Danchi Days is a Game Boy Advance-style quest to host a Japanese summer festival, inspired by Earthbound

rockpapershotgun.com:

One of my favourite anime shows is Sakura Quest. It's the story of an unemployed lady from Tokyo who accidentally gets herself appointed "Queen" of a struggling backwater village by the regional tourist board. From that case of mistaken identity proceeds 25 whole-ass episodes of Machiavellian haggling with crusty bigwigs over things like organising a concert. It's playfully dull, heartily mundane entertainment. No supernatural flourishes here - just the magic of paperwork and the thrill of bureaucracy.

I'm reminded of Sakura Quest by Danchi Days, a forthcoming cosy adventure with irresponsibly enticing Game Boy Advance-style visuals. It casts you as Hoshino, a teenage girl who's just moved to an old "danchi" housing complex and is trying to revive the yearly tradition of a summer festival. How will she do this? By means of haggling - haggling, and a bit of CSI.

Hoshino needs to persuade 100 residents to attend the festival by gathering clues about their "quirks and desires". Some of these clues are found online, care of a gorgeous Y2K web browser that harbours a few minigames. Others must be uncovered using Hoshino's low-key Sherlockian capabilities. "A tossed-aside cigarette butt tells a story, and the fragrant scent of trees hides the sneaky presence of a mosquito," the Steam page comments. Confound you, trees! When the day of the festival comes, we will chop you down for firewood. Providing we get permission from the council.

Danchi Days takes inspiration from auld Japanese console delights like Earthbound and Moon Remix RPG, but it's also semi-autobiographical - based on developers sandy powder and Melos Han-Tani's experience of living in a real-life danchi, with art from illustrator mogumu. It's being published by Analgesic Productions, whose other works include the amazing and perpetually overlooked Anodyne games. I'm hoping the new game's apartment block doesn't harbour anything like Anodyne 2's desertNPC.

Keen? It's not out for a while - sometime in