Nothing will put me on to a sport faster than having an idea so laser-focused on the factor it is making an attempt to do, and, seemingly, doing it properly. That is the case for The Crane Rider’s Story, the subsequent sport from the developer of Butterfly Soup, a visual novel/journey sport hybrid that takes cues from Disco Elysium and Zero Escape the place a serial killer is on the free who has killed your good friend, so that you ferry round your native townsfolk round in your big crane to determine who did it, all wrapped up in a medieval Chinese language portray and woodblock print aesthetic. It’s so a lot, and a lot my actual vibe.
In The Crane Rider’s Story, you play a personality referred to as Mourn-No-Extra, a “type however sickly man whose big pet crane Snowfall is the quickest type of transportation round.” Following the demise of his good friend Peach Blossom, as a part of his previous timey taxi service job, he has to decide on which passengers he desires to take to be able to work out who’s doing all this murdering. There are 5 predominant endings to expertise, every with a “surprising twist that may alter your understanding of the thriller.”
From the creator of #ButterflySoup and #PomGetsWiFi, The Crane Rider’s Story is a thriller sport impressed by Disco Elysium, Zero Escape, and Chinese language folktales.
🪽On Kickstarter now! www.kickstarter.com/initiatives/psy…— The Crane Rider’s Story 🪽 ON KICKSTARTER NOW! (@psychickiss.bsky.social) April 28, 2026 at 8:03 PM
The Disco Elysium affect comes within the type of cube rolling and ability checks, functioning fairly equally to the seminal RPG. As soon as once more equally to it, failing typically leads you down an attention-grabbing path too. There are different abilities you possibly can decide up too, like with the ability to fly additional, for instance. Selecting up passengers prompts Disco-esque conversations, extra so in structure than content material, and upon delivering them to their vacation spot you possibly can have a surprise round point-and-click fashion.
Creator Brianna Lei is at the moment working a Kickstarter for the sport, with some reflective ideas in regards to the setting of the sport. “Whereas The Crane Rider’s Story is at the start a enjoyable thriller journey, it additionally attracts from my difficult emotions towards Chinese language tradition,” Lei writes. “Rising up, I may hardly ever relate to the romance in Chinese language video video games and TV exhibits as a result of the Chinese language authorities prohibits explicitly homosexual characters from being proven in them. And my mother and father’ Confucian beliefs of filial piety and womanhood had been my jail. A daughter’s function was to be chaste, obey males, and bear youngsters. “
Lei continues on to notice the wonder she finds in Chinese language tradition, just like the “work, the beautiful tragedy and poetic logic in its legends… and do not even get me began on danmei (Chinese language BL)! I wish to craft a recent, forward-thinking story dressed up like an previous folktale that is all the time been there. As a result of I want it had been.”
If any of that is up your alley, you possibly can again The Crane Rider’s Story on Kickstarter now.
