I am already totally sold on In Falsus, the rhythm game from the same developer behind mobile music game Arcaea. After a very brief reveal trailer four months ago, we've now got a second trailer from the Tokyo Game Show with a little bit of gameplay and insight into a new card-based system.
It's got all the same moody anime girl energy of Arcaea but with a fully fleshed out visual novel portion and some wicked-looking song charts to go alongside it. Gameplay looks like it'll be taking an Osu approach with a dual keyboard-and-mouse input system—four central lanes and two side lanes along with flick-style aerial notes that float above the main field. It looks a little similar to Lowiro's mobile gameplay, with a little bit of the arcadeyness from Sound Voltex and Ongeki in there to boot.
For the visual novel portion, In Falsus will follow five different high school girls as their stories intertwine: Nia Cana, Mei Alder, Ayame Takatsuki, Iris Leal, and Story Étienne. Lowiro promises "full Japanese voice acting," with the narrative playing an integral part in the overall storytelling "with music gameplay, sound design, and themes reflecting and directly linked to the events of the game."
I have to admit I'm never huge on visual novel portions in rhythm games—it was my least favourite part of Persona 4: Dancing all Night, especially when I'm more interested in the rhythm mechanics than any narrative—but I'm definitely willing to give it a shot here with In Falsus with how hard Lowiro seems to be going on its importance.
The final part to the trailer, and perhaps the most interesting, is the card integration. The In Falsus Steam page says there'll be material collecting and card crafting for different stat boosts and bonuses which'll likely boost scores and provide a little cushioning on the life bar to get through some tougher charts.
It also notes a feature called Blueprints, with the store page describing them as "grids with a wide variety of choices in stat boosts and bonuses." It seems like where you slot different cards in matters, and "how you choose to arrange materials within Blueprints shapes unique possibilities in solutions and effects."
It didn't take long for Arcaea fans to worry that the card system was a way to gacha In Falsus out the wazoo, but director Guy seems to have quickly put out that fire via a Discord message on the Arcaea server: "Hello, There's no gacha."
Despite being a total gacha sicko, I am pleased to know that a system which will most definitely be very important isn't being totally thrown to the monetised RNG wolves. It's still probably going to be a massive pain to craft stuff, but at least I won't have to roll the dice with gems each time.
There's still no release date unfortunately, just the vague window of 2026. If you're lucky enough to be at Tokyo Game Show right now, though, you can give In Falsus a go with five songs to choose from. Just know I am very, very jealous.
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