Rain98 is a blue-toned visual novel set before the year 2000, inspired by Serial Experiments Lain, whose story involves time travel to the past to end the world.

Rain98's Demo Makes a Three-Hour Visual Novel Out of 1998 Tokyo and the Angolmois

Background: A Present-Day Depression Placed in 1998 Tokyo

Rain98 is an incredibly blue-looking, rainy visual novel set in Tokyo, 1998. The player begins as a nameless Generic Man who is deeply troubled, if not outright suicidal, by the state of the world as it is in the present day. That stance is presented as fair, and the demo does not pretend that things are good right now. They were not great in 1998 Japan either, and that is where Generic Man somehow arrives.

The demo places this Heisei-era ennui and nihilism in a recognizable context. It was a time of the lost decades, a period when Japan's economy massively stagnated, and that stagnation influenced a wide range of strange, often anxiety-inducing and ominous works like Serial Experiments Lain, Neon Genesis Evangelion and All About Lily Chou-Chou. Serial Experiments Lain, the first of the three, is apparently an influence on Rain98, and the demo's vibe carries at least a little of that touch.

Development: Reina Amehara, the Angolmois, and a Story Built on a Dark Bargain

Spoiler Alert: In what he thinks is his apartment, Generic Man finds a young woman named Reina Amehara. She refers to herself as the Angolmois, a world-ending reference to the predictions of good ole Nostradamus. She too is depressed about everything. The two do not hit it off at first, but they strike up a deal: to end the world.

The demo makes that premise playable through small, pointed moments. At one point, the player must light Reina Amehara's cigarette in a lightly stylish sequence. Later, the game asks the player to enter a name. The player puts one in because, as in many predecessors, the visual novel seems to invite self-insertion. The reward is not narrative access. It is a Steam achievement for getting a game over for putting your name in. The moment is rude, but it is also curious, and it pushes the demo forward.

Quite quickly, the demo makes the time travel situation seem smart. The world sucks now, and the world sucked then. How will two characters from different parts of history respond to one another's inability to accept their material conditions, which are not so different? That is not an answer found in the demo. A player can manage about an hour of the demo, while the full visual novel runs a total of three hours, so the full game is expected to ask for considerably more investment.

Latest Progress: The Demo Trailer, the Steam Page, and a Release Promise

The Rain98 - Demo Release Trailer is available to watch on YouTube. The demo has already won over the reviewer, and the Steam page promises that Rain98 will be out by the end of the year.

The demo does not let a player experience all of what the full game has to offer either. The full game seemingly includes a few different minigames scattered throughout: a legally distinct DDR, a legally distinct Tamagotchi, a legally distinct Tekken, and more besides. It is not clear whether any of those minigames can be found in the demo, but they all look charming enough. For readers drawn to melancholic, atmospheric visual novels, the demo suggests that Rain98 is using 1998 not as a simple nostalgia backdrop, but as a mirror for present-day despair.