Green-Only Game Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog Goes Colour
We get a lot of news and info here at Finger Guns HQ, and sifting through it for nuggets of interesting stuff for you to read takes time and effort. So we were pleased to see this piece of fun slightly ironic news come in.
Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog is a visual novel in the style of the classic PC-9800. It looks wonderfully retro and full of 80s style anime. It was also fully green like it was a one colour or one palette title on the original Game Boy. It was a refreshingly retro idea, and had the game standing out in the packed indie showcases over the past year or so. Fast forward to today and Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog has an announcement to make – it’s gone colour. 16 colours to be exact, like the original PC-9800 was. It looks like this was the plan all along. We also got a release date for all those waiting to get their hands on it – 20th February 2025 on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Switch.
Hopefully there is an option to do either mode in the final release because over the course of the trailers and demo, we’ve got kind of attached to that green screen. Don’t take this the wrong way, the colour mode is lush and beautiful, but it’s also somehow less unique.
From the Press Release –
War is over. War is just beginning. Planetary Calendar 214. Four years have passed since the end of the Solar War. Our protagonist, scarred from the loss of his crewmates in the war, is re-assigned to the Jovian patrol ship Gun-Dog as it’s dispatched with orders to investigate mysterious signals coming from the edge of Jovian Space. Unknown to the Gun-Dog’s crew, a new danger looms deep in the ocean of stars, threatening not just the Gun-Dog but all her crew. Take on the role of the Gun-Dog’s security officer as you attempt to save the ship from an unknown assailant whilst navigating the paranoia, conspiracies, and vendettas that break out amongst the crew. As camaraderie falls apart can you overcome the challenges that await?
A love letter to retro anime and 80s Sci-Fi. Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog is a visual novel adventure in the spirit of classic PC-9800 titles. Now featuring a full-colour aesthetic, Space Colony Studios strives to create an “era-accurate” game that exudes retro vibes in every way, from the text to the visual effects. As the Jovian patrol ship sails into the darkness among the stars, the players will feel like they are on an adventure in an 80s Sci-Fi as they solve the mystery they find themselves in.
A new threat emerges from the void. Humans have long since freed themselves from the grasp of gravity, but they are still unable to escape the hold of war. It’s year 214 of the Planetary Calendar. Four years have passed since the end of the Solar War and an uneasy peace persists throughout the solar system. The Jovian patrol ship Gun-Dog is sent on a reconnaissance mission to investigate mysterious signals coming from the edge of Jovian space. What starts as a routine assignment quickly escalates into a battle for survival as an unknown threat terrorizes the crew.
Investigate. Interact. Analyse. Advance. Utilizing traditional point-and-click adventure mechanics, during your time on the Gun-Dog, you can navigate various locations on the ship, examine the details of the richly realized backgrounds or talk with the different crew members on board. You will need to listen closely to the characters’ words to reveal important clues or duplicitous intentions and keep your eyes peeled for key items and interactive elements in the backgrounds that you can use to advance the story.
Get on board with the crew of the Gun-Dog! These characters’ charm and charisma convinced the team at Astrolabe Games to board the Gun-Dog and sign up to be the publisher. From the elegant yet distant Captain Bartermews, to the bubbly Lieutenant Commander Cassandra Quinn, to the assertive and domineering Chief Mackenzie Cathays, “The Gun-Dog” features an extensive cast of characters for you to meet. Each crew member has a distinct personality, role, and history. Get to know them and their quirks and decide whether to work with or against them to unravel the mystery that lies at the story’s heart.
Adventure in an entirely explorable ship! The main stage of the first installment in the “Stories from Sol” series, as the Jovian patrol ship Gun-Dog heads into deep space it serves as the setting for the game’s story. It has been exhaustively realized. Rich and evocative descriptions of the ship, including the constant rumble of the engine room, the bustle of the bridge, the silence of space pair with an extensive range of scenes that have been meticulously designed and animated in detail to deliver an immersive experience. Inspired by the best that anime has to offer the ship even features “Armoured Frames”, mechanized, human-shaped, weapons of war.
Sounds great right! Keep an eye out here at Finger Guns for more on Stories From Sol: The Gun Dog.
Source: Press Release
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