- 5 Years of Mysteries with Ranko Togawa! - 30 July 2026
Believe it or not, it's been five years since we released Murder on the Marine Express. Not that we've been awfully prolific during that time, we know; however, we've managed to bring the game to every console on the market, released a side story (The Seven Bad Apples), and presented the direct sequel (The Girl Who Wasn't There) through a demo. Considering that our day jobs don't allow us to devote much time to creating video games, that's not a bad track record at all!We want to take this opportunity—the fifth anniversary of the The Mysteries of Ranko Togawa series—to thank everyone who has given our adventures a chance. They are simple games with plenty of room for improvement, but we’ve poured all our love for the mystery genre and the visual novels that inspired us to pursue this path into them. We hope that, at the very least, that has come through in our humble stories.Although ma…
- Christmas equals mystery in this new Ranko Togawa case! - 28 November 2025
Hi everyone!Today we launched the page for a new Ranko Togawa adventure: The Seven Bad Apples. This Christmas-themed side story connects the games Murder on the Marine Express and The Girl Who Wasn't There, offering a shorter but equally fun mystery. We hope you enjoy questioning these seven fearsome suspects!We'll be sharing more updates over the next few days on our Bluesky and Twitter accounts, but you can add the game to your wishlist now so you don't miss the launch, which will take place on Christmas Day. Join Ranko and Astrid in this peculiar case for a truly mysterious holiday season.
- The page for The Girl Who Wasn't There is live - 28 August 2024
Hi everyone, It's been quite a while. Finally, we can officially present our new project: The Girl Who Wasn't There. We've been looking forward to show it! This new adventure of Ranko and Astrid will lead them to investigate the disappearance of a girl from their academy but, in doing so, they will unveil the darkest secrets of St. Joachim. You'll be able to try a demo with the prologue of the story in the next few days, so add the game to your wishlist so you don't miss the launch. However, to complete this project we are going to need your help, so we'll run a crowdfunding campaign next September 10th to raise the necessary funds to cover the production. We are using the talent of top artists to bring the world we have created to life, so it will be worth it! We hope we can count on your support to make the game a reality. If you haven't already done so, we encourage you to follow us…
- Introducing the next installment of The Mysteries of Ranko Togawa! - 22 February 2023
Hi everyone! It's been a while since our last post, but today we come with a big announcement: the new installment of The Mysteries of Ranko Togawa is already in production! This sequel, with the title The Girl Who Wasn't There, will be much bigger than the previous game and will allow you to make decisions that will affect the course of the investigation, moving the plot along six possible routes that can lead to 20 different endings. You can find more information about the game in our Twitter account. We hope you can support us in this new project, in which we will put all our efforts to offer an even better adventure than the previous one. If you haven't played Murder on the Marine Express yet, it's currently on sale during this week's Steam Mystery Fest, so don't miss the chance!
- The definitive version with new languages is finally here! - 1 September 2022
Hi everyone, It's been quite a while since the last update, but we can finally present Murder on the Marine Express in its final version. This update contains all the changes introduced for the recent release of the game in consoles, since now it's also available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. In addition to minor improvements in the graphic section, the main novelty is the inclusion of new languages (French and Japanese) and a professionally edited version of the English texts, which fixes the errors that still persisted. We hope you can enjoy the game on the platform of your choice and that you continue to support us in our next projects, of which we hope to offer some news in the near future. Thank you!
- Murder on the Marine Express is coming to consoles! - 22 August 2022
Hello everyone! It's been a long time since our last post, but we come with great news - Murder on the Marine Express is coming to consoles on September 1st! That's right! In just a few days, you will be able to read Ranko and Astrid's first adventure on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. And that's not all! The game will be localized in four different languages: English, French, Spanish and Japanese. Of course, the PC version will receive an update with this content on the same day of release, so if you were waiting to make your purchase, this is definitely your chance. We hope you can support us to continue creating new mysteries. At the moment, we are already working on a sequel! Also, don't forget that you can follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with all our news. See you!
- Steam Autumn Sale and big update incoming - 24 November 2021
Hi everyone! It's been a while since our last report. We've been working very hard polishing the novel and we have already reached the last stages of production. What does this mean? Well, in addition to fixing the last bugs present, we made a deep revision of the script in Spanish and English... and we have also included new languages such as French and Japanese! These new features will arrive in a new update that will be available soon, not only in its PC and mobile version, but also for consoles. Yes, that's right. Murder on the Marine Express will be available on consoles very soon. We hope that you will be able to enjoy our story wherever you want, although you will still have to wait a little longer to know the release date. In the meantime, for all of you who haven't yet read Ranko Togawa's first adventure, we prepared a 15% discount for this Autumn sale period, so don't miss the…
- Version 1.04 is up! - 5 September 2021
Hello again, Ranko fans! Coming back with a new update dedicated to fixing a big chunk of the grammar and spelling errors present in the English script. Even so, we are aware that the text is still far from perfect, so expect to see some professional editing in the near future. In addition, we also took this chance to adjust one of the game's transitions at the end of the story. We keep working on polishing the novel to the best of our abilities and hope to bring good news about localization to more languages soon. Thank you so much for your kind support and your patience!
- Version 1.03 Up! - 8 August 2021
Hello again, Ranko fans! We've received new reports about the previous issue related to the flash effect, that now causes crashes even when turned off, so as a precaution we have decided to eliminate them completely, at least until we can find a definitive solution to the problem. Also, we've fixed some more typos, mainly on the english text (we're not native, sorry.). Again, thank you for your patience in our first foray!
- Version 1.02 Up! - 3 August 2021
Hello again, Ranko fans! Sorry for the inconvenience, but due to a gaffe on the previous patch, 3 whole sentences of chapter 1 disappeared from the english version of the game! This is fixed now on version 1.02. Also, some more typos have been corrected! Thank you for your patience!
- Version 1.01 Up! - 31 July 2021
Hi all Ranko fans! We just uploaded version 1.01 of the game with the following fixes: Fixed an issue where you could access other menus from the Chapter Selection menu Fixed an issue that produced rare crashes due to the Flash VFX Fixed some typos Unfortunately, we were not able to test if the Flash VFX crash is 100% solved, so if anyone encounters the bug again, please report it in the bug thread and keep the Flash VFX OFF while we work to resolve it. Thank you for your patience!
- Our first bug (there's always one, isn't there?) - 31 July 2021
Hi everyone, We've been reported that the game crashed for some players for no apparent reason and we think this might have something to do with the programming of the flash effect. While we investigate the case (maybe this is another job for Ranko?) our suggestion is to turn off the flash vfx from the Settings menu until we manage to fix the issue. Thank you!
- Murder on the Marine Express is available now! - 30 July 2021
Hi everyone! The Mysteries of Ranko Togawa: Murder on the Marine Express is finally out in the wild! We at 1564 Studio are so happy about launching our very first visual novel. We hope you enjoy the thrill and leave your impressions about this humble mystery adventure. The game is available in English and European Spanish but we are working on getting it translated to more languages, so expect more news on that in the near future. Also, it looks like PC and smartphones won't be the only platforms for the game... but let's leave that talk for another time. We hope you grow fond of Ranko, Astrid and all the other characters aboard the Marine Express and take the challenge of finding the culprit before the story ends. It will be quite the ride, we promise! Please remember to follow us on social media to be up to date with our news. We'll distribute some digital goodies in the following day…
