A couple of weeks ago, Italian developer Gogen-Soft took to Kickstarter to fund its retro-style mystery visual novel Bios Ex.

Just yesterday, the modest goal of €1,200 has been passed, meaning that the game is officially funded. Now the campaign has seventeen days to go in order to achieve some of its stretch goals, which go from improved art and music at $2,500 to more localization languages with the top goal at $15,000, passing by things like an expanded story, a secondary player character, minigames and more.

If you're unfamiliar with the project (and let's be fair, you probably aren't), here's a summary of the story:

"When Eiza wakes up on the cold floor of a jail cell, his mind is completely blank. He remembers only two things: His name and that he’s not a terrorist. However, the government seems to think the opposite; they accuse him of a bombing attack to the local university of his hometown. The journals, the media, the police officers…everyone blames it on him.

It’s a death sentence. But only if Ori Asylum will declare he was mentally stable at the moment of the attack, it seems there have been objections that have saved him from the grim reaper. To determine his psychological conditions, he’s sent to the psychiatric hospital in Sapporo; there, he finds himself trapped in an unsettling, suffocating reality that makes him doubt the truth of what he’s been told until then. Between mixed memories and unexplainable events, he meets three girls who’ll change his life: Innocent Shizune and her mysterious sketchbook, the alluring vice-director Nao and Supra with her sad eyes.

If Eiza wants to break free from his cage, he has no other choice than investigate and discover the truth about who he is and what he has done."

Bios Ex is a psychological mystery title for PC heavily inspired by the golden age of the PC-98 both in its art style and music. Interestingly, Japanese composers are collaborating to the project, and among them is Hideki Higuchi, known for his work on countless titles like Metal & Lace, Clannad, and more.

Among the sources for inspiration, Gogen-Soft cites games like Eve Burst Error, Yu-No, and Policenauts, on top of science-fiction movies and classic anime like Speed Grapher and 3X3 Eyes.

If you want to see more, you can check out the opening video below, and you can even find a playable demo here. If you'd like to support the game, you can do so at its Kickstarter page.