Yurukill: The Calumniation Games

Sengoku Shunju wakes up in his prison cell.

A woman wearing a fox mask introduces herself as Binko, and says: “Sengoku Shunju, you are a criminal sentenced to years in prison, you’ve been offered the chance to gain your freedom.

You must survive the various ‘attractions’ in a certain ‘amusement park.’ If you succeed, your crimes will be pardoned.”

“No, you’ve got it all wrong, I’ve been falsely accused! I’m innocent!”

The victim of one of his alleged crimes appears. Her name is Rina Azami.

“Sengoku Shunju. A name I will never forget. You killed my entire family. For that, I will never forgive you.”

Sengoku is in prison, charged with arson and murder—for burning to death 21 people, including Rina’s family.

Naturally, the victim does not believe a word of Sengoku’s claims of innocence.

Besides Sengoku are four other groups of criminals and their respective victims.

The accused criminals are called “Prisoners,” and the victims “Executioners.” Criminals and victims must pair up to face the amusement park’s attractions.

There are a total of six criminals and five victims. There are five teams: Mass Murderers, Death Dealing Duo, Crafty Killers, Sly Stalkers, and Peeping Toms.

The Prisoners hope to overcome the challenges so that they may be pardoned.

Should the Executioners win, their wishes will be granted. At long last they will be able to avenge their loved ones.

The challenges take place in a secluded amusement park called “Yurukill Land.”

All manner of secrets will be unearthed as the teams face each attraction.

Who will survive the cruel, twisted place that is Yurukill Land?

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games (冤罪執行遊戯ユルキル, Enzai shikkō yūgi yurukiru; lit. 'False Accusation Game Yurkill') is a 2022 video game developed by IzanagiGames and G.rev for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. A multi-genre game combining visual novel and shoot 'em up gameplay, the title centres on a group of convicts which profess innocence for crimes which they have been convicted of. The convicted 'prisoners,' each teamed up with a civilian 'executioner,' compete on the fictional island of Yurukill Land, for which the winning team is rewarded with the wiping of the prisoners' criminal record and the granting of the executioner's greatest wish.

The game released on May 22, 2022 in Japan and in July in international markets. Upon release, Yurukill received mixed reception, although general praise was offered for its premise and unconventional fusion of genres.

Plot

Six convicts, Sengoku Shunju (arson resulting in 21 counts of murder, sentenced to 999 years), twins Futa and Raita Yamada (robbery and double homicide, sentenced to 78 years), Gentoku Omuro (murder, sentenced to 110 years), pop singer Hanaka Ichirin (murder and attempted murder, sentenced to 18 years), and Benitaro "Allan Poe Akechi" Barahabara (disturbing the peace, sentenced to two months) all mysteriously awake on board a ship transporting the group to the island of Yurukill Land. All six profess innocence for the crimes and claim erroneous convictions. Also on the ship are five mostly eccentric civilians who have not been convicted of a crime and invited to the island on their own resolve: Rina Azami (paired with Sengoku), Kagura Kagutsuchi (paired with the Yamada twins), Izane Akegarasu (paired with Gentoku), Keiichi Oka (paired with Hanaka, whom his is a super fan of), and Beniko 'Kristina Kobayashi' Barahabara (paired with her older brother Allan Poe Akechi).

On the island, modeled after an amusement park, Binko, a woman donning a fox mask, informs the group that they have been brought to Yurukill Land to participate in a competition. The winning team will have the convict's criminal record erased, with the civilian being granted a wish as a prize. The convicts are to take the role of 'prisoners' while their civilian teammates are 'executioners'. Binko informs the participants that as teams progress through the games' challenges, executioners will have the ability to determine the guilt of their prisoner counterparts, resulting in either a pardon or the execution of their teammate. This judgement can occur at any point but is also to happen at the end of each challenge.

The teams are individually transported to a unique attraction which they must solve independent of the other groups. As the teams progress, they come to find that each challenge is modelled after the crime they were convicted of, and information is contained which either supports their claim to innocence or reveals that the prisoner team member committed the offence. As each attraction progresses, each executioner also reveals that they are not random citizens, but the surviving victims of their partners convicted crimes (Rina the sole survivor of the arson, Kagura the granddaughter of a murdered couple, Izane the sole survivor of a village massacre instigated by Gentoku, and Keiichi the survivor of a stabbing). While the attractions do not concretely prove the guilt of either Sengoku or the Yamada twins, Gentoku's scenario uncovers that his real name is Kazuki Jimbo while Izane is his cousin Chihiro Jimbo; the two are the only survivors of a massacre which killed every other member of the Jimbo family, while Hanaka's attraction contains indisputable video evidence that she murdered a man and also stabbed Keiichi. Ultimately, the four executioners pardon their prisoner teammates, though under different rationales (Rina has doubts as to Sengoku's innocence, Kagura is promised devout loyalty by Futa, Izane desires Genotku's real life power, while Keiichi's obsessiveness of Hanaka allows him to forgive her). Allan Poe's team completes an attraction offscreen.

As all teams completed their attraction without an execution occurring, a murder-mystery competition is held, with the first two teams to solve the mystery's earning a spot in the Yurukill finals. Ultimately, Gentoku/Azame and Allan Poe/Kristina earn a spot in the finals, however, after Allan Poe's team goes missing, a follow up competition is held, with Sengoku and Rina instead participating in the finals.

Alongside the broader competition which is occurring, Senogku is attempting to determine the culprit behind the arson and murders which he was framed for. Spurred by a taunting message which was slipped into his cell on the boat at the start of the games, he and Rina eventually determine that the culprit is a player.

In the finals, additional evidence presented by the attraction setup allows Sengoku and Rina to conclude that Izane is the true culprit behind the crimes which all the prisoners have been accused of, either through committing them directly and framing a prisoner, or instigation. Izane (an anagram of the '冤罪' (Enzai, lit. 'false accusation')) is also revealed to be the true convict of Jimbo family massacre which Gentoku is participating as a prisoner for (switching places with the amnesiac Gentoku discretely at the very start) and also an employee of Yurukill Inc., a powerful covert organization which broadcasts the Yurukill games for profit on the internet. In the final showdown between Sengoku and Izane, Allan Poe's missing team returns, freeing the other prisoners and hacking into the Yurukill computers systems to allow the games' participants to defeat Izane. As the winners of the Yurukill Games, Sengoku's conviction is erased, while Rina's winning wish is to have Izane turned into the police with the evidence Yurukill Inc. has, which can allow the others to be retried and freed. However, Izane jumps off a nearby cliff edge upon her defeat, committing suicide.

In the epilogue, the prisoners are retried and all acquitted of their charges. Futa and Raita start a business with Kagura as an employee; Hanaka hires Keiichi as a manager and returns to her singing career; Gentoku, assuming his birth name Kazuki Jimbo, returns to the Jimbo family village to honour his deceased family, while Sengoku and Rina become close friends. A post-credits scene features Binko discussing the financial success of the Yurukill Games, slowly taking off her mask to tease that she is Izane.

== Gameplay ==…

Adapted from Wikipedia , licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text may have been shortened.