''Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat'', released in English as ''The Princess, the Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart'', is a Japanese

adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

developed by Harukaze and was released for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

on February 26, 2016. A 12-episode

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series adaptation aired from July to September 2017.

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced ...

(PSV) version of the game was released on September 28, 2017. The original title is , and it is officially abbreviated as in Japan.

Gameplay

''Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat'' is a romance

in which the player assumes the role of Nora Handa. Much of its

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...

is spent on reading the story's

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

. The text in the game is accompanied by character sprites, which represent who Nora is talking to, over background art. Throughout the game, the player encounters CG artwork at certain points in the story, which take the place of the background art and character sprites. The game follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are four main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each heroine. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. Some decisions can lead the game to end prematurely, which offer an alternative ending to the plot. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction. Throughout gameplay, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Nora and a given heroine having sex.

Plot

''Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat'' set in a coastal town named . The story's protagonist, Nora Handa, is a student at . One morning in spring he meets a beautiful girl at a park on his way to school. Her name is Patricia. She is a princess of the underworld whose mission is the eradication of all life. However, she gets sick just after coming to the surface and Nora kindly looks after her while she recovers. Later that same day, a kiss from Patricia transforms Nora into a black cat and the magic of which compels him to serve the demon.

Characters

Main characters

; : (anime) :The main protagonist and a second-year student of Sakuragabuchi Academy. His mother died several years ago. ; : (PC game), Natsumi Takamori (anime, PSV game) :The main heroine and a princess of the underworld, the place where the dead live. She has two sisters named Lucia and Euracia, and transfers into Sakuragabuchi Academy along with them. ; : (PC game), Eri Sendai (anime, PSV game) :A second-year student and Nora's childhood friend. She has a serious personality and is in the school's discipline committee. She always studies hard and is good in the school. She is the first person who finds out that Nora has transformed into a cat. ; : (PC game),

Yū Asakawa is a Japanese Voice acting in Japan, voice actress from Tokyo, Japan. She also provides the voice samples for Crypton Future Media's Vocaloid voice synthesiser software, Megurine Luka. Asakawa is currently a freelance voice actress and was previ ...

(anime, PSV game) :A second-year student who lives along with Nora. She was an orphan whom Nora found at a beach in his childhood. She is good at cooking and weather forecast. She has a quiet personality and a polite manner of speaking. ; : (PC game), Atsumi Tanezaki (anime, PSV game) :A first-year student and Nora's underclasswoman. Although the same age as Nora, she entered Sakuragabuchi Academy a year later than he. She looks like a ''

gyaru (, ) is a Japanese street fashion, Japanese fashion subculture for young women, often associated with gaudy fashion styles and dyed hair. The term is a Japanese transliteration of the English slang word . In Japan, it is used to refer to you ...

'' and calls Nora as .

Other characters

; : (PC game), Yō Taichi (anime, PSV game) :Patricia's older sister. She looks like strict, but indulges her two younger sisters. ; : (PC game),

Ayuru Ōhashi , formerly known as , is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Tokyo. Some of her major roles are Aoi in ''Wish Upon the Pleiades'' Original net animation, original net animation (ONA) and its anime adaptation, List of Strike Witches characters ...

(anime, PSV game) :Lucia and Patricia's younger sister. She has a childish personality and is curious about the surface world. ; : (PC game),

Yuri Yamaoka is a Japanese voice actress. She is affiliated with Holy Peak. Personal Life Yuri Yamaoka was July 7th 2007 in Saitama Prefecture with Blood type O. She start to the piano from the age of 2 or 3, so she had decided that she wound be joining ...

(anime, PSV game) :A second-year student and Nora's classmate. Her family is a local ''

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...

''. ; : (PC game), Juri Kimura (anime, PSV game) :A second-year student and Nora's classmate. She has a shy personality. ; : (PC game), Takeaki Masuyama (anime, PSV game) :A second-year male student and Nora's classmate. ; : (PC game) :Patricia, Lucia, and Euracia's mother and the queen of the underworld. She lives in a castle in the underworld.

