Kadokawa Games’ Letter – Root Letter first made its appearance on the PlayStation systems, including the PS4 and PlayStation Vita last year. The game managed to find enough of a niche audience to warrant release in Europe and North America, and shortly thereafter it released in Japan on PC, and now it’s coming to North America on Steam sometime later this year.

Kadokawa Games’ visual novel is a murder mystery that centers around a letter that arrives from a pen-pal some 15 odd years later. The letter spurs the main character into action to visit the town of his former friend from 15 years ago, investigating the idyllic rural Japan setting of Shimane, with artwork done by Minoboshi Taro, whose work gained quite the following from the Love Plus series.

Letter – Root Letter isn’t just another visual novel with a kinetic narrative. Kadokawa decided to put some heart and effort into the title, giving players the ability to explore the rural town, investigate the murder-mystery by talking to suspects, and even engaging in a meta game of attempting to catch suspects out in their lies.

You can see what the game is like with the original launch trailer below.

The game sees players having to make choices, alter outcomes, and eventually unlock one of the five different endings. Kadokawa promises a lot of replayability for the title, giving visual novel fans something thick and juicy to really sink their ocular teeth into.

There’s also music composed by Takashi Nitta to help set the stage for the game.

Kadokawa has a spotty history with some game releases, but a pretty solid track record when it comes to their RPG Maker series. If you Letter – Root Letter seems like an interesting enough title for you to check out, feel free to hit up the game’s Steam store page to keep an eye out for its release.