Kyoei Toshi

Kyoei Toshi
Developer(s)	Granzella
Publisher(s)	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Engine	Orochi 3
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4
Release	JP: October 19, 2017
Genre(s)	Survival, tokusatsu
Mode(s)	Single-player

Kyoei Toshi (巨影都市, lit. City of Giant Shadows), known in English as City Shrouded in Shadow, is a 2017 survival video game developed by Granzella and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The objective of the game is to escape a city ravaged by battles between monsters, robots, and heroes from the Japanese kaiju and tokusatsu franchises Godzilla, Ultraman, Gamera, Patlabor, and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Kyoei Toshi is a spiritual successor to Granzella's Disaster Report series, and several characters from that series also make cameo appearances in the game.

Plot

The game starts with the player's character of choice, a man named Ken Misaki or a woman named Miharu Matsuhara (the character may be renamed), who is to meet with a friend named Yuki Kouno. At that moment, however, the city is thrown into chaos by a battle between Ultraman and Alien Zarab, an alien invader initially disguised as the hero. In the midst of escaping, the player comes across Ryoji Shibata and Katsuhiro Muto, two yakuza members making business deals. Determined that no one should witness their illegal activities, they try to have the player killed. The player escapes the gangsters and giants, then stumbles across Hideyasu Otsuka, a journalist who wants to publish a story about the night's events. Eventually realizing that they have the mysterious ability to dodge incoming danger at a supernatural pace, the player escapes the ongoing giant battle and meets up with Yuki just as Ultraman shoots Alien Zarab with his Spacium Ray. Later on, while escaping a subway train wrecked by the plant and soldiers of Legion, the player and Yuki meet Otsuka's assistant, Risa Kashigawa, who gives them her phone to replace the one they threw to distract the monsters. The protagonists escape the city by car just as Gamera arrives to liberate the city.

Shibata and Muto soon pursue the player and Yuki down a bridge, but they are stopped by a battle between Mothra and Battra as well as the intervention of Police Detective Toru Fujiwara, who scares the gangsters off. Later on, however, Shibata and Muto continue hunting for the protagonists in a building, though Otsuka, who was also present there, distracts them after the player pays them a prize. Yuki is suddenly held hostage for a moment by Grau Bear Labor mechs piloted by terrorists. After the terrorists let Yuki go upon finding the money and documents they needed, the player and Yuki come across Miho Yamamura, a girl who mistakes Yuki for her dead sister, after which the situation is resolved by Pyro Busters (Firefighting Labors) and an AV-98 Ingram (Police Labor). Following this, the protagonists make it past a battle between 4th angel Sachiel and Evangelion Unit-01 (who goes berserk and beats the angel to death), helping Miho go to the hospital to reunite with her father, Shinji (not to be confused with the pilot of Evangelion Unit-01).

Sometime after this, the player and Yuki end up mysteriously stranded in the middle of the sea. They are taken in by a ship called Shibazakura, which is out to investigate and research mysterious large marine life. The ship eventually met its target, Godzilla, who angrily destroys the Shibazakura, leaving Yuki and the player as the only survivors. Making their way to dry land, the protagonists are once again ambushed by Shibata and Muto. After losing them in a warehouse, the protagonists come across two AV-98 Ingrams, as well as military Abram Labors being beaten by a rogue J-9 Griffon Labor. Using one of the fallen Abram Labors to escape, they reunite with Risa, who gets them to retrieve a package from IT company Hyacinth Soft and escape by train while the city is being ravaged by a battle between Godzilla and King Ghidorah, leading to several deaths. The train is then stopped and menaced by a Kyrieloid, though saved at the last moment by Ultraman Tiga. However, the train is rendered unusable, forcing the protagonists to travel to the next station on foot. On the way there, several of the train's other passengers accuse Yuki and the player for attracting the giants.

Eventually, the yakuza thugs catch up to Yuki and the player again, only to be thwarted by the intervention of a ravenous horde of Gyaos attacking the city. Muto and Yuki are grabbed to be taken to the nest, while the player can either choose to go after Yuki to rescue her, or do nothing (which leads to Yuki managing to escape on her own somehow). When the latter option is chosen, Gamera can be seen at the end of the level inadvertently saving the protagonists from a hungry Gyaos. Finally, the protagonists deliver Risa's package to the National Cosmic Ray Research Laboratory, but are forced to evacuate when the alien scientist Dada infiltrated the building, planning to shrink every person in the facility to collect them as biological specimens. The player and Yuki then meet Risa at a show in another building, which is cut short by a battle between Evangelion Unit-01 and the whip-wielding 5th angel Shamshel. Just as they escape the chaos, Shibata and Muto knock out the player and Yuki, tying them up in another building, testing out the theory that monsters appear wherever they are. Just then, Godzilla appears, and the military sends MFS-3 Kiryu (Mechagodzilla 3) to fight him. However, Godzilla's roars reawaken the Godzilla spirit within Kiryu, who rampages through the city itself while the protagonists escape once more.

The player and Yuki are then forced to travel through underground pipes as the city is torn by a battle between the villainous Ultraman Belial and the combined might of Ultraman and Ultraman Taro, with the arrival Ultraman Zero turning the the fight around in favor of the heroes. They are then invited by Detective Fujiwara to the top of a building, with the yakuza closing in on them and the 8th angel Sahaquiel slowly coming down from the sky. As Evangelion Units 00, 01, and 02 hold off and defeat the massive angel before it can crush the city, Shibato and Muto take Yuki with them, with Fujiwara (who called the protagonists as bait for the thugs) urging the player to come with him to chase them down.

