Cell of Empireo (細胞神曲, Saibou Shinkyoku) is a free mystery/horror game with a focus on exploration, made in RPG Maker 2003. developed by SharkTale Factory in 2018. It follows protagonist Haruki Atou, a 28-year-old man employed at his childhood friend’s detective agency who was tasked with keeping an eye out for his junior Eiji Shinano. Seems simple enough, until one April day, Shinano goes missing.
Tracking his disappeared coworker’s whereabouts, Atou finds himself at the gates of the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute, where it doesn’t take long before he is knocked unconscious and kidnapped. Inside the building, he is able to escape solitary confinement thanks to a benevolent stranger, but finds himself still stuck in an unfamiliar Abandoned Laboratory crawling with disturbing failed experiments and the corpses of researchers. With the help of newfound allies Reiji Isoi, Nina Yanagi, Terumi Kurachi, and Karen Kumazaki, Haruki sets out on a journey to save not just his friend Shinano's life, but the lives of all of his other trapped allies, as well as his own.
The people at the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute are researching Empyrean cells, trying to create more hosts by administering them to people. However, these experiments have a high rate of failure, leading to the murderous failed experiments roaming the facility, the deaths of many researchers, and, perhaps most terrifyingly, the creation of the monster named Origin Beta.
Origin Beta is currently wandering the facility, killing anything, researcher or civilian, that happens to cross its path. And despite Atou & the rest of the survivors trying desperately to escape it, they soon find it is much, much closer than they think.What led to the creation of something like this? Where did these Empyrean cells come from in the first place? Was Atou's arrival at the facility solely due to unfortunate timing and bad luck?And just who is this mysterious Sanemitsu Isoi whose name keeps popping up everywhere?Atou may be able to escape the institute, but he'll have to find those answers—and the truth of what happened sixteen years ago— for it to truly be over.
In 2019, the DLC, called Records of Sanemitsu Isoi, was released. It is a supplement to the original game, unlocked with a save fine from the best ending of the series itself. Just like the base game, it's an exploration-focused RPG maker game, but is much shorter & lacks the same horror elements & quick time events as the base game.It is a series of flashbacks to the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute interspersed with the morning routine of Sanemitsu Isoi, a member of the mysterious organization Libro Di Libero, who is getting ready to fly to Japan to celebrate a birthday.Records of Sanemitsu Isoi takes place after Haruki Atou and the rest of the survivors have successfully escaped the facility, about three years after the S+ ending. It sheds more light on the situation at the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute before the incident sixteen years ago, with sections of the DLC focused on each member, detailing their lives and experiences at the Institute.Just who is the mysterious Seodore Riddle, leader of Libro Di Libero? What is he after? How did he have a hand in what happened at the Institute? And just why does everyone seem to react with either fear or horrified recognition upon seeing the Harada name?In Sanemitsu Isoi's journey, just how much of this will he learn, and how much of it will he regret learning?
In 2020, Hermit's Room was released. It's accessible with a save file that's cleared the DLC, and it allows you to read all books that appear in the game, both main & DLC, replay the Vs.Moments (boss battles), and access character profiles. It mostly serves the function of a developer room, but the mysterious Hermit overseeing it seems to be very curious about you. Who is said Hermit, and did they have anything to do with the soundfile you hear of a mysterious incident occurring in 1954? Well...
In 2020, Interlude was also released. It acts as a bridge between Cell of Empireo and Cell of Mirage, which is its planned sequel, and shows off the RPG Maker MV engine that will be used for the sequel, as well as some of the exploration gameplay. It's a short game, showing scenes from the POV of multiple different people: First is Seodore Riddle, Second is the livestreamer ZERO, Third is the mysterious man Ryu Nijou, and Fourth is the young man Izu Nanami.
Interlude, unlike the previous games, does not require you to have completed the base game to access, but these characters & their roles are deeply tied to their appearances in the previous entries, so it's highly recommended you play it after if you'd like to know what's going on.
You can download and play the game in its original Japanese here
. The DLC can be downloaded in Japanese here, and Interlude can be downloaded in Japanese here. The official twitter can be found here, and the official shop here, and the creator's pixiv fanbox here.
The creator has stated that they are open to having their game translated into other languages, but would like to supervise any playable patches in order to make sure of the quality. However, they've also said that at the moment, they don't have the time to give those patches the attention they need, so there are no current plans for official localization into other languages as of yet.
However, an authorized but unofficial playthrough translated into English can be found here, and if you'd rather play through the game yourself but don't know Japanese, there's a tutorial on how to play through it with MTL here.
Tropes that Cell of Empireo provides an example of:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The game takes place in 2015, but was released in 2018.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The mysterious and titular Empyrean cells.
- Arc Words: “A rat with no head is looking this way”, "This is not the start of a nightmare, but the end of a peaceful dream", and "I am Haruki Atou." All of these relate to the underlying themes of the game. Yes, even the last one.
- Artistic Age: In response to a fan’s question about characters looking younger than they are, Fukao pointed out that it is partially because of their art style.
- Bookends: Employed in Arrival Point E—the story started with Haruki arriving at the mysterious Empyrean Heaven Research Institute in search of Shinano, while this ending has Otowa arriving at the same place in search of Haruki.
- Collapsing Lair: This happens in every ending of the game.
- Comfort the Dying: Atou does this to Enomoto in Arrival Point S.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: One of the Non-Standard Game Over endings aptly-titled ‘Needless Prying’ has Atou killed after learning a bit too much about a certain someone.
- Cutting Off the Branches: Unsurprisingly, Arrival Point S is considered canon in the DLC that takes place a few years after the original game.
- Death of a Child: Present in some routes if Karen isn’t protected in time. Failing to save her either guarantees the worst Downer Ending in the game or an only slightly better ending where only one person is saved, at the cost of Haruki Atou's sense of self.
