Attack on Titan Choose Your Path Adventure: The Hunt for the Female Titan (進撃の巨人ゲームブック 女型巨人を捕獲せよ！ Shingeki no Kyojin Gēmubukku Megata Kyojin o Hokaku Seyo!?, lit. Attack on Titan Gamebook: Capture the Female Titan!) is an interactive novel written in the style of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story, with branching storylines, puzzles, and other material. It is the second installment in the "Choose Your Path Adventure" series.
Synopsis
Immerse yourself in the world of Attack on Titan and join the hunt for the Female Titan in this original interactive novel!
The Survey Corps is in a desperate struggle to find the Female Titan, who is hiding somewhere behind the Walls. Will you work with Armin, Eren, and Mikasa to hunt her down? Will you find an even better solution? Or will you destroy humanity’s last best hope? Join your favorite characters in a standalone Attack on Titan adventure![2]
Summary
The reader assumes the role of a member of the 104th Training Corps during the 57th Expedition Outside the Walls and the Stohess District raid, with their name and gender left up to the reader.
Plot
The 57th Expedition follows the same general framework as in the manga, with the reader's location changing based on decisions. Most of the plot covers volumes 5-8 of the manga.
As the reader goes through the adventure, they can take a variety of actions that may alter events in the story. However, assuming the reader survives, there are three events that will occur regardless of the reader's actions; the 57th Expedition, the appearance of the Female Titan, and the discovery of Annie Leonhart as the Female Titan. Afterwards, the reader has flexibility on how to approach the next segment of the battle. The choices the reader can make are usually based on the roles the different members of the 104th take in the manga.
Mechanics
The reader progresses through the story by choosing one of the available options given at the end of a "section", which has a number attached to it (different from the page number). Flipping to the section corresponding to that option would bring them to the scenario resulting from the option they picked. For example, a passage might say, "To talk to Mikasa, go to 28."
The reader may also discover certain "secret" options over the course of their adventure by solving puzzles. In this case, the section number they should flip to becomes less obvious, as it can only be found by solving the puzzle correctly.
The world of Attack on Titan is a dangerous place, and the reader might die over the course of the battle. When this happens, the book prompts the reader to return to the point immediately before their death to try again. If the reader is unable to remember the section number where they died in, they may start over again as another trainee who has received word of their demise.[3]
Battle Report Sheet and Endings
The Battle Report Sheet
The reader is frequently asked to take notes on a page called the "Battle Report Sheet", usually regarding whether someone dies or because the reader has gained Affinity with a member of the 104th Training Corps or Survey Corps. Occasionally knowledge gained or actions taken can carry forward from previous sections of the story that will allow the reader to reach otherwise inaccessible plot events.
In this book, there is also a statistic called the "Kill Count", which represents the number of humans the Female Titan has killed over the course of the adventure. This number may influence how some events in the story play out.[3]
Assuming the reader survives the battle, most endings are determined by the reader's Affinity (or lack thereof) with other members of the 104th or Survey Corps. In addition to the six members of the 104th in the first book, there are now also three additional characters: Annie, Levi, and Hange, whom the reader may gain Affinity and obtain endings for.
Possible variations from the manga
Petra and Oluo after returning alive from the 57th expedition
Due to the nature of the reader's participation, some events may change from the original manga. Characters may survive who originally died and characters may die who otherwise would not.
The narrative usually assumes that if the reader is not there, the events occur the same as they did in the manga. (For example: Petra Ral will always die unless the reader is part of the Special Operations Squad and does something about it.) Some of the more influential things the reader can do are:
- Prevent the Special Operations Squad from dying at the hands of the Female Titan.
- Help the Female Titan escape from Stohess.
- Gives the player the option to leave the Walls with Annie if they have sufficient Affinity with her.
- Assist the Survey Corps in capturing Annie before she goes on a rampage in Stohess.
Puzzles
The book contains a number of puzzles that the reader might encounter over the course of their adventure. While it is possible to complete an entire playthrough without solving a single puzzle, successfully solving them would open new paths for the reader to take, which usually lead to a better outcome that the reader would otherwise obtain. Puzzles in this book are noticeably simpler than in the original, with the code words and word problems removed entirely.[3]
The types of puzzles the reader might encounter are:
- Hidden messages in illustrations given in the book. These can take an obvious form, such as having the letters "move to 42" written upside down in a corner of a picture, or are a bit more subtle, for example, requiring the reader to select 3 numbers out of the ones hidden throughout the picture and add them together to obtain the correct page.
- Secret keys that can be obtained over the course of the adventure. These come with a corresponding alphabetical letter and a number. When the reader obtains one of these, they are told to make a note in their Battle Report Sheet. The reader might be prompted to use the numbers corresponding to a key or keys later in the story to unlock a new path.
Illustrations
In addition to text descriptions, the book also contains pictures to illustrate the current scenario the reader is in. These occur frequently throughout the book, and sometimes also contain puzzles for the reader to solve. While some of these illustrations are lifted directly from the Attack on Titan manga (typically used for scenarios which follow the canonical story line), others are entirely new illustrations exclusive to the novel.[3]
References
- ↑ "進撃の巨人ゲームブック 女型巨人を捕獲せよ！". Kodansha.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Attack on Titan Choose Your Path Adventure 2". PenguinRandomHouse.com.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Attack on Titan Choose Your Path Adventure novel: The Hunt for the Female Titan. Kodansha Comics.