After escaping from the explosion of the Legion plant (with Gamera failing to stop it), the player, Fujiwara, and Otsuka locate the thugs on a building's rooftop, distracting them to let Yuki escape as the two-headed monster Pandon beats up Ultraseven. However, the player ends up shot in the leg by Risa, who reveals herself to be a yakuza member (hence why she gave them her phone for the purpose of tracking them), with the mob now intending to exploit the player as some sort of giant monster attractor. Witnessing the player heal their leg with supernatural abilities, the mob tries to corner and capture the protagonists, though they are all sent falling off the building when Ultraseven strikes Pandon down. After this, Yuki, who turns out to be an alien who gave the player their powers, disappears, with only the player left remembering them. In the end, Risa is sent to prison (if the player saves her rather than letting her fall), Fujiwara is fired for endangering civilians to catch criminals, Otsuka made a lot of money with the stories he got out of the game's events, and the player is in a fast-food restaurant, eating two great rice balls.

Cast

An in-game screenshot of Ken and Yuki speaking with a Riot Police Unit officer, who tells them to use the blue sedan in front of them to escape a Legion swarm; the player can choose whether or not Ken and Yuki will use the sedan.

• Takuya Sato as Ken Misaki/Satomi Akesaka as Miharu Matsubara, the game's protagonist who somehow gained supernatural abilities to evade incoming danger and even heal bodily damage. Name and relationship with Yuki Kouno can be determined by the player.
• Reina Ueda as Yuki Kouno, a friend of the protagonist. In the end, she is revealed to be an alien who was pursued by the "Shadow" to Earth.
• Ryōta Takeuchi as Hideyasu Otsuka, a journalist who is willing to risk his life to get the best news. Given his money-hungry attitude, he is also willing to help others, provided that they pay him a price in return.
• Yuko Kaida as Risa Kashiwagi, a journalist at odds with her boss Hideyasu Otsuka due to his work ethic, which is focused more on money. Near the end of the game, she reveals that she is a member of the yakuza, spying on the player in hopes of exploiting their supposed connection to the disasters.
• Minoru Kawai as Ryoji Shibata, a member of the yakuza who wants to have the protagonists killed for accidentally witnessing his illegal business deals in the midst of chaos.
• Toru Nara as Katsuhiro Muto, Shibata's subordinate who once had a promising career as a professional boxer before joining the yakuza as a ruthless hitman.
• Madoka Shiga as Toru Fujiwara, a police detective who is determined to bring the yakuza to justice, even if it means endangering the lives of civilians (including the protagonists) in the process.

Giant Shadows

The objective of Kyoei Toshi is to survive the giant entities encountered in the 17 levels of the game. Some giants are benevolent, only a threat due to the massive collateral damage they cause, some are malevolent, actively seeking destruction, while others are neutral and indifferent to human life.

Listed below are the "shadows", grouped by their franchise of origin and the order in which they first appeared in.

Ultraman

• Ultraman: Levels 1 and 14
• Alien Zarab (Imitation Ultraman): Level 1
• Kyrieloid (Generation II): Level 9
• Ultraman Tiga: Level 9
• Dada (A/B/C): Level 11
• Ultraman Belial: Level 14
• Ultraman Taro: Level 14
• Ultraman Zero: Level 14
• Ultraseven: Level 17
• Pandon: Level 17

Godzilla

• Mothra (Heisei): Level 3
• Battra: Level 3
• Godzilla (Heisei): Levels 6, 8 and 13
• King Ghidorah (Heisei): Level 8
• Mechagodzilla (MFS-3 Kiryu): Level 13

Rebuild of Evangelion

• Evangelion Unit-00: Level 15
• Sachiel the 4th Angel: Level 5
• Shamshel the 5th Angel: Level 12
• Sahaquiel the 8th Angel: Level 15
• Evangelion Unit-01: Levels 5, 12 and 15
• Evangelion Unit-02: Level 15

Gamera (Heisei trilogy)

• Soldier Legion: Levels 2 and 16
• Legion Plant: Levels 2 and 16
• Gamera: Levels 2, 10 and 16
• Gyaos: Level 10

Patlabor

• Type-5G/1C Grau Bear: Level 4
• CRL-98 Pyro-Buster: Level 4
• AV-98 Ingram 1: Levels 4 and 7
• AV-98 Ingram 2: Level 7
• Type M-5 Abraham: Level 7
• Type J-9 Griffon: Level 7

Development

The game was announced via teaser website, which opened on September 4, 2015. A seven-day countdown was launched on September 10, 2015. Kyoei Toshi was officially revealed on September 17, 2015. A livestream on the game started on December 14, 2015 via 876TV live stream to show off a game preview.

On May 30, 2017, producer Kensuke Tsukanaka said in an interview that a Vita version was cancelled since the decision was made to improve the game's quality on the Playstation 4.

It was developed by Granzella and directed by Kazuma Kujo. Takashi Watabe was producer on behalf of publisher Bandai Namco.

The game features the theme song "Shadow", performed by Mai Iida.

Release

The game launched on October 19, 2017 in Japan. The game's secret costumes were taken from Ultraman, Evangelion, and Patlabor. It also includes costumes from previous Disaster Report games.

A secret mission was added to the game if players pre-ordered the game between July 6 and November 15, 2017, where Toro and Kuro ask for the player's help to finish Zettai Anzen Toshi 2.

Kyoei Toshi was released under a Welcome Price version in Japan worth 3,800 Yen on February 29, 2019.

Reception

The game sold 48,935 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, placing it at number two on the all format sales charts.

Famitsu gave the game a 8/8/7/8 [31/40] score.

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)