Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly and the Ashen Hawk

Black Butterfly and Ashen Hawk are visual novels in which the player reads through the story and makes choices such as what the player characters should say, affecting the direction of the plot and which of the games' endings the player ends up at. The games include an interactive flowchart, which the player can use to go back and try alternative choices and keep track of what they have done in the games.[1][2] In addition to the main scenarios, there are side stories where the player learns more about the characters.[1]

Black Butterfly follows an amnesiac woman who wakes up in a Western house and is attacked by monsters. She meets men in the house who similarly cannot remember their pasts, and the group is forced to partake in the black butterfly hunt to gather the kaleidoscope fragments the monsters possess.[3]

Ashen Hawk follows a woman whose right eye turns red when she feels strong emotions; in her hometown, women with red eyes are considered witches, so she disguises herself as a boy and lives in a tower outside the town.[3]

Black Butterfly and Ashen Hawk were developed by Otomate,[4] and were directed by Momoko Terashima and written by Toono Chiharu and Yuriji. The character design and artwork was handled by Satoru Yuiga, and the music was composed by Shigeki Hayashi and Yuji Yoshino.[5][6][7] Screen Mode performed Black Butterfly's opening theme, "Bloody Rain";[8] Akiko Shikata performed Ashen Hawk's, "Haizora no Shizuku";[9] and Eiko Shimamiya performed both games' ending themes, "Kokuchō no Psychedelica" and "Vermelho".[9][10]

The games were originally published in Japan by Idea Factory for PlayStation Vita: Black Butterfly on January 29, 2015, and Ashen Hawk on June 29, 2016.[2][11] Aksys Games announced at Anime Expo 2017 that they would publish the games internationally:[12] Black Butterfly was published in North America and Europe on April 27, 2018,[1][13] and Ashen Hawk on June 29, 2018.[1][14] Along with 7'scarlet, they were part of Aksys Games' "Summer of Mystery" campaign; players who purchased all three can get a set of enamel pins. The North American physical releases of Black Butterfly and Ashen Hawk also include a set of character cards.[15] A Microsoft Windows version of Black Butterfly with English, Japanese, Korean, and traditional Chinese language options was published by Intragames and Idea Factory on November 15, 2018;[16][17] a Windows version of Ashen Hawk, with the same language options, is planned to be released in Q1/Q2 2019.[18]

Frontier Works released the ending theme to Black Butterfly as a single on January 28, 2015,[10] and the full soundtrack albums for the two games on November 30, 2016.[9]

Both games were generally well received by critics, according to the review aggregator Metacritic.[19][20] Black Butterfly was the 18th best selling video game in Japan during its debut week, selling 5,319 copies,[21] while Ashen Hawk did not chart at all.[22]

Famitsu enjoyed the games' dark atmosphere and the mysterious story, and praised the artwork and music. They also enjoyed the flowchart system that shows the story routes.[2][11]

• Official website for Black Butterfly
• Official website for Ashen Hawk
• Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly at The Visual Novel Database
• Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk at The Visual Novel Database