"A labyrinth of glass hides the truth in plain sight.
The fabric of reality twists and tears.
Twelve long hours stretch to eternity.
A mountain of mysteries traps them within the tower."
The fabric of reality twists and tears.
Twelve long hours stretch to eternity.
A mountain of mysteries traps them within the tower."
— Trailer
In the rural town of Yushibana, the wealthy Ashiya family have recently discovered a rare gemstone. A showing is scheduled in Ashiya Tower, drawing the attention of many of the townspeople. However, just as the event begins, the tower is suddenly flooded with smoke. The emergency shutters activate and trap 8 people inside for the next 12 hours.
Atsuki, a young man dealing with recent trauma, is among those in the tower. With no way out, Atsuki and the others must find the truth behind their imprisonment and grapple with an increasingly complex series of unnatural events. With him are:
- Shiroya, Atsuki's childhood friend who's also dealing with trauma.
- Sai, a 19-year-old sharp-witted man who'll do whatever it takes to confirm his thoughts.
- Isla, a 9-year-old excitable girl who acts oddly calm about the predicament she's in.
- Erina, Isla's mother who's quite unnerved by her daughter's behavior.
- Akaro, a man with an erratic mood who was the first one in the tower.
- Katei, the security guard whose words are inconsistent with his actions.
- Naomi, the tour guide who goes missing when the smoke floods the building.
With no clear facts about the events occurring inside the building, the public and police can only speculate. Why can't the shutters be opened? Is anyone behind this, and if so, who? Are the people inside even still alive? Is there someone else in the building?
The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass is a Ren'Py-based Visual Novel created by Trinitite Team. It was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised €10,407 and was released on May 6, 2021. You can play it on Steam and Itch.io. Console ports for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One are planned to release at a later date. You can check out the developers’ Twitter here, and watch the trailer here.
The Sekimeiya: Spun Glass contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder:
- Akaro treats the gas explosion incident as him accidentally causing a young woman's death since he knocked everyone out with a gas grenade and unknowingly left them vulnerable to the gas heater exploding.
- Miiya is accused of being the killer by Erina A since she's a complete stranger in that world. This accusation is dismissed out of hand which causes Erina to chase her up the Crystal Staircase, only to be knocked back down the stairs to her death. While the game hides this during Miiya's perspective, the death does haunt her and her thoughts.
- Accidental Suicide: While the game leaves the details a mystery, it does confirm that Isla B's death was an accident from being drawn to an A5 cabinet, panicking at seeing her own body in it, falling into the cabinet, and touching a Sekimeiya that was in there.
- Art Evolution: Atsuki's sprite was changed to give him more details and look less generic.
- The Atoner: A post-game tip reveals Akaro A deeply regrets his actions and after being sent to World B's past, removes the hidden storeroom exit's handle to prevent Katei's escape, as well as attempt to stop the gas explosion incident.
- Bittersweet Ending: Shiroya and Itsuki manage to get out of the tower and save Miiya, but it's not the Miiya from their world. Naomi, Katei, and Isla are dead; with Isla's death still unexplained.
- Butterfly of Doom: In World A, Katei A escapes from the start. While this leads to less suspicion among the group, it also means little experimentation and understanding of the Sekimeiya which leads to most of them dying, and ultimately a third of Japan's population being erased from existence due to the Sekimeiya's power.
- Cheerful Child: Isla acts lively and casual despite being in an emergency that could harm her which unsettles her mother Erina. The explanation she offers for this is that her secret friend told her that the lockdown would happen, but everything would turn out okay.
- Childhood Friends: Shiroya is childhood friends with Atsuki, and came to the tower to help them both heal.
- Death of the Hypotenuse: From Miiya C's thoughts, she never liked Shiroya, didn't feel anything from her disappearance, and even prefers her gone to have Atsuki to herself.
- Gone to the Future:
- When someone goes missing and can't be found, it's often because they've activated the Future Sekimeiya and are transported instantly to the future.
