While still considered a niche genre, it is no secret that visual novels are slowly gaining the attention of gamers. While the origins of visual novels can be traced back to Japan, with most titles featuring manga and anime adaptations, western versions of visual novels are slowly rising year by year. One interesting project featured at E3 2021's Future of Gaming showcase is Dome-King Cabbage, a visual novel in development by Cobysoft Co.

For the uninitiated, Dome-King Cabbage follows the story of a cloud person named Mush on their way to a job interview. In a recent interview with Game Rant, Cobysoft Co. developer Joe Buchholz talked about how the monster-collecting aspect of Dome-King Cabbage works, what players can expect from the visual novel, and how it was inspired by Japanese manga and games such as Capcom's Ace Attorney.

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In Dome-King Cabbage, the visual novel's main character, Mush, "has to grapple with their ability to perceive the world through the lens of a monster-collecting RPG." Given the mention of a monster-collecting RPG, one can't help but wonder whether the visual novel was inspired by games such as Pokemon. However, Buchholz revealed in the interview that since Dome-King Cabbage is a visual novel, players won't be able to collect monsters through random encounters similar to Pokemon.

Instead, Buchholz explained that players would be able to collect monsters through "basic navigation and conversations with strange monsters." The dev then confirmed that while Dome-King Cabbage has some monster-collecting elements, the visual novel has little to no similarities to Pokemon or other similar games. However, like most visual novel games, Dome-King Cabbage is inspired by anime, manga, and Capcom's Ace Attorney franchise.

Although Buchholz did not detail which specific anime and manga served as inspirations behind Dome-King Cabbage, the dev did specifically mention Ace Attorney and how its basic navigation and the story's exposition through dialogue would play a role in Dome-King Cabbage and its monster-collecting aspect. In Dome-King Cabbage, players will find Mush in a transitional period in their life. The character is undergoing a series of job interviews to earn the status of Dome-King, which is a kind of monster tamer with psychic abilities. In the interview, Buchholz clarified that players shouldn't expect a normal type of job interview given that they described the interviews as "harsh mental trials." Additionally, players will also explore Crumb Island while speaking to various monsters to figure out how to begin the interview process.

At the moment, the exact release date of Dome-King Cabbage is still unknown. When asked about how many monsters players should expect to encounter in the game, Buchholz revealed that it is yet to be determined, given that the studio continues to come up with all sorts of creatures to include in the visual novel. While Dome-King Cabbage is expected to release on the PC once the development is over, Buchholz shared that they also want to see the visual novel release to as many platforms as possible. However, they reiterated that this is still not a guarantee given that a PC release is the only thing sure at the moment.

As far as what other games or visual novels Cobysoft Co. plans to do once Dome-King Cabbage is out, Buchholz revealed that they have so many ideas for future projects. In the interview, the dev shared how they would love to do an anthology of short visual novels that is much more collaborative. However, the main focus now is to continue with the development of Dome-King Cabbage, which is expected to garner even more attention after its brief appearance at E3 2021's Future of Gaming Showcase.

Dome-King Cabbage is in development for the PC.

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