The prologue and first two episodes of D4, the next game from Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka “Swery65” Suehiro, are coming out tomorrow, September 19th, exclusively on the Xbox One. The surprise announcement coincides with Microsoft’s attempt to lure people to its booth at the Tokyo Game Show. D4 will be released across multiple episodes and looks to be heavily influenced by Telltale’s The Walking Dead games. In a wonderfully weird interview (as all Swery interviews are) on Microsoft’s Xbox Wire, the director himself described D4 as a “Swery take” on Telltale’s successful formula. If the launch trailer is anything to go by, then Swery ain’t lying. The music, dialogue, and voice acting are made of the same pure B-movie-grade cheese that helped establish Deadly Premonition as a cult classic.
D4 is the story of a private investigator, David Young, whose wife is murdered because that’s how you start a video game. “Two years ago, someone killed my wife,” David recalls at the beginning of the trailer. “I have no memories of that day. The only thing I do remember are the words that Little Peggy whispered as she died.” But while David can’t remember what happened to his dearly beloved “Little Peggy,” the trauma has somehow also given him the power to travel through time when he comes into contact with objects of special significance. Swery describes David as a “man of humanity” who wants to use this ability to go back and change the events that led up to his wife’s murder.
Friday’s initial release, which includes a prologue and the game’s first two episodes, will cost $15. No release plans have been announced for future installments.