Development and release

''Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat'' is Harukaze's second game after ''Love of Love Emperor of Love!'', their debut title released on May 31, 2013. The game's first news was released in August 2015. The game's scenario was written by Hato, the representative director of Harukaze. Hato is also one of the five authors at ''

Wagamama High Spec officially abbreviated as , is a Japanese eroge, adult visual novel developed by Madosoft and was released for Microsoft Windows, Windows on April 28, 2016. It was ported to the PlayStation Vita. An English version of the visual novel was rel ...

'', a visual novel developed by Madosoft. The character design was provided by Itsuki Ōzora;

super deformed ''Chibi'', also known as ''super deformation'' (''SD''), is an art style originating in Japan, and common in anime and manga where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby with stubby limbs, oversized heads, and ...

illustrations was provided by Haruka Kusakabe. The game's free trial version, playable the prologue part of the story, became available for download on January 20, 2016, and the full game was released as a limited edition version on February 26, 2016. A special edition version of the game to commemorate the anime adaptation was released on February 24, 2017. A

(PSV) version of the game was released on September 28, 2017. A sequel game titled or ''The Princess, the Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 2'' was released on October 27, 2017. Four new characters appear in the sequel game: , , , and .

Related media

Print

A 128-page guidebook for the game titled published from

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on January 30, 1987, as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strate ...

on June 24, 2016. A

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

adaptation written by Kentarō Kobayashi will be published from

Ichijinsha is a Japanese publishing company focused on manga-related publication, including magazines and books. The company was first established in August 1992 as a limited company under the name Studio DNA whose main purpose was to edit shōnen manga ...

on June 30, 2017. A

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

adaptation, illustrated by Eku Takeshima, titled will begin serialization in the August 2017 issue of '' Dengeki G's Comic'' to be sold on June 30, 2017. Nobuchina Takada is the main protagonist in the manga.

Anime

Before the game's release, a short anime television series adaptation was announced on December 29, 2015. The series is directed by Kenshirō Morii and written by Hato. It aired from July 12 to September 20, 2017 on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

and Sun TV as a 12-episode series of five-minute shorts. The anime television series'

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

will be attached to the PlayStation Vita version of the game. An

Internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

show to promote the anime titled began airing on May 25, 2017. The show is produced by HiBiKi Radio Station and is streamed online every other Thursday. It is hosted by Atsumi Tanezaki and

, the voice actresses of Yūki Asuhara and Nobuchina Takada. A new anime project has been announced on November 29, 2018.

Music

The game's theme song is . It was written by Hato, composed by Drop, and sung by the voice cast of the main female characters: Yūka Kotorii, Sora Haruka, Misaki Kamishiro, and Hana Kiritani. The song is used as both the opening and ending themes. There are four insert songs: *"Re:Start!", written by Yukinoren, composed by Re-D, and sung by Yukinoren. * "Brave Guardian", written by Shiki, composed by Re-D, and sung by Yukinoren. * , written by Tono, composed by Rimo Shinnosuke Mori, and sung by Tono. * , written by Hato, composed by Pomi, sung by Shirome, and violin performance by Rina Akiyama. The game's original sound track titled was released from Harukaze on May 1, 2016.

References

External links

;Japanese
''Nora, Princess, and Stray Cat'' official website
at Harukaze
Anime official websitePlayStation Vita game
at the anime official website
''Nora, Princess, and Crying Cat'' official website
at Harukaze ;English * *{{ann, anime, 19749
Visual Novel (English) official website
2017 anime television series debuts 2016 video games Anime television series based on video games ASCII Media Works manga Bishōjo games Comedy anime and manga Eroge Fantasy anime and manga Japan-exclusive video games Romance anime and manga PlayStation Vita games Seinen manga Anime and manga set in schools Video games developed in Japan Visual novels Windows games