A year ago, Tycoon Games released a visual novel set in the 17th century called Heileen. It starred a young woman named Heileen, who was going with her Uncle Otto, his mistress Lora and her friend Marie on a boat trip to the new world on a business trip. Now, over a year later, Heileen’s story continues Heileen 2.

If you haven’t played Heileen, brace yourself for spoilers. Heileen 2 begins with Heileen, Ebele, Robert and the ship’s cat, Black, stranded on a deserted island after the ship sank in the original game. They’re living day to day, managing to get by thanks to Robert’s fishing skills and Ebele’s cooking and gathering skills. Heileen still missed and wonders what happens to her old friends and family that were on the ship, and wonders if they are gone or still somewhere out there. One night, while they’re around the fire, Robert gives Heileen some tarot cards he found on the beach.

The tarot cards given to Heileen are magical. They not only seem to relate to her actions, but they are also able to influence her dreams. They can allow her to see people from her past that were lost in the shipwreck and interact with them once again…

While visual novels are common place in Japan, and a fairly standard game genre, they haven’t found the same audience in North America or other regions yet. That’s slowly starting to change, and quite a few independent developers are starting to take a chance on the genre. Tycoon Games is one of them, and has recently released its second visual novel adventure game, Heileen.

The star of Heileen is, appropriately enough, Heileen. She is a young woman who’s lived with her merchant uncle Otto and his mistress Lora ever since her parents died. Otto is headin on a trip to America for business and has decided that this time Heileen will be joining them. He says that it is because he wants Heileen to expand her horizons, but she thinks he has some kind of alterior motive.

Visual novels are still new territory for gamers outside of Japan. In Japan, the genre is thriving, but they’ve slowly started to grow in popularity in other areas thanks to games like Phoenix Wright and Time Hollow. Independent developer/publisher Tycoon Games has just created Heileen, a new historical-fiction visual novel for PCs, Mac and Linux computers to help expose more gamers to the genre.

In Heileen, you play as Heileen, who happens to be the niece of a merchant in the 17th century who is traveling to the New World…