- In the ending "Forsaken Relay", Akaro, Sai, and Erina are found crushed during the Ashiya tower's demolition months in the future despite the search for anyone on premise. As the main story goes on to explain, they were caught in a timeloop that continuously sent them 20 minutes into the future, so nobody could find them since they were constantly transporting until the loop is broken.
- Grand Finale: The final chapter explains most of the mysteries in the novel, and the rules of the Sekimeiya.
- Harmful to Minors:
- A dead body appears which the other characters understandably try to stop Isla from looking at to prevent potential trauma for her.
- Isla encounters the sight of her own seemingly dead body, and thinks it is her friend, Isla A, which causes her to completely freak out.
- He Knows Too Much:
- Katei B silences Naomi B when she confronts him over the attempted Sekimeiya theft.
- Akaro B kills Naomi A from the shock of seeing her alive and being confronted over his attempted Sekimeiya theft.
- Though not explicitly stated, it can be inferred that Akaro A killed Shiroya A and knocked out Naomi C for the same reason of Naomi confronting him over the attempted Sekimeiya theft.
- In Spite of a Nail: Akaro A regrets his behavior in World A and when he's sent to World B's past, tries to prevent the gas explosion incident by warning Gan about the heater. Unfortunately, his call is dismissed as nonsense, and even gets Gan hospitalized in World B since he remembered the odd warning just as he smells the gas.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: When both Sekimeiya stones and powered and in range of each other, using them causes a world switch instead of affecting time. The pattern for world travel is A->B->C->A, except for people who are pulled the other direction from someone pulling a world switch in the previous world (i.e. someone going from A->B also causes a B->A reaction).
- Irony: Isla's secret friend reassures her that everything will end up fine during the lockdown. Her friend is Isla A who is completely ignorant that her original world ends up becoming the one with the highest bodycount.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Erina B kills Katei B just as he tries to kill her after definite proof of him murdering Naomi B is shown.
- Linear Visual Novel: The visual novel is a linear experience with minor branching side ends. There are 5 chapters in the VN and you have to do them in order.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Sai has his hair in a short ponytail, and looks quite handsome.
- Mama Bear: Erina is not afraid to protect her only daughter.
- In the wake of Isla B's death, Erina B confronts and then kills Katei B after identifying him as responsible for Naomi B's death.
- Erina A mistakenly believes Miiya is the killer and tries to confront her, though this instance leads to her death.
- Mood-Swinger: According to his bio, Akaro could be carefree one minute, then serious the next.
- Odd Name Out: Isla and Erina's names are not Japanese, which could imply they're foreigners.
- Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: Atsuki and Shiroya use the Sekimeiya to win the lottery and leave behind evidence for the police to arrest the culprits for their World B, and for World C, set up the ideal circumstances where the group, Shiroya, and Miiya all survive though Suripo dies in their place. However, Isla A is stuck in World B knowing that Isla B died and effectively replacing herself for Erina B. World A also has millions of people in Japan erased from existence due to the Sekimeiya.
- Post-End Game Content: Completing the game unlocks tips that explain how certain events unfolded the way they did and the chart which shows the movements of everyone and the Sekimeiya throughout the game.
- Posthumous Character: The tragedy Atsuki and Shiroya are dealing with is the death of their friend Miiya who died two weeks before the story began in a gas explosion accident.
- Retroactive Preparation: It's possible for someone to create a spontaneous solution with time travel, but they need a clear plan in mind that conforms with You Already Changed the Past.
- Use of this trope is how Sai and Akaro escape the attic bedrooms that everyone locked themselves into by ensuring that the doors are unlocked for themselves after they get Katei to look away.
- A post-game tip explains how Atsuki managed to give himself effectively infinite computing power for discovering the Sekimeiya's formula for time-travel strength despite not quite having the right idea. The virtual simulation for him peforming the research constantly updates itself which leads to him having the full solution after using the Sekimeiya once.
