Fantastico Studio announced for January 2024 Cannibal Tales. A graphic adventure that represents the sequel to Cannibal Holocaust.
Cannibal Tales wants to collect the legacy of a film like Cannibal Holocaust. It’s definitely not easy, especially when you want to turn it into a video game and even more into a visual novel. However, Fantastico Studio made use of a respectable help: Ruggero Deodato himself.
Cannibal Tales is made up of 3 episodes, written by Maestro Deodato, which are the real sequel to his famous film. This is not the Maestro’s first collaboration with Fantastico Studio. Indeed Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare is a horror action adventure with Ruggero Deodato directing and writing but which had development issues.
Unfortunately the passing of Ruggero Deodato in December 2022 means that Cannibal Tales is the Maestro’s last legacy.
Monsieur Cannibal
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is considered by many to be a milestone in the cannibal movie genre, which was very popular at the time. It was the first horror film that uses the found footage technique. Upon its release it immediately generated great controversy, for the real killings of animals represented on the screen and for the impressive realism of its scenes. The film strengthened Deodato’s fame as an extreme author, after the previous Ultimo Mondo Cannibale. Thank to this, he earned from French the nickname of Monsieur Cannibal.
Mistaken for a snuff movie, it created many problems for the director, especially with the Italian censors and critics of the time.
In fact, critics received the film very badly, accusing it of sensationalism and racism, highlighting the scenes considered horrifying with disgust.
Fortunately over the years and abroad it had success. Over time the critics understood the film and evaluated it for its strong impact of social protest.
It grossed $200 million, $21 million of which in Tokyo alone. In Japan, after E.T. It was the highest-grossing film ever at the box office.
The video game sequel
Cannibal Tales is in narrative continuity with the film. It’s composed of three narrative arcs: The Interview, The Embalmer and Borneo: A Jungle Nightmare. These arcs are all written by Ruggero Deodato. The first two parts are in the form of a visual novel while the last should resume the old project and add first-person gameplay.
We were only able to try the short demo of the first story arc. From the very first moments we realized that the atmosphere is dark and full of strong scenes. The color palette is very vivid and the references to red are constant and very strong. The drawing style drags the player into the story, as well as the well-kept and sometimes obsessive and disturbing sound effects.
In the demo we are in the role of Helena. A journalist who tries to interview the surviving victim of a metropolitan cannibal to make a career.
Multiple choice dialogues will lead to moral choices and different narrative paths. However in the demo we only got a few more scenes from our choices. Surely in the finished title we can have a better experience.
Cannibal Tales is scheduled for January 2024.
