Princess Connect! Re:Dive

Gameplay

Princess Connect! Re:Dive is a real-time action role-playing game. Players can form a party of up to five characters to participate in various modes such as main quests and player versus player (PvP) arena modes. New characters can be obtained via a gacha mechanic or can be exchanged with character-specific Memory Pieces (the latter is not possible for event-exclusive characters). Players are also able to form clans to qualify for participation in Clan Battles, which are similar to raid battles in a typical massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or freely chat with one another using text or in-game emojis in the clan room.

Every playable character in the game has a regular attack, two Skills, an EX Skill, and one Union Burst. Players generally have no control over the activation of characters' skills and attacks, which are automatically activated at predetermined times based on character. EX Skills are stat-gaining skills that are activated on the start of each battle. A Union Burst is a powerful skill which, unlike other skills, can be manually activated by the player at any time the character's Union Burst Meter (also known as TP in-game) is full. However, all PvP arena modes are strictly on autoplay, where the character's Union Burst is activated as soon as their TP is fully charged.

Story

Setting

The game takes place in the year 2033 in a virtual reality video game titled Legend of Astrum, a fantasy action role-playing game populated by various races including humans, "beastfolk" (humanoids possessing animal traits) among others, where thousands of people who "dived" (logged in) were trapped with no means to log out in an incident later known as "Minerva's Imprisonment (ミネルヴァの懲役, Mineruva no Chōeki)". The protagonist is a player named Yuuki, who serves as a Princess Knight, a retainer to one of Legend of Astrum's chief developers, the Seven Crowns, who goes on a journey across Legend of Astrum's eponymous landmass.

Plot

The Twinkle Wish guild, Hiyori, Rei and Yui, had ascended the Tower of Sol, encounter Mana Senri, titled Kaiser Insight, who merged with the game world's AI administrator Minerva. After they knocked out Hiyori and Rei, a severely injured Yuuki shields Yui as he is engulfed from Mana's attack. Yuuki awakens in an unknown location and meets guide fairy Ameth, who seems to be familiar with him. With no time, she sends him down to Landsol where he is given a vague mission that he must complete.

Upon awakening, Yuuki has lost all memory. He is met by Kokkoro, a girl assigned by Ameth to be his guide on his adventures. Shortly afterwards he meets a swordswoman with a voracious appetite, whom the duo nickname Pecorine, and later a cat-beast race girl Karyl. The group founds the Gourmet Guild (美食殿, Bishokuden) with the goal of going on adventures while eating the food that Landsol has to offer. After Pecorine defeats Mana and reclaims her right to the throne of Landosol, the group confront the Rage Legion, an unlicensed guild who broke into Legend of Astrum after Minerva's Imprisonment. One of the Seven Crowns, Legend of Astrum's chief developers, Labyrista begins working on a patch to grant players the ability to exit the game.

Returning to the Tower of Sol to send the players back to reality, they face Eris, a mysterious woman resembling Yui who is revealed to be controlling the Rage Legion. Yuuki rallies the other guilds to stop Eris from resetting the world and recreating it in hers and Yuuki's image, even convincing a detained Mana to join their battle. Yui duels Eris, who reveals she is an artificial duplicate created to fulfill Yui's wish to become Princess after Yui previously escaped from Mana on the tower. Eris would later fuse with Minerva, whom Mana manipulated into granting their wish that caused Minerva's Imprisonment. After Minerva is re-summoned, Eris' test terminal Sheffy sacrifices herself to activate Labyrista's program, lifting Minerva's Imprisonment and allowing the remaining players carrying Labyrista's code to freely return to the real world.

Next, Yuuki and the Gourmet Guild explore the legendary creature-populated Reverse World (裏世界, Urasekai), consisting of three nations: Geo Teogonia, Geo Gehenna and Geo Niflhell. They learn the existence of other Royal Equipment (王家の装備, Ōke no Sōbi) holders besides Pecorine who wield powers based on the seven deadly sins, three of which are the Reverse World's respective Princesses Lyrael, Nephi-Nera and Violette. Sheffy is revived while held captive by Lady Arachne, a monster who served Freya, an Interpol investigator sent to capture the Seven Crowns and had overthrown Pecorine's family in reality. Freya alongside fellow Royal Equipment wielders Riza and Alshat are also revealed to be knighted to the Vision Empress, a dragon leading the Seven Crowns; Freya had also revived previous enemies Mana and Miroku.

Development

As Cygames was in charge of Princess Connect! Character productions and the project started with the desire to make a sequel using these characters after obtaining permission. Since there was time during the update for the final story of Princess Connect!, it was decided to make Pecorine the lead role in the sequel Princess Connect! Re:Dive and to make an appearance in the ending of Princess Connect!.

It was developed as an anime RPG that consists of two parts animation and game. Care was taken not to separate these two elements during the UI design and visuals adjustments. The main story animations are produced by WIT STUDIO. While the ending of the limited-time event and others are produced by CygamesPictures.

On 21 August 2016, the game was announced at the Cygames NEXT 2016 new game presentation.

Albums

Absolute Secret

Vocals: Karyl (CV: Rika Tachibana)

Composer: Naozumi Mabuchi

Arranger: Naozumi Mabuchi

Lyricist: corochi (Cygames)

Ending theme for chapter 8

Media

Manga

A manga adaptation, written by Asahiro Kakashi and illustrated by wEshica/Shōgo, has been serialized online via Cygames' manga app Cycomics. Kodansha have published two tankōbon volumes as of February 2019. A comic anthology featuring various artists was released on May 27, 2019.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation by CygamesPictures aired from April 7 to June 30, 2020. The series premiered in Japan on Tokyo MX, BS11, Sun TV, and KBS Kyoto before airing on other channels. Crunchyroll streamed the series. The series was directed by Takaomi Kanasaki with assistant directing by Kana Harufuji. Satomi Kurita, Lie Jun Yang and Yasuyuki Noda provided character designs.

On August 13, 2020, it was announced that the series will receive a second season, with CygamesPictures returning for production. It is directed by Yasuo Iwamoto, with Kanasaki serving as the chief director and scriptwriter. Mai Watanabe joins Kurita, Yang, and Noda to provide character designs, and Imagine is composing the series' music. The main cast will reprise their roles. The second season aired from January 11 to March 29, 2022.

Video games

PriConne: Grand Masters was available from 1 to 8 April 2022 as an April Fools' limited Auto Chess type game.

Several Princess Connect! Re:Dive characters featured in a collaboration event for the role-playing game Granblue Fantasy between December 9 and December 21, 2018. Pecorine and Kokkoro are both playable characters while Kyaru and the player character appear in the story. The event was reintroduced permanently in 2019 with Kyaru also being made playable.

On November 5, 2020, it was announced that Pecorine would be featured in a collaboration event for Dragalia Lost.

Web novel

Princess Connect! - Princess Knight Sodatsusen (Japanese: プリンセスコネクト！ 〜プリンセスナイト争奪戦〜) was a web novel of the prequel game Princess Connect! was released on Dengeki Online. Author by Ōta Riyō with the supervision of and co-produced by CyberAgent / Cygames.