Upcoming BL game: Tokyo Gentou/Tokyo Phantasmagoria (Procyon)
I realized I haven't made a post about this game yet, so I wanted to summarize what we know so far! It's scheduled to be released somewhere in 2026 and a few days ago they started posting more information on social media. Tokyo Gentou is a BL visual novel which is currently being developed by Procyon, the new sister brand of CORE. The artist is Carnelian, who worked on previous BL visual novels such as Fanatica (2004) and Messiah (2006). This game was originally announced in 2023 and they've been pretty consistently publishing information about this project in BL game magazines!
Story
In August 1997, a massive explosion at an underground mining site in western Tokyo transformed the city into a completely different world. Thirty years later, the crater created by the explosion still continues to burn. After the explosion, the sky was engulfed in darkness and the city has remained without sunlight ever since. It also became home to new lifeforms known as Nyx, who were born from the ore that emerged as a byproduct of the accident.
Main characters
The game will focus one one main couple, Reo (the one with the black haired hair) and Rune, though it will have quite some side characters who will be relevant to the story. Reo lost his parents when he was a child and grew up in a facility. He works for the organization C・U・S・P who eliminate all hostile Nyx. Even though his job prohibits him from interacting with even non-hostile Nyx, he stars living together with Rune after being saved by him. It is still unknown what exactly happened, but Rune initially wanted to turn Reo into his meal rather than saving him. That night, the two of them formed some kind of ''contract'' together. Nyx look similar to humans, but their behavior is very instinctual, which can often lead to hostility. This is one of the reasons why they are only allowed to live in a special part of the city called Arcadia. Nyx are born from ores that suddenly started appearing after the mining incident 30 years ago and some of them take on the appearance of humans.
Side characters
Next are two other characters who are both members of the C・U・S・P, the organization Reo also works for. The first character is Sakuto, a 20 year old soldier who's in the same unit as Reo. He's a bit of an elite and depending on who he's talking to, his attitude can get overbearing. He's a bit jealous of Reo because he knows Reo is more skilled than him and sees him as his rival. The second character is Kazuki, a 35 year old engineer (he honestly looks much younger). He's the only person within the organization who knows that Reo is living together with Rune. The organization tracks down hostile Nyx who are referred to as Bounders and eliminates them. Unlike peaceful Nyx, Bounders are more similar to animals and they can't control their behavior, resulting in them killing humans and eating them.
Another reason why Nyx are so dangerous to humans is that they sometimes emit a blue beam of light which crystallizes and kills humans. For this reason the C・U・S・P exclusively recruits humans like Reo who are immune to the crystallization, although they seem to be rare. Many of the organization's employees have been in tragic accidents before in which their family or friends were killed, as direct exposure to the light seems to be the only way to find out if one is immune to it. In Cool-B they also published a short story about Reo's past and how he witnessed the death of his family.
The second group of side characters who they've introduced to us so far all who work for a diner owned by a character called Elisia, who tries to protect Nyx and teaches them how to read and to write. Elisia is human, but owns a diner located in Arcadia which welcomes both Nyx and humans and is often referred to as ''mama'' by the others. The second floor of the diner seems to offer more intimate services as the Nyx who work there don't necesarilly need to eat humans to survive, but I guess they still need some kind of human DNA to keep their humanoid forms...? Though Rune isn't allowed to visit the second floor as he only just emerged from the crystals and the others want him to find a suitable partner instead.
One of the Nyx who works at the diner is a girl called Zoe who's the sisterly type. After finding out Rune started living with Reo, she immediately supported this decision. The second diner employee we're introduced to is Nicole, a friendly and reserved Nyx who's trying to get better at reading and writing. It seems like some Nyx such as Zoe have a dream of ''becoming human'' so I'm curious if they really can, as the newest CoreB covers shows Rune with dragon-like horns, wings and a tail, but others like Zoe look exactly like a human in the promotional pictures.
According to the official account, there will be even more characters, though these will be revealed later. Even though the game was promoted as a ''sweet romance between the two main characters'' some of the advertisements they published in the first issue of Cool-B Kiwami seems to suggest that the plot might get darker too. One example I can think of is that they published (what I assume is) a conversation between Rune and Reo, in which Rune tells him not to worry, and that he will protect Reo and this world. Afterwards Rune seemingly vanishes, and the final line translates to "a cruel and loving eternal farewell", so I am really curious what will happen in this game. There also seems to be some kind of villain character who's hostile towards Rune, though they haven't published much information about him. Carnelian's other BL games were also rather dark, so I'm really curious.
The estimated release date is still 2026, so I hope it will be released this year! They've been posting more information on their Twitter account lately which you can find here. So far I really like the character designs and the CGs they've published so far. I hope they will launch their website soon so everyone can see them, as I'm trying to not spoil too much in this post. The CG below is a picture they're currently using as header on Twitter/X which was also published in Cool-B magazine, but all credit goes to the artist Carnelian and the developer Procyon!
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