- Revealing Cover Up: Katei B tries to prove to Erina B that he didn't kill Isla by fixing the security room computer he sabotaged and showing camera footage of his movements at the time. Erina then follows up by accusing him of Naomi's death and he attempts to defend himself by showing that there's no footage of her death, but forgetting that the computer would leave a time-stamped deletion message, at a time where only he could have been responsible.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Katei A is able to escape through the storeroom's secret door after 09:00 after his attempted heist fails which leads to the other characters never knowing he was there.
- The Sociopath: Sai is initially cooperative, but after the Sekimeiya's time travel abilities are discovered, he becomes a shamelessly manipulative liar to obtain it for himself. The game specifically highlights their reason for hunting down Atsuki with intent to kill as not just being almost fatally struck unprovoked, but to experience killing someone with no consequences and the enraging thought of having "almost suffered a sudden, clueless, and pathetic death." He stops not because he realizes he has the wrong Atsuki, but because he sees that the cameras are recording again.
- Sole Survivor: For World A, Atsuki is the only one in the Ashiya Tower Lockdown to live and remain in that world, though even that's cut short when the Sekimeiya activates six months later.
- Sound Test: Beating the game unlocks a music player. All the songs (which were licensed from various artists) have their original album art displayed there.
- Tele-Frag: Since the Sekimeiya teleports people based on past/future position, this results in some sudden injuries like Atsuki injuring his arm with the elevator's handrail.
- Notably, this results in Sai A's death after he touches the Future Sekimeiya since he was leaning against a door earlier and that door was left open.
- Averting this is why Atsuki tells Shiroya to stand beneath a stone roof when its snowing to avoid telefragging her feet against the built up snow.
- Temporal Paradox:
- There is no clear origin for the Sekimeiya. It's discovered near a remote cabin where Atsuki and Shiroya used to play which is why Atsuki B drops off the World C stones there in World C, but no explanation for where it came from or how it appeared there in the other worlds.
- As a post-game tip points out, Akaro A is told about the storeroom exit in World B and removes the handle when he is sent to World B's past which causes the storeroom to be discovered and thus allows the World B group to tell Akaro A about the storeroom exit.
- Time Machine: The Sekimeiya is a pair of identical gemstones that gather energy when not kept at 0 degrees Celsius with one stone permitting travel to the past while the other permits traveling to the future. The more energy it has, the longer the time traveled, and more range to affect more people with from its radius. If the Past Sekimeiya is used, then they are transported to the location that their future self would be in based on X amount of time traveled and vice versa for the Future Sekimeiya. When both are powered up and within range of each other when activated, it doesn't affect time and becomes an Interdimensional Travel Device instead.
- Time Travel for Fun and Profit: Shiroya commits to remembering winning lottery numbers after timetraveling with the Sekimeiya and reasons that it would be selfish not to when given the opportunity.
- Tomato Surprise: Shiroya isn't the POV character of Chapter 2, Miiya is.
- Too Dumb to Live: Each Naomi chooses to privately confront a culprit over their part in attempting to steal the Sekimeiya which gets her killed, except for Naomi C who asks Shiroya A to join which gets her killed in Naomi's place and Naomi getting knocked out until 21:00 instead. Even worse is that Naomi B and C appear in front of the group and asks to have a private talk, while Naomi A takes it a step further in witnessing Naomi B's death and still going through with her actions.
- Tricked Out Time: Atsuki and Shiroya are able to maintain the gas explosion incident's consistency for World C by saving Miiya and having Shiroya C use the Future Sekimeiya to jump to the future.
- The Unreveal: It is never revealed how exactly Isla B met her death, despite this being one of the most significant and tragic moments of the story. The narration outright says that this is left for the player to figure out on their own.
- Wham Line: From Chapter 2:"I'm Miiya, I've been here the whole time! Do you not remember?"Explanation
- You Already Changed the Past: Zigzagged. Ultimately, the Sekimeiya cannot change the past and all the time-traveling changes have already occurred. However, people from another world are able to make changes as Akaro A and Isla A do for World B, and Atsuki B and Shiroya B do for World C.
Solve the mystery surrounding an unprecedented discovery. Reach the peak and escape the labyrinth.
