Japanese video game and anime series
Grimms Notes (グリムノーツ, Gurimu Nōtsu) is an online free-to-play role-playing game developed by Genki and published by Square Enix. It was released in Japan on January 21, 2016 for Android and iOS devices. The game was released worldwide on March 2, 2018 in South Korea, China, North America and Europe by Flero Games, a Korean publisher.[1][2] An anime television series adaptation by Brain's Base, titled Grimms Notes: The Animation, premiered from January 10 to March 28, 2019; the anime series is licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.[3][4]
Gameplay
Grimms Notes is a side-scrolling role-playing game. The player controls a party of characters based on fairy tales and stories such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. The player directly controls the main character, moving them around the battle screen and attacking enemies, while the game controls the other party members. As characters defeat enemies they charge a skill meter, with the player activating the character's unique skill, both for the main character and others, when fully charged.[5][6]
The game features a "Soul System", wherein each character has two "souls" equipped, equivalent to jobs or character classes. In between battles the player can change which souls are equipped.[5]
Plot
In the game, the player and the fairy tale characters band together to combat "Chaos Tellers", which are rewriting the fairy tale stories and changing fate.[7] Fairy tales include characters from such stories as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood.[8]
Release
The game was released in Japan on January 21, 2016 for Android and iOS devices. It was released worldwide on March 2, 2018 in South Korea, China, North America and Europe by Flero Games, a Korean publisher.[1] On January 10, 2019 the global version was shut down. The Japanese version closed its services on June 17, 2020. Later, a free offline application was released, which made it available to read every cutscene ever released without the gameplay.
Reception
The game was downloaded two million times in four days, and over 15 million times total in Japan.[1][9]
Other media
Anime
An anime television series adaptation titled Grimms Notes: The Animation was announced in 2018, which Square Enix had indicated that it would not be a short-form anime series.[10] The series premiered from January 10 to March 28, 2019 on TBS and BS-TBS.[11][12] The series is animated by Brain's Base and is directed by Seiki Sugawara, with Hiroshi Yamaguchi handling series composition, Kentaro Matsumoto handling character designs, and Fumiyuki Go is the sound director.[13] Ayana Taketatsu performs the series' opening theme song "Innocent Notes", while i☆Ris performs the series' ending theme song "Endless Notes".[14] In North America, Crunchyroll simulcasts the series and Sentai Filmworks will release the series on home video.[4][15]
Cast
- Ekusu (エクス)
- Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka[11]
- Known as Ex for short, a resident from Cinderella story, whose book of fate was blank, he is Attacker class.
- Reina Viehmann (レイナ・フィーマン)
- Voiced by: Reina Ueda[11]
- A resident from an unknown story, she is the leader of the group, her purpose is to "tune" every stories back to normal and stop Chaos Storyteller from destroying it, she is Healer class.
- Tao (タオ)
- Voiced by: Takuya Eguchi[11]
- A resident from Momotaro story and a friend of previous Momotaro, he is Defender class.
- Shane (シェイン)
- Voiced by: Miyu Kubota[11]
- A resident from Momotaro story as well, she was a demon with no horns as remembered by Onihime, she is Shooter class.
- Loki (ロキ)
- Voiced by: Takahiro Mizushima[14]
- Curly (カーリー)
- Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka[14]
- Cinderella (シンデレラ)
- Voiced by: Reina Ueda[14]
- Akazukin (赤ずきん) / Red Riding Hood
- Voiced by: Risa Taneda[14]
- Shirayuki-hime (白雪姫) / Snow White
- Voiced by: Aoi Yūki[14]
- Robin Hood (ロビン・フッド)
- Voiced by: Junji Majima[14]
- Alice (アリス)
- Voiced by: Miyu Kubota[14]
Episode list
Another game under development called Grimms Echoes, will be one series but not direct sequel to Grimms Notes as it develops a completely new story.[16] It scheduled to release on March 28, 2019.
