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Jack Jeanne Dancing West on June 15th for Switch

Screenshot of Jack Jeanne, one of several RPGs coming this week

Aksys Games has announced that Broccoli-developed otome/rhythm hybrid Jack Jeanne is projected to launch June 15th on the Nintendo Switch in the west. This music and theater-inclined game was previously released in Japan on March 2021 for the Switch and just earlier this year on iOS and Android.

The player character, Kisa, has to hide that she is a woman in an all-male school while bonding with, as well as competing with her male classmates for the leading role in the final school performance. This fascinating genre combination is sure to intrigue lovers of visual novels and rhythm both.

Aksys Games highlights below how the Jack Jeanne creator (and Tokyo Ghoul mangaka) Sui Ishida was inspired by the musical expression of the game:

When developer Broccoli first pitched the idea for the upcoming visual novel and rhythm game Jack Jeanne, noted mangaka Sui Ishida was intrigued by the concept and took on the challenge of making it his own. A story about students in a highly competitive musical theater school might seem a dissonant setting for a video game from Ishida-san, creator of the popular dark fantasy franchise Tokyo Ghoul, but a passion for musical expression sparked his interest in the project.

Known for mentioning bands and music he enjoys on social media, and occasionally placing references in his work, Ishida-san found great inspiration in the song ‘Light Dance’ by Akira Kosemura, imagining how the main character Kisa would dance to it. With the help of Broccoli, Ishida-san was able to convince the modern classical composer to join the project, an experience he has called “very precious.”

While creating the characters and writing the script for Jack Jeanne, Ishida-san felt strongly that the lyrics and music needed to be rooted in how the characters were feeling. After reviewing the songs written by others, he felt they were not capturing the emotions in quite the right way and decided to write the lyrics for the entire game himself.

With rhythm game segments to challenge you and lots of pretty boys to befriend (and maybe more?), Jack Jeanne is a different kind of otome game! The descriptions and details shared about the game focus much more on the musical and theater aspect compared to the romantic portions. I wonder if this means that the dating aspects aren’t as prominent in the grand scheme of things, which would be quite interesting for the genre! I personally always enjoy music-focused games, so I’m certainly more than fascinated by this. Especially with its all-star Japanese voice cast and gorgeous visual style!

Please refer to our previous coverage for more information on Jack Jeanne! Please stay tuned to RPGFan for continued coverage of games, RPG or otome!

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Alvin Lim

Alvin Lim

Alvin was a news editor who is desperately trying to ween himself off mobile games so he has more time to play console games again. If he's not clicking on Granblue Fantasy, he's either adding more RPGs to his massive backlog, or is taking over 100 hours on a single game in it. When not gaming, he is hanging out, traveling, or cooking with his partner.

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