Visual Novel Norn9: Var Commons Soars to the West this November

Visual Novels are picking up steam in the West, even if on "smaller" platforms. Fans can delve into plenty of this genre on handheld, mobile, or PC platforms. To date, we have seen a good number of notable visual novels on western shores: Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Zero Escape: Absolute Virtue, Danganronpa series, Corpse Party, and Phoenix Wright.

There are three well-anticipated visual novels over the horizon; STEINS; GATE, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, and Aksys Games' Norn9: Var Commons. For today, though, we are going to dive into the upcoming Norn9.

Norn9 is a visual novel featuring twelve young men and women on an unknown voyage via mysterious round aircraft powered by unimaginable technology. The plot begins with child prodigy Sorata Suzuhara on a typical school field trip. Filled with nagging wanderlust, he trails off in search of a mysterious song and suddenly falls unconscious. Upon wakening and confrontation by a young girl, he learns that he is in Japan at the turn of the century. He soon follows the girl onto the mysterious aircraft, expecting the ship to be of wood. However, he soon faces twelve passengers - three young women and nine young men - who are actually espers with special abilities.

The crew reveals that they are on a journey at the beckoning of The World, a multinational entity, but the ship is soon engulfed by an attack. But for what reason? What in the world (no pun intended) is happening? Where are these espers heading toward? What special abilities do these espers have?

The story will unfold through the points of view of the three girls (not Sorata, apparently).

Here some features we can look forward to:

• Enhanced animated expressions which will bring the characters to life! Communicate with the characters as a part of their world and see how they react to specific situations.
• Players will decide the fate of the characters. There will be branching paths and alternate routes to take, ensuring an in-depth tale full of discovery. In total, there will be 24 possible endings. The story itself is guaranteed to be 60 hours long.
• Music is produced by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu, of the Final Fantasy series, Terra Battle, Lost Odyssey, and more.
• Gallery mode, a mini game called Norn9 Quest, bonus illustrations, and more will be featured.

Norn9: Var Commons soars to the West November 10th, 2015, exclusively for the PlayStation Vita. The visual novel will be available for retail and digital in North America, and digital in Europe, and is currently on pre-order at Amazon or GameStop for $39.99.