News

AOKANA's sprite Unveils Where the Golden Swallowtail Came to Rest Visual Novel

Visual novel developer sprite unveiled its new visual novel Where the Golden Swallowtail Came to Rest (Koganei-sō to Konjiki no Agehachō) on Thursday, with a slated release date of fall 2026 on Switch and PC (the game has no slated English release as of yet). The game celebrates the developer's 15th anniversary.

sprite bills the game as the third game in its "filmic novel" genre. sprite describes the genre as a type of visual novel inspired by the unique qualities of films, and focuses on quality over length to meet the time demands of the current generation. Filmic novels focus on a condensed, unique story told through a much higher than average number of CGs (unique event illustrations), and a cinematic storytelling style. Everlasting Flowers, sprite's second filmic novel, had over 400 CGs, an extraordinarily high amount for the medium.

Yohira (Everlasting Flowers) is writing the story for the visual novel, with Suzumori (AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue) in charge of character design. Daisuke Kikuta and Elements Garden are composing the music. Azuna Riko is performing the opening theme song "Summer Papilio," while Ceui is performing the ending theme song "Mabuta Tojireba" (When You Close Your Eyes).

sprite has so far developed the Love, Elections, & Chocolate, AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue, and Everlasting Flowers visual novels, the latter two of which have official English releases.

Love, Elections, & Chocolate debuted in October 2010. The visual novel inspired a television anime in 2012.

Since then, sprite released AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue on PC in November 2014, for PlayStation Vita in February 2016, for PlayStation 4 in January 2017, and for Nintendo Switch in March 2018. The game received a television anime by GONZO that premiered in January 2016. The Aokana - Four Rhythms Across the Blue - EXTRA2 fan disc debuted in Japanese and English in 2022.

The company released Everlasting Flowers in Japanese, English, and Chinese simultaneously in August 2024.

The original incarnation of sprite halted operations in March 2019, but the developers' former members reformed the brand under the company S-WORKS in November later that year. At the time the company halted operations, the company also halted the development of Aokana - Four Rhythms Across the Blue - EXTRA2 and Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm Zwei. After the brand returned, it eventually released EXTRA2 in 2022, but did not release Zwei.

Source: Where the Golden Swallowtail Came to Rest visual novel's website