March 30th, 2018 marks the first game release from Crunchyroll in partnership with Sumitomo and GREE. Dan-Memo (Memoria Freese) is available at launch on both iOS and Android devices for free with in-app purchases. This comes just in time for the recently announced season 2 of DanMachi (aka Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon).
This is a significant move for the Crunchyroll Games division and for Crunchyroll as a whole. They’re aiming to expand their business to cater to their fans and audiences even more, so building up the gaming side of its business is a natural extension for them. This is the first time Crunchyroll is co-producing a game, which only makes sense for them as a business knowing the following statistic: 90 percent of Crunchyroll users identify as gamers. And considering they’ve partnered with Twitch for several big events, the game space just makes sense for them.
DanMachi is based off of a light novel of the same name written by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda, which is set in the world of Orario, where adventurers band together and look for treasures in an underground labyrinth known as Dungeon. However, for Bell Cranel, fame and riches are secondary to what he wants to find the most: girls. He soon finds out that anything can happen in Dungeon, and winds up being the damsel in distress instead.
The North American release of Memoria Freese will feature the voice talents of Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Inori Minase, Saori Ōnishi, as well as many others, and all of the dialogue in-game is voiced just like the Japanese version, with English subtitles provided. GREE has designed, developed, and will maintain both the game and copyright control, while Ellation and the Sumitomo Corporation will handle the distribution, localization, and marketing of the game under Ellation’s Crunchyroll Games brand.
The game will follow an original storyline from the anime’s first season in addition to new/exclusive stories written by the series creator, Fujino Ōmori. Look forward to coverage of the game in the coming days devices allowing, as we plan on playing it and giving an update once we spend some time with it (bear in mind it didn’t work on my Nexus 6P at first, but I will try some more). If you haven’t watched the show and are interested, you can do so for free here.