Maitetsu: Pure Station

Release Date: September 21, 2018

Adventure, science fiction, trains, 2D, visual novel, transport, alternative history, singleplayer

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A classic visual novel adventure game in which we try to help a small Japanese town rebuild its economy by using a closed railway line, among other things. The title offers a relaxing story full of friendly characters, as well as a lot of technical curiosities and information related to steam railways and industry.

Plot
Mechanics
Technical aspects

Maitetsu: Pure Station is a classic adventure game set in an alternative version of contemporary Japan. The title's developer is the renowned and award-winning studio Lose, which develops high-quality visual novels. Maitetsu, like other works of the team, was first released on PCs, and a little later it also received a slightly modified console port under the title Pure Station. In 2019, the game also saw a direct continuation in the form of Maitetsu: Last Run!

Plot

Maitetsu: Pure Station is set in an alternative version of contemporary Japan called Hinomoto. The players play as a young man named Sotetsu, who has recently left university and decided to return to his hometown of Ohitoyo. As a child, Sotetsu survived a train crash in which his biological parents died. The orphaned boy was taken in by the wealthy Migata family, whose head and stepfather recently died, leaving the protagonist with an unexpected inheritance. It is an old steam locomotive, accompanied by a humanoid automaton, which takes the form of a young girl named Hachiroku. Robots such as Hachiroku are collectively referred to as Railroad in the world of Maitetsu. All trains operating in the country were equipped with them. They helped the drivers operate the trainsets and also served as a kind of on-board computer.

The inheritance is not the only problem waiting for Sotetsu in Ohitoyo. Some residents of the town want to build a modern factory of small personal airplanes called Aircra. In this way, they hope to breathe new life into the declining region. However, the protagonist opposes this idea, fearing that the dependence on the whims of a large employer will have a terrible effect. He, therefore, joins the protest movement, one of whose members is a lover of the local railway, also in possession of a private train. During the game, Sotetsu with his new friends and Hachiroku will try to find a way to revive the economy of his hometown, looking for alternative ways to develop it. A key element in this task will be to resume the operation of the closed local railway network.

Mechanics

The game takes place in the classic visual novel formula, having us read dialogues of the characters and from time to time making a decisions that influences the further course of the plot. The story presented in Maitetsu: Pure Station provides over 70 hours of fun and offers a variety of alternative story paths and endings that depend on the player's decisions. Unlocked backgrounds, illustrations of characters, scenes, etc. can be viewed in the gallery.

Maitetsu: Pure Station is filled with technical terminology related to the functioning of trains and their infrastructure, as well as industries such as mining. All the knowledge presented by the devs was collected in an automatically completed encyclopedia, to which we have access at any time in the game.

Technical aspects

Maitetsu: Pure Station features high-quality 2D visuals with dozens of backgrounds, illustrations to accompany important events in the story, and ultra-smoothly animated portraits of characters using Live2D technology. It is worth noting, that all dialogues of the characters were dubbed by Japanese actors.

Last updated on May 21, 2020

Videos and Screens

[1:37] Maitetsu: Pure Station opening