C#4R4CT3R Launches Free Rain98 Demo on Steam With English

Shibuya-based indie studio C#4R4CT3R released a free demo of Rain98, its 1998-Tokyo Lo-Fi psychological suspense adventure, on Steam on October 17, with English text and Japanese voice acting.

C#4R4CT3R (stylized with numbers in place of letters) was founded in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward in April 2025. The demo debuted alongside the U.S. online showcase The MIX Fall Game Showcase and runs roughly three hours, covering the story’s opening through the first half of chapter two of a planned seven-chapter, ten-to-fifteen-hour full game.

Players spend time with Amahara Reina (voiced by Rio Tsuchiya), a girl who wishes for the end of the world, in a Lo-Fi version of 1998’s Shibuya. The demo adds Mamiko Noto (known for Hell Girl‘s Ai Enma and Prospero Mercury in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury) as the mysterious Yose Kyoko, whose voice plays in the new trailer.

Can you play it in English?

Yes — the demo ships with Japanese, English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, French and German text, and it is the same Steam build worldwide with no region lock.

The full game is listed on Steam with a 2026 release window; a Japanese retail version is not announced.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report