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The developers of the bird dating simulator Hatoful Boyfriend have announced a new project called Murder By Numbers, a tale of mayhem and murder set in 1996 Hollywood. With the assistance of a reconnaissance robot she picked out of the garbage (which suggests to me that it's not an entirely true-to-life recreation of the '90s), TV detective Honor Mizrahi must turn her investigative talents to the real world when her boss is murdered—just minutes after he fired her from her hit show.
The robot, Scout, will help Mizrahi uncover clues and solve puzzles, but the big hook is the very '90s-looking array of supporting characters to converse with and interrogate, designed by Hatoful Boyfriend director Hato Moa. Along with some highly questionable fashion choices, developer Mediatonic also promises—and this is a quote—"Upbeat jams! Sass dialed up to 100! Questionable jokes! Drag queens! All that and more," whatever that could possibly be.
Hatoful Boyfriend is quite good, and Murder by Numbers hopefully addresses one of our chief complaints about the sexy bird game: that it takes a bit too much repetitive work to get to the really good stuff, which comes in its various endings.
Murder By Numbers is set to come out early next year.