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PQube announced the release date for Bustafellows Season 2, the sequel to the adventure and otome game that originally appeared on the Switch and PC. It will debut on July 17, 2025, and we’ll see it both digitally and physically. There’s also a demo immediately available on Steam.

There are also details about physical copies and bonuses. As usual, the game will only be available physically on the Switch. If you get it at or just after launch, it comes with a character booklet. That will show concept art and offer insight on the game’s development from Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Extend Inc. There’s also already a photo showing how that looks

Here’s how the booklet with first-run copies:

Extend Shop is also selling the Deluxe Edition, and it does worldwide shipping. That costs ¥9,680 (~$68). It comes with a voice drama CD, soundtrack CD, pamphlet, Turtle Pizza shop card, and Turtle Pizza illustrated portrait inside a box that looks like a Turtle Pizza box. 

There’s also a new trailer for Bustafellows Season 2 that highlights characters we will get to romance in this otome game as we solve the new mystery. It prioritizes peeks at the different love interests.

Bustafellows Season 2 will come to the Switch and PC via Steam, and the global release date is July 17, 2025. 

The post Bustafellows Season 2 Otome Release Date Falls in July appeared first on Siliconera.

Bustafellows Season 2, the sequel to the otome game, appeared in Japan on the Switch and mobile devices in May 2023. Now after much teasing, PQube confirmed it picked it up for a worldwide English release on the Switch and PC in 2025. 

As in the original otome game, players will work alongside Teuta and Helvetica, Limbo, Mozu, Scarecrow, and Shu to solve a crime in Bustafellows Season 2. However, in this situation since it is a sequel, relationships are already established as it begins. So like in otome fan discs, players will see the romance continue to build after the events of the first game. In addition to continuing routes, a flowchart will also be added to make it easier to go through and backtrack.

PQube released the first trailer for the game. Rather than an opening movie, which can be common for otome game announcements, the Bustafellows sequel sets the stage for the new investigation and role the team will play. After a brief introduction, we get to see snippets of each major character again.

The Steam product listing for the game is already live. It features eight screenshots highlighting different characters. However, system requirements aren’t available yet.

PQube did already note that there will be digital and physical Switch copies available.

Bustafellows Season 2 will come to the Nintendo Switch and PC in 2025, and it is already available on the Switch and mobile devices in Japan.

The post Bustafellows Season 2 English Switch and PC Release Set appeared first on Siliconera.

Back in 2020, the Bustafellows Season 2 sequel was announced, and the official social media teased an English release in October 2023. Now the Producer minetaka went online again to tease a release outside Japan again.

Here’s the official message from the series’ social media . No release window came up or official reveal. However, minetaka noted that fans of the series “will see.”

Bustafellows Season 2 launched in Japan in May 2023, following the English release of the first game worldwide in August 2021. It appeared on the Switch and mobile devices in the region. It’s a follow up that again involves investigating an incident and getting closer to characters like Crow, Helvetica, Limbo, Mozu, and Shu. 

Here’s the opening movie for it with English subtitles:

And here’s an official trailer:

For those unfamiliar, Bustafellows is a series of otome style adventure games with visual novel elements. Players investigate various crimes and situations alongside "professionals," with romantic situations happening along the way. There's a bit more interaction to it than you see in most otome visual novels.

The original Bustafellows is available worldwide on the Switch. Bustafellows 2 is available on the Switch and mobile devices in Japan. 

The post Bustafellows Season 2 English Release Teased Again appeared first on Siliconera.

Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Extend Inc revealed the full Japanese voice cast for Bustafellows 2. Sample voices for a variety of characters are available now on the official website. They include the voices of new characters. such as Juno, Guero, and Watcher, among returning ones. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

Here is the full Japanese voice cast for Bustafellows Season 2:

• Adam: Kaito Ishikawa
• Alex: Koutaro Nishiyama
• Ally: Tomomi Isomura
• Carmen: Tetsuya Kakihara
• Dahee: Rin Satou
• Guero: Shintaro Asanuma
• Helvetica: Hiroyuki Yoshino
• Juno: Shoya Chiba
• Limbo: KENN
• Luka: Mai Nishikawa
• Mozu: Jun Fukuyama
• Pepe: Kazuhiro Yoshimura
• Renée: Ai Hiyoko
• Ricardo: Yu Omoto
• Sauli: Tomokazu Sugita
• Scarecrow: Yusuke Shirai
• Shu: Yoshimasa Hosoya
• Sid: Mikihiko Fujita
• Stray Cat: Ichiko and Kedama-kun
• Teuta: Yui Kondou
• Valerie: Mie Sonozaki
• Watcher: Toshinari Fukamachi
• Yang: Shouhei Komatsu
• Yara: Misato

The only characters without a voice sample on the Bustafellows 2 official website are the side characters Ally, Sid, Ricardo, Renée, Dahee, Yara, Chika, and Nora. Kaito Ishikawa and Tomokazu Sugita, who voice Adam and Sauli, will lend their voices to Chika and Nora, respectively.

Meanwhile, Stray Cat is a special case among the voice cast of Bustafellows 2, as this kitty will be voiced by two different real cats. They are listed in the official website as Ichiko and Kedama-kun. Kedama-kun even has his own profile, with a mugshot of the actor included. As a fun note, "kedama" literally translates to lint or furball.

[caption id="attachment_958639" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Kedama-kun, one of the two voice actors for Stray cat.[/caption]

The first Bustafellows game originally released overseas on July 30, 2021. The English localization of the game was revealed on December 2020, alongside announcing the development of the sequel. At the time of writing there are no news on an English localization of Bustafellows Season 2.

The post Bustafellows Season 2 Full Japanese Voice Cast Revealed appeared first on Siliconera.

