Shadows of the Republic

About the Game

Shadows of the Republic is a Visual Novel RPG set in the historical and turbulent period of Republican China and World War II. Navigate investigations and conversations, building your identity as you deconstruct the world.

Following the Northern Expedition, the flag of the Blue Sky White Sun was raised across provinces as warlords fell like dominoes. China was now united once more, at least in name and spirit. The fate of the nation had now fallen into better hands. However, not before a new East Asian Empire rises from the East Horizon, eyeing the fragile confederation of warlords, officers and careerists. 

You are Fang. One day, you wake up to find your world upended and thrust into a new matrix of shadows and deceit. Navigate 10 chapters of intrigue, betrayal, espionage and shattering events. Start off as a border customs officer in Beijing, uncovering Japanese smuggling and opium exploitation in northern China, work as a double agent for the Kuomintang and the Wang Jingwei Regime in the devastation of Nanjing, and achieve your final mission in the occupied wastelands of Canton. 

Full Voice Acting: Every being has a story, and a voice alongside it. Work with them, betray them, make them echo their emotions, and the voice will immerse you and deliver you a worthy experience. 
Conversation Mechanics: Use your skills to find multiple ways to advance your goals and storyline. Keep track of who's in the loop with the handy conversation portrait trackers, and manage conversations by topic and groupings. 
Political Arena: China is a nation with an uncertain future in 1937. Communists are fortified out west in Yan'an, Japanese perch on the eastern frontier, plotting a continental takeover. In the South, hordes of warlords lead their own armies with shaky loyalty. Organised crime is rampant, contraband leaks through borders and poisons the population; the situation is bleak. Side with whoever you need and let your course of action make a mark on history. 

Progress-Based Personality Traits: As you continue to commit to a certain playstyle, so will your personality traits progress based on choices and dialogue outcomes until they become internalised. Internalised traits will affect future options and possibilities in the game, as well as how people perceive and interact with you. If the trait works against your favour, you must then suppress it, lest it consumes you forever.

Identity Factors: Build who you are, as you tear down the walls of the world and analyse the fabric of nationhood. Canonise your backstory and your own core beliefs as you encounter the world and explain who you are, or who you appear to be. 

Dreams: Internalise thought experiments for special conceptualisations of problems and or commitments to future options and paths. These beliefs, ideas, or promises will open up options and paths for unique narrative moments.  

Echoes: The voices that guide you through the world. Choose an archetype at the beginning to favour one class of skills and use that as the blueprint for how you approach the world and interpret and comment on current events. 

Exploration: The world encourages you to explore room to room, picking up, storing and examining objects and documents. 
Gazeteer: Use the map to learn about geopolitics and who's who in the country, while letting yourself choose locations and regions to travel to. 
Newspapers: Collect Newspapers to visualise how your actions have changed the course of history and or keep up with the matrix of chaos flourishing around you.