Sofia in Exchange for Lies to come true this spring

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Upcoming Japanese murder mystery interrogation stars a killer with multiple personalities

One of the most contentious legal defenses is that of Dissociative Identity Disorder, in which a person with more than one personality is deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. In MUTAN and storynote's upcoming narrative mystery Sofia in Exchange for Lies, it'll be your task not to defend a client in court, but to interrogate and find out precisely which of your subject's many personalities was responsible for a high-profile murder. 

A young woman named Sofia was arrested as the prime suspect in the assassination of a presidential candidate. In fact, she admits to the deed – except she claims it wasn't REALLY her, but rather one of the four other distinct personalities suppressed in her mind. But which, and why would they do such a terrible thing? Players assume control of Philip, the psychiatrist assigned to the case, who must break through the subconscious barriers Sofia has constructed to close herself off from allowing those personalities to break through. Making the task even more difficult is that Sofia is being held in a remote island prison with no direct access, limiting you to "a series of interactions with the surveillance cameras to uncover the truth of the case and the secrets of her comatose past." 

Voiced in Japanese (with English subtitles) and presented through grainy images from low-quality CCTV cameras, the anime-inspired Sofia in Exchange for Lies is described as a "visual novel-style adventure game" but with hints of Her Story-style investigation. During your interrogations of the prisoner, your task is to deduce the keywords (saved in a keyword map) and find the right triggers that will unlock Sofia's memories for further questioning, such as sending strategic "gifts" to her cell. Once Sofia's heart rate accelerates sufficiently to your prompting, she "transforms into a different personality." The job's not over when that happens, however, as the dormant personalities each have their own perspectives, secrets, needs and desires, leaving you to untangle a web of "conflicting testimonies, fragmented memories, strained relationships, repressed trauma" and more. And even when you do, how can you be sure that your patients are telling the truth? How you approach the investigation will depend on which of the multiple possible endings you get, giving the game a degree of replay value to try different methods. 

No firm release date has yet been announced, but Sofia in Exchange for Lies is due to be launched on Steam sometime in the second quarter of 2025 for Windows PC. (At least, if the publisher is to be believed.)