Double Cast



"Everyone possesses many different faces.

For living...

For working...

And for falling in love...

I wonder how many faces I have?

And which one is the real me?"

Double Cast (ダブルキャスト, Daburu Kyasuto) is the first entry in the interactive anime Visual Novel series Yarudora, produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, and developped by Sugar&Rockets and Production I.G. The game was initially released in 1998 on Playstation 1, then re-released in 2005 on Play Station Portable and in 2009 on the Playstation Store.

The story takes place in summer, and is about an unnamed protagonist (supposed to be the player's representative), who is a member of his college's Film Club. One night, he goes out drinking with his fellow club members, and gets so drunk that he passes out on top of a bunch of garbage bags. Upon awakening, he finds himself on a fountain with a strange girl holding him, who took him out of the garbage bags. As thanks, the protagonist takes her for a bite at a nearby fast food restaraunt. He quickly discovers that the girl has no memory of who she is aside from her name: Mitsuki Akasaka. With nowhere for her to go, the protagonist offers for her to stay at his place, which she enthusiastically accepts.

A short time later, the Film Club decides to film a movie called "The Enclosed Woman's Room", based off a script written ten years ago that was attempted to be filmed, but ended in tragedy and was surrounded by mysterious circumstances. As a result, the club director, Haruka, requests that they need to find a lead actress who is not connected to the school. The protagonist then asks Mitsuki to do it, and she accepts. However, although filming goes well, Mitsuki appears to be stalked by someone, and several incidents occur around the protagonist that make it seem like someone is after his life...

The "Summer" title of the four original Playstation 1 Yarudora games, Double Cast was directed by Mizuho Nishikubo (Ghost in the Shell movie, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Patlabor 2 The Movie), the character design is courtesy of Keiji Gotoh (Martian Successor Nadesico, Those Who Hunt Elves), and the Original Soundtrack is signed Yuki Kajiura (.hack Sign, Mai-HiME, Puella Magi Madoka Magica).

Not related to the manga of the same name.

'''BEWARE, this game is very story-driven. DO NOT HIGHLIGHT THE MARKED SPOILERS BELOW if you want to keep the full experience of the game. You Have Been Warned.'''

This game presents the following tropes:

 * A Day in the Limelight- Normal Ending 1 is this for Shouko, a member of the film club who barely gets any lines in the main story, as it greatly expands and develops her character.
 * Adventure Game
 * All Just a Dream- Humorous example: In Bad Ending 2, where Mitsuki leaves the protagonist after their first meeting, he suddenly wakes up to find himself in the garbage bags he fell asleep on, thinking it was a dream. However, he soon sees Mitsuki, and realizes their meeting hasn't occured yet, and resolves himself not to mess up this time.
 * The Atoner-
 * Beta Couple:.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Can happen during the final confrontation with the killer..
 * Big No: Haruka before she gets killed in the Genocide Route.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Good Endings
 * Blood Is Squicker in Water- Used twice-
 * The Casanova- Sakuma.
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Downer Ending: Most of the Bad Endings, naturally, but also
 * Earn Your Happy Ending / Golden Ending: Good End 1.
 * Faceless Protagonist
 * Foreshadowing: Several of them, with some even being right at the beginning of the game:
 * The game's title: "Double Casting" is actually a film terminology...
 * The box's front cover:
 * The quote at the top of the article, which are the very first lines of the game when you start it for the very first time.
 * And, somewhere near the beginning of the game,
 * Fridge Horror: Bad Ending #17 (where the protagonist decides to take care of Mitsuki after she fainted) seems to end rather happily, with the protagonist and Mitsuki going to the film festival together...
 * Genki Girl: Mitsuki.
 * Guide Dang It: As expected from a Yarudora game. Aside from the Hundred-Percent Completion and Last Lousy Point elements typical to that series, some of the Good and Bad Endings are hard to get.
 * Hint System: Appears after all Endings aside from Good End 1 (thus effectively making Good End 1 the Golden Ending). Gouda and Hanazono are the ones providing hints in the regular route, while Futamura, Haruka, Shoko and/or Mitsuki do it for the side-story routes.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy-
 * It's Probably Nothing: At the start of the Genocide Chapter, the protagonist hears a loud scream in the middle of the night. Two separate choices have him assume he's just hearing things and he goes back to sleep.
 * Kill'Em All / The Many Deaths of You: Several Bad Endings, but especially the "Genocide Chapter", a hidden series of six separate Bad Endings that all end this way. No matter what the protagonist chooses in this section, it will always end with him dead.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia- Mitsuki.
 * Laughing Mad: The killer does this after having murdered everyone in one of the Genocide Chapter's Bad Endings.
 * Man On Fire: One of the ways you can die in the Genocide Chapter.
 * Mistaken for Gay- Played for Laughs; in one path, Futamura admits to the protagonist that he has a crush on someone. The protagonist has the choice to guess who it is, including Gohda. If he chooses this, Futamura will joke that he's right before angrily denying it.
 * Names to Know in Anime:
 * Ai Orikasa- Morishima
 * Akiko Hiramatsu- Mitsuki
 * Fumihiko Tachiki- Gouda
 * Kenichi Suzumura- The protagonist (Drama CD only- he's unvoiced in the game itself)
 * Ryotaro Okiayu- Sakuma
 * Showtaro Morikubo- Futamura
 * Yasunori Matsumoto- Hanazono
 * Yuko Mizutani- Haruka
 * Yuri Shiratori- Shouko
 * Nonstandard Game Over- Bad Endings 1 and 2 are more or less this: if the protagonist is too rude during his first meeting with Mitsuki or too insistent that she take her problems elsewhere, she gets fed up with him and leaves him right on the spot.
 * Nosebleed- When the protagonist and Mitsuki are filming an intimate scene together, Mitsuki clings to the protagonist. Not used to being held like that, the protagonist suffers a nosebleed and passes out. Haruka is not pleased.
 * Not What It Looks Like- In one of the later unlockable paths, the protagonist has the option of visiting a hot springs late at night, only to find that Haruka is also there. As he leaves, Mitsuki comes in, and no matter what the protagonist chooses, Haruka comes out at the wrong time, causing Mitsuki to make the wrong assumptions.
 * Out of the Inferno: The killer pulls this on an horrified Haruka in two of the Genocide Chapter's Bad Endings.
 * Quest for Identity- Mitsuki, though she doesn't ever seem to actively seek it out, and is quite happy just living with the protagonist.
 * Red Herring-
 * Panty Shot- A rather inappopriately timed one
 * Scary Shiny Glasses- Futamura
 * Shadow Discretion Shot- Used to great effect- the killer is always shown as being obscured by shadows to the point that you can barely make out any of their features.
 * Take Our Word for It:
 * Those Two Guys: Gohda and Hanazono, who, while barely present in the main story, show up in the Hint section after a Bad Ending to tell the player what they did wrong and how to get a better ending.
 * Visual Novel
 * Visual Pun:
 * Xanatos Gambit: The protagonist plans quite the elaborate one in the climax.
 * Take Our Word for It:
 * Those Two Guys: Gohda and Hanazono, who, while barely present in the main story, show up in the Hint section after a Bad Ending to tell the player what they did wrong and how to get a better ending.
 * Visual Novel
 * Visual Pun:
 * Xanatos Gambit: The protagonist plans quite the elaborate one in the climax.
 * Visual Novel
 * Visual Pun:
 * Xanatos Gambit: The protagonist plans quite the elaborate one in the climax.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The protagonist plans quite the elaborate one in the climax.