- Also occurred prior to in-game events with Haruki’s little brother Reiji.
- Dysfunction Junction: Most of the cast has suffered monumentally before ending up where they are. This is most notable within the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute, since it’s because of their tribulations that they were all so quick to devote themselves to reaching God’s love.
- Ending Memorial Service: Arrival Point D has Atou visiting the graves of Yanagi and Kurachi.
- Enigmatic Institute: The Empyrean Heaven Research Institute fits this description to a T, with all their experiments being covered-up (for obvious reasons) and funded by a particularly wealthy family.
- First-Name Basis: Atou exploits this towards Utsugi, calling him Noriyuki (just as Hajime always would) in order to catch him off guard when first attempting to kill him.
- Go Out with a Smile: Happens with a good majority of (canon) deaths.
- Jabuchi is smiling in his final moments as Nina watches him.
- Enomoto is able to smile genuinely for the first (and, well, last) time in the entire game thanks to Atou.
- Hatsutori’s perpetual smile remains as his long-awaited end finally arrives. In one version of Arrival Point S, Utsugi is also grinning in pious fervor as the two go out together.
- Gold and White Are Divine: Rare example wherein the Big Bads sport this color scheme. Naturally, the association lies more with divinity than it does with goodness.
- Guinea Pig Family: The tension in the relationship between Minoru and Rai was because of the latter’s decision to give their first son, Haruki, up for experimentation in the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute. Later, father and son Minoru and Reiji (the first) would be trapped in the facility and used for experimentation, and Minoru would end up meeting the child that he would go on to adopt (Reiji the second) because of their shared undesirable circumstances.
- Healing Factor: All successful Empyrean cell hosts can regenerate enough to survive most injuries that would’ve been fatal otherwise, so long as they aren’t getting injured faster than they can regenerate.
- Hellhound: Origin β is revealed to be a dog with murderous tendencies, Empyrean superpowers, and a Cerberus-esque appearance.
- Just Friends: Though they receive a little bit of Ship Tease and are romantically involved in some endings (albeit under complicated circumstances), the Golden Ending has Haruki and Nina remain good friends.
- Killed Offscreen: In routes where Kurachi dies, this will always be the case.
- This also applies for Shinano and Isoi in the endings where they go down together—we see the former violently pin the latter to the wall, but they don’t technically die presumably until the bombs go off in the building.
- Long-Lost Relative: As it turns out, Minoru Harada is the father of Haruki Atou.
- Multiple Endings: There are six main endings titled Arrival Points A-E (plus S). They vary in tone from Bittersweet Ending to Downer Ending, except for the Golden Ending Arrival Point S, which is the only ending in which all of Haruki’s allies survive.
- There are also various Non-Standard Game Overs that are only ‘endings’ in name, as they all end up with Haruki Atou dying in various ways without escaping.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Atou experiences this enough to suffer a brief Heroic BSoD after he believes himself to have killed Enomoto and Utsugi.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Those who successfully bear Empyrean cells are practically unkillable, so long as they aren’t getting injured faster than their bodies can regenerate.
- Older Than They Look: Hosts often look younger than their actual age due to the power of the cells.
- Playing with Syringes: The experiments conducted by the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute are definitely far from ethical, seeing as how they often kidnap people to perform their experiments, which end in either horrible death or turning into a monster most of the time.
- Press X to Not Die: One of the main features of the game is its Quick-Time events, which are employed both while traversing the overworld as well as while in battle.
- Profane Last Words: Kanou’s last last words if you trigger his special event:Kanou: Damn it.
- Replacement Goldfish: Played straight in Arrival Point C, where Atou assumes the identity of a deceased Jabuchi following Nina’s mental break. Averted with Sanemitsu and Reiji, though—Reiji shares the same name as Sanemitsu’s deceased second son, but he is loved unconditionally as his own person.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: Sanemitsu and Reiji become this following their escapes from the facility.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Shinano and Isoi seem to have this dynamic, with the former being emotional and inclined to nerdier hobbies and the latter being gruff and familiar with traditionally masculine pastimes.
- Significant Name Overlap: Atou comes to find out that the Reiji Isoi that he knows today shares a name with the younger brother he forgot he had. Turns out they weren’t actually related—Isoi was just named after Sanemitsu Isoi’s previous son following his informal adoption. Sanemitsu loves him just as much, but is adamantly against treating him like a Replacement Goldfish.
- The Smurfette Principle: Noa is the only female bishop among the institute's current leaders.
- Sue Donym: Upon first meeting the fellow kidnapping victims in the abandoned lab, Atou’s first instinct is to go by an alias he’d once used while doing detective work: Kouji Asou. Conveniently, the surname used is only one consonant off from his actual one.
- Similarly, ‘Aogu Kanou’ uses an alias that is very similar to his actual name (Aogi Kanao) to avoid being recognized for the homicide he committed years ago.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Having survived a large-scale electrocution earlier, Utsugi could only truly be killed off after being defeated in battle, crushed with a giant cross, and then finally restrained by vines and left to burn in the building’s rubble.
- Two Girls to a Team: Nina and Karen are the only two girls among the main cast.
- Unwitting Test Subject: As it turns out, the majority of the main cast fits this description, as they were given Empyrean Cells but only discover this later.
- Wham Line: Occurs quite a few times.
- In Chapter 6:Atou: …Shinano. Why do you give the same sign out as Origin β?
- In Arrival Point S’s Chapter 8:Atou: Ah, that's right, that's right――, you, I――I,――"I", at that time, died.
- In Chapter 6:
- World of Technicolor Hair: While most of the cast has natural hair colors, others were born with vibrant colored hair, including blue, lavender, and green.
