Today Space Colony Studios and Astrolabe Games finally released a game that fans of retro art have been waiting for quite some time, the sci-fi visual novel Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog.
Inspired by the glorious days of the PC-9800, it sports both a delightfully retro monochromatic style and a more recently revealed full-color mode, which isn’t much less retro, but proves a great complement for Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog’s gorgeous pixel art.
You can find it on PC via Steam (priced at a very affordable $13.49), PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. It also comes with a ton of content and all the storytelling you may need, sporting over 300,000 words of text
You can check out its lovely visuals in the trailer below.
If you’re wondering about the plot, here’s how the developers describe it:
War is over. War is just beginning.
“Planetary Calendar 214. Four years have passed since the end of the Solar War. Our protagonist, scarred from the loss of their crewmates in the war, is re-assigned to the Jovian patrol ship Gun-Dog as it’s dispatched with orders to investigate mysterious signals coming from the edge of Jovian Space.
Unknown to the Gun-Dog’s crew, a new danger looms deep in the ocean of stars, threatening not just the Gun-Dog but all her crew.
Take on the role of the Gun-Dog’s security officer as you attempt to save the ship from an unknown assailant whilst navigating the paranoia, conspiracies and vendettas that break out amongst the crew. As camaraderie falls apart can you overcome the challenges that await?”
I’ve been following the development of this game for quite some time, and I’ve always been impressed by its art.
I remember seeing it exhibited at Tokyo Game Show, and I can tell you that it drew quite a crowd of local fans, highly impressed by the work of Western developers who paid such great homage to the heritage of ancient Japanese games.
The game supports English, French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, on consoles, while the PC version lacks Korean.
A 22-track original soundtrack and a 15-page digital art book will be made available as DLC. Those who live in Europe can buy the boxed Starship Edition for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch and get them in physical form from the get-go.
