve as bait for the thugs, wakes the player up & tells them that they have to go after the thugs.

Stage 16

Meeting Risa in a crumbling area due to the plant of Mother Legion growing through the streets, the player encounters Gamera landing before them to destroy the plant & prevent its explosion. With a choice to either use a horse or motorcycle to follow the train of buses heading out of the city, the player & Risa rush under Gamera & evade the Legion Soldiers with 70 seconds to escape the city before Legion's plant explodes.

Stage 17

By sunrise, Risa & the player arrive in the same park where the player met Yuki, with Ultraseven & Pandon fighting close by. Forced on his knees due to running low on energy, Pandon beats Ultraseven down to the ground & bats away his Eye Slugger when he tries to use it on him, dousing him mercilessly in fire. Meeting with Fujiwara & Otsuka, they climb up the building, & distract the thugs long enough to save Yuki. On the rooftop, just before they can all get a waiting helicopter, Risa shoots the player in the legs, & reveals herself to be part of Shibata's company. She says that, while at first, they wanted to silence the player for having discovered their illegal actions, they decided to observe them & use them as weapons due to the player's magical powers & the fact that monsters appear wherever they go. She has given the player her phone so Shibata & Muto can track his movements, & offers the protagonist a chance to join them. Using their power to heal the gunshot, the player run to the others while evading the bullets. Just as the protagonists are cornered by the thugs, Ultraseven knocks Pandon down, causing a tremor that sends the thugs falling to their deaths. Depending on their choice, the player can either save Risa or let her die. Just when the helicopter leaves, Yuki, who turns out to be an alien who tried to escape "the shadows" & lended the player with her powers, thanks the player for the time they spent & returns to the sky in a purple flash. The player awakens on the helicopter & turns out to be the only one who can remember Yuki. In the end, it is revealed that no one still has any idea about the mysterious purple lights, the monster attacks have destroyed everything in a 120-kilometer radius, Risa is jailed (if she was saved by the player), Toru Fujiwara is discharged due to his dangerous method of risking civilian lives to catch criminals, Otsuka made a lot of money with the stories he got out of the game's events, & the player is in a fast-food restaurant, eating two great rice balls.

Development

The game was announced on September 17, 2015. It was developed by Granzella and directed by Kazuma Kujo.[5] Takashi Watabe is producing on behalf of publisher Bandai Namco.[6]

Ultraman was confirmed to appear in the game on 16 February 2016.[7] The Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu confirmed that Godzilla would appear in the game.[8] Godzilla had previously been teased by having his shadowy silhouette appear in screenshots.[4] An Evangelion mecha was also teased to appear.[9]

Famitsu confirmed in May 2017 that Gamera would also appear in City Shrouded in Shadow.[10] In May 2017 it was announced that the PS Vita version was cancelled,[10] the title became a PS4-only exclusive.

The game launched on October 19, 2017 in Japan.[11]

Reception

The game sold 48,935 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, placing it at number two on the all format sales charts.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Barder, Ollie (5 July 2017). "'City Shrouded In Shadow' Adds 'Patlabor' To The Mix". Forbes. Game News. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  2. ↑ Romano, Sal (1 December 2016). "Disaster Report 4 Plus official website relaunched, VR demo set for Nagoya exhibition". Gematsu. Latest News. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Wong, Sato (14 December 2015). "Project City Shrouded in Shadow Shows Its Destructive Teaser Trailer". Siliconera. News. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 Gelmini, David (2 February 2016). "Ultraman Stars in Upcoming Horror Game Project City Shrouded in Shadow; Godzilla Also?". Dread Central. News. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Romano, Sal (17 September 2015). "Granzella and Bandai Namco announce Project City Shrouded in Shadow for PS4, PS Vita". Gematsu. Latest News. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Blyden, Jabulani (22 March 2016). "New Kyoei Toshi Game Images Reveal Godzilla & Apparent Evangelion Silhouette". Anime News Network. News. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Romano, Sal (16 February 2016). "Ultraman is in Granzella's City Shrouded in Shadow [Update]". Gematsu. Latest News. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Romano, Sal (22 March 2016). "City Shrouded in Shadow adds Godzilla, teases Evangelion". Gematsu. Latest News. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Wong, Sato (22 March 2016). "It Looks Like Evangelion Is Making Its Way Into City Shrouded in Shadow". Siliconera. News. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  10. 1 2 Romano, Sal (May 30, 2017). "City Shrouded in Shadow now PS4-only, launched in October 2017. [Update 3]". Gematsu. Latest News. Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  11. ↑ Romano, Sal (4 July 2017). "City Shrouded in Shadow launches October 19 in Japan, adds Patlabor [Update]". Gematsu. Latest News. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  12. ↑ Roman, Sal (November 2, 2017). "Media Create Sales: 10/16/17 – 10/22/17". Gematsu. Latest News. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
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