Developers Mystery Crown have just listed their next game on Steam. Inner Scales 1:Choice features a huge cast of FMV veterans and involves rescuing them from imprisonment. Players will deliver meals and take measurements of the women trapped behind bars, before deciding who to rescue. The theme is a little similar to Blood Money: Lethal Eden
Zhang Cheng, a new office worker, accepts a mysterious out-of-town assignment to secure his permanent position and earn extra money: four days of confined delivery work, no mobile phones allowed, with a daily pay of 1,000 yuan. Thinking it’s just a simple part-time job, he instead enters a heavily guarded suburban prison building.
Here, he delivers meals and takes body measurements for eight unknown women on the second floor each day, only to gradually discover they were all kidnapped. The entire building is under surveillance, its walls wired with high-voltage electricity, and corpses in identical prison uniforms are buried at the corners.
The cast is one of the most experienced in any FMV game to date, with Shen Yichen from Hello Love: 18 Again, Wang Xingchen from Love is All Around, Ai Jun from Service of Five Graces, Chen Man from Game of Fate, Guo Xinyu from Love is All Around 2, Tang Zhifei from Heartbeat in Thailand, and Yan Ran from God Bless or Goddess. Even Xiang Weijing, who was in Breaker of Fatalism, will play in her first game filmed from a first-person perspective. Over the whole cast, there are well over 20 individual game credits.
Mystery Crown have recently spoke about their funding issues as they struggle to stay alive. A few months ago they got a new investor who was willing to support them, if they also produced some AI games at the same time. While it seems like those AI games have not sold well, their FMV projects might.
Based on social media discussion, each actress only filmed for 1-2 days each, which is less than the 1-2 weeks typically needed. This is likely because the budget is still lower than average. But given the setting, and Mystery Crown’s familiarity with a tight budget, this time may have been put to good use.
The store page does not list English support, however Mystery Crown have typically been good supporters of English so it might be added closer to release. The only reason it might not is because the game will likely have a short turnaround time. Filming started earlier this month and it will probably launch around July, since they also plan to release an Inner Scales 2 this year.