When a girl has the ability to go back in time a few hours and she actually uses her powers for good, naturally this means she's going to be thrown in a situation with five hot guys. I don't know what else to expect when you have that kind of ability. This situation entails murder, espionage, the black market, human trafficking, and general psychopathy. It's a perfect situation for finding love in all the wrong places, such as with said five hot guys who don't seem like they'd go together outside an otome game. Which, in of itself, is part of the charm of the genre--the ridiculousness the heroine often finds herself in. Obviously this is part of an otome's charm, but Bustafellows takes it one step further. Any otome can throw five guys and a girl together, but not every otome follows through with a good, connecting story that makes the player want to play through every route. In addition, not every otome creates five personalities who are all lovable. Bustafellows incorporates both for mysteries and love stories that will keep players glued to their Switches.

When the heroine, Bridges, goes back in time, she ends up in someone else's body, a la Quantum Leap. Unlike that TV show, however, she can only stay in that person's body for a few minutes. She has just enough time to try to change the present before going back. The beauty of these moments is that how she tries to prevent the bad thing from happening comes in a player choice. Sometimes that choice leads to a bad ending. Sometimes it grossly affects the person whom Bridges leaped into. For example, at one point she leaped into a janitor at a motel. Both choices led to saving the person, but one of the choices gets the janitor fired. Sure, someone getting fired isn't nearly as bad as someone getting murdered, but your choice affects everyone around you. Nothing is as simple as saving someone, and it's important to that all decisions have a ripple effect.

[caption id="attachment_892355" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Hey Quantum Leap was not a third-rate drama! It was second-rate.[/caption]

The overall story is massive, with so many moving parts. Of course, as otome visual novels typically go, the only way to see each piece of the puzzle all the way through is to complete all of the routes available. For example, Bridges, who is a freelance reporter, interviews an inmate about her connection with a seedy organization. Without finishing all of the routes and picking up each piece of that puzzle, her story goes unfinished. Bridges never solves that mystery without full route completion.

That's the typical formula for an otome, but it can also lead to one of the biggest problems with the genre. Most of these games have at least one suitor the player strongly dislikes. For example, in Piofiore, I had an extremely hard time getting through Yang's route. It was a particularly difficult storyline to successfully complete, but my main issue was how unlikeable the character was. There's often a case of one love interest who is overly pushy and forceful with the player character. Bustafellows, thankfully, doesn't have either of these issues.

The five suitors include Limbo Fitzergerald, the cool leader and "crooked" lawyer; Scarecrow, the awkward yet brilliant hacker; Shu, the aloof hitman; Mozu, the quiet and odd coroner; and last but not least, Helvetica the plastic surgeon who is way too sexy for his shirt. Each of them has their own backstory full of mystery and intrigue that taps into the main story. These little teases across the routes further entices players to want to see how they all fit together. This random little band is a vigilante group that orchestrates their version of justice in the background, but it's not completely for altruistic reasons. How much profit they can garner from each mission factors highly into their motivations. It does make sense that they'd find a reporter who can go back in time useful for their purposes.

The complete story is one of the best I've come across in an otome, and I enjoyed almost every second of it.

What didn't I enjoy? Well, I'm very disappointed in the spelling and grammar in the dialogue. I'm used to this happening, but I'm always hopeful for that one otome that will be almost perfect. At the very least, have the characters names spelled the same across the entire game. Bridges' brother was mentioned frequently, but his name went back and forth between "Zora" and "Zola." The newspaper article about him spelled it as "Zora," but the dialogue never kept it consistent.

In addition, it would have been nice if some of the dialogue was translated at all. Only the dedicated conversation boxes were translated, but there were numerous instances where the characters would talk with no text boxes. These conversations were, of course, not crucial to the story, but at the same time, native Japanese speakers would be able to understand what they were saying without the boxes. I always hated it when co-workers would break into Spanish so I couldn't understand what they were saying, and this felt so similar. I know it's not the same, but it's hard not to feel a little left out.

But since those are really the only negatives in Bustafellows, neither takes away from the overall enjoyment of the game. If you're an otome fan, you most likely will already have pre-ordered a copy, and you will not regret your purchase. For those on the fence, I can't recommend it enough.

[caption id="attachment_892356" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Only a little insulted as a Texan[/caption]

Bustafellows is available for the Nintendo Switch and PC.

The post Review: Bustafellows Will Have You Bust a Fellow and Bust a Move appeared first on Siliconera.

PQube’s next visual novel has a release date. People will be able to play NIPPON CULTURAL BROADCASTING EXTEND INC’s Bustafellows on the Switch and PC on July 30, 2021. Once the full game is available, it will have Japanese voice acting and English subtitles.

Bustafellows is an adventure game where players can investigate crimes and mysteries, then save the day and (hopefully) find a better future. There are multiple endings, including romantic ones, and side stories to complete. It also references and includes characters from the developer's previous game, Side Kicks. In addition, while it is an otome, it is more of an adventure-focused tale.

There are also new looks at the game. An array of additional screenshots were shared alongside the release date announcement. These offer more peeks at gameplay. We can watch Teuta interact with Limbo, take part in a coin toss with Luka, and see how the “team” operates.

Here are all of the new Bustafellows English PC and Switch screenshots. Don't worry, as there aren't any spoilers here. Rather, they all consist of moments people would experience fairly early in the adventure.

[gallery columns="8" ids="883052,883053,883054,883055,883056,883057,883058,883059" link="file"]

Bustafellows will come to the Nintendo Switch and PC on July 30, 2021. There will be Switch standard and special edition physical copies. That includes a Collector’s Edition with New Sieg People Magazine.

The post Bustafellows Switch and PC Will Debut at the End of July appeared first on Siliconera.