Could you imagine Eastenders or Dynasty as an anime visual novel? No, us neither – but that’s more or less the premise of Re:Burn The Bonfire of Taiwan.
Inspired by a landmark Taiwanese drama which originally aired in the early 2000s, this officially licensed adaptation “reimagines the series’ story and characters in over-the-top anime style”.
You can check out a trailer below for a taste of what to expect:
The original soap opera depicts “the rivalry between two families, marked by business conflicts and personal grudges”. The official press release expands:
“The story reveals long-held secrets and explores themes of revenge, love, and betrayal, with characters embodying both good and evil. The player’s choices and the characters’ affection levels lead to either endings from the original show or unique game-exclusive outcomes, and as a special inclusion, key scenes from the live action original can be unlocked with progression through the game’s many compelling chapters.”
You can actually watch the first episode from the original TV show below, although there are no subtitles so keep that in mind:
Obviously this new adaptation will be fully localised in English, so you’ll be able to understand what’s going on.
“With each chapter, you can choose to play from multiple perspectives and navigate the city map. Confront ‘boss’ characters through direct combat or a war of words, use items like DNA test results and divorce agreements to state your case, rely on other characters’ unique support skills, leverage property deeds and more as the conflict between rival families heats up!”
Romance also plays a key role in the full release, tasking you with managing your relationships carefully in order to get the outcomes you want.
But don’t worry if you make a mistake – chapter select will allow you to easily turn back time and pick a different path, so you can explore all of the different outcomes in the game.
Amusingly, we’ve actually played this one briefly at the Taipei Game Show earlier this year, but while we were drawn in by the large colourful character art, the entire demo was in Mandarin so we didn’t get very far.
To be honest, we didn’t realise this was based on a classic soap opera, so that’s actually raised our interest a little more – especially with the unlockable live action scenes.
Is this the type of title you’d be willing to try? Which other soap operas do you think would work as visual novels? Let us know in the comments section below.