Girls Beyond the Wasteland, often abbreviated as Shokomeza and also known as Girls Beyond the Youth Koya in Japan, is a visual novel developed by Minato Soft, released for Windows on March 25, 2016 with a rating for all ages. An anime television series adaptation, produced by Project No.9 and directed by Takuya Satō, premiered in January 2016.
Gameplay
Girls Beyond the Wasteland is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Buntarō Hōjō. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. The text in the game is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Buntarō is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. The game follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are four main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each heroine. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. Some decisions can lead the game to end prematurely, which offer an alternative ending to the plot. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction.
An anime television series adaptation, produced by Project No.9 and directed by Takuya Satō, premiered on January 7, 2016. The screenplay is written by Yuniko Ayana and Takayuki Noguchi based the character design used in the anime on Matsuryū's original designs. A Blu-ray Disc containing an original video animation episode will be bundled with an "Anime Edition" of the Windows game. The anime has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America, Madman Entertainment in Australia and MVM Films in the United Kingdom. The opening theme "Wastelanders" is by Sayaka Sasaki and the ending theme "Sekai wa Kyō mo Atarashii" is sung by the voice cast of main female characters: Haruka Chisuga, Kana Hanazawa, Satomi Satō, and Satomi Akesaka.
Episode list
Manga
A manga adaptation with art by Kazuchi began serialization in ASCII Media Works' seinen manga magazine Dengeki G's Comic with the April 2016 issue released on February 29, 2016.
