Hermitage isn’t your ordinary book shop. If customers are purely looking for something to read, they won’t find that here. From Japanese folklore to superstitious tales from Southeast Asia, the books on offer here are as colourful as the shop’s clientele. But when one customer comes to the sales desk clutching a book of ancient texts and rituals, Hermitage takes a turn towards the truly dark...

The aforementioned ‘Hermitage’ is a quirky and altogether curious bookshop stood at the crossroads of a lonely junction, serving as a port of call for only the most eccentric of book worms. The store’s manager - usually to be found casting a critical eye over Hermitage’s patrons with a cigarette in his hand - is used to endearing oddities perusing his dusty shelves, but when one customer comes in searching for literature to solve the mystery behind some particularly lucid ritualistic dreams.

With Hermitage: Strange Case Files causing its protagonist to question the lines between fantasy and reality, players take on the role of said bookshop owner -  a former anthropology professor who has strangely never been seen outside of Hermitage. With the help of a hacker genius on the run, a self-proclaimed detective and a short-tempered legal consultant, players will need to get to the bottom of a series of horrific incidents, taking on the supernatural horrors that lurk between the pages of Hermitage's weird and wonderful book collection.

Having already made waves in China, story-driven studio Arrowiz’s latest is being fully localised for a western release across all major platforms, bringing the game’s sinister brand of mystery and investigation to an entirely new audience.

“Hermitage: Strange Case Files is what Chinese developer Arrowiz does best: an engaging mystery wrapped up in a multi-layered and immersive story where every line of dialogue is an important cog in the wheel that is the game’s overarching narrative,” says Rinalda Faraian, Product Manager at Giiku Games. “It’s important then that we do the script justice, and we can’t wait to bring this new localised version to gamers on console and PC this summer.”

A playable PC demo is available on Steam.

Key Features:

• A unique adventure with a multi-layered story and a visual novel style
• Interviews with characters where choosing the approach that matches their personality serves up important leads
• Clues discovered through TV news, online forums, phone messages and emails
• Analyze characters and events using an interactive pinboard
• Investigate character backstories to discover secrets
• Match your intel with your suspicions to uncover the truth
• Take your adventure on a new path by unlocking various storylines with your choices

Hermitage: Strange Case Files is coming to PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam) in summer 2021.