Princess Connect! Re:Dive

Setting

The game takes place in the year 2033 in a virtual reality video game titled Legend of Astrum, a fantasy action role-playing game populated by various races including humans, "beastfolk" (humanoids possessing animal traits) among others, where thousands were trapped with no means to log out in an incident later known as "Minerva's Imprisonment (ミネルヴァの懲役)". The protagonist is a player named Yuuki, who serves as a Princess Knight, a retainer to one of Legend of Astrum's chief developers, the Seven Crowns, who goes on a journey across Legend of Astrum's eponymous landmass.

Plot

After the events of Princess Connect!, the Twinkle Wish guild would ascend the Tower of Sol where they reach the very top and encounter Mana Senri, titled Kaiser Insight, who merged with the game world's AI administrator Minerva. After wiping out Hiyori and Rei, Yuuki is severely injured and shields Yui from an attack before he is engulfed by Mana's attack. Yuuki awakens in an unknown location and meets Ameth, who seems to be familiar with him. With no time, she sends him down to Landsol where he is given a vague mission that he must do.

Upon awakening, Yuuki has lost all memory. He is met by Kokkoro, a girl assigned by Ameth to be his guide on his adventures. Shortly afterwards he meets a swordswoman with a voracious appetite, whom the duo nickname Pecorine, and later a cat-beast race girl Karyl. The group founds the guild Gourmet Edifice (美食殿) with the goal of going on adventures while eating the food that Landsol has to offer. As for Yuuki, he is determined to recover his memories and complete the mission Ameth has in store for him.

Pecorine defeats Mana and reclaims her right to the throne of Landosol, and the group confront the Rage Legion, an unlicensed guild who broke into Legend of Astrum after Minerva's Imprisonment. They face Eris, a mysterious woman resembling Yui and Miroku, a cult leader worshipping Eris, as they return to the Tower of Sol for a means to send the players back to real life. One of the Seven Crowns, Legend of Astrum's chief developers, Labyrista begins working on a patch to grant players the ability to exit the game. After Yuuki rallies the other guilds to stop Eris from resetting the world and recreating it in hers and Yuuki's image, Yui duels Eris, who reveals she is an artificial duplicate created to fulfill Yui's wish to become Princess after Yui previously escaped from Mana on the tower. Eris would later fuse with Minerva, whom Mana manipulated into granting their wish that caused Minerva's Imprisonment. Minerva is re-summoned, and Eris' test terminal Sheffy sacrifices herself to activate Labyrista's program, lifting Minerva's Imprisonment and allowing the remaining players carrying Labyrista's code to freely return to the real world.

The Gourmet Edifice head to the monster and legendary creature-populated Reverse World (裏世界), consisting of three nations: Geo Teogonia, Geo Gehenna and Geo Niflhell. They learn the existence of other Royal Equipment (王家の装備) holders besides Pecorine who wield powers based on the seven deadly sins, three of which are the Reverse World's respective Princesses. Sheffy is revived while held captive by Lady Arachne, one of the Six Calamities, six strongest monsters from Geo Gehenna and a former subordinate to Freya, an Interpol investigator from the Warlock division sent to capture the Seven Crowns and overthrow Pecorine's regime in Astrea. Freya alongside fellow Royal Equipment wielders Riza and Alshat are also revealed to be knighted to the Vision Empress, a dragon who leads the Seven Crowns. Pecorine defeats Freya, who had revived Mana and Miroku, and Karyl infiltrates a meeting with Vision Empress to obtain Mana's power.

Manga

A manga adaptation, written by Asahiro Kakashi and illustrated by wEshica/Shōgo, has been serialized online via Cygames' manga app Cycomics. Kodansha have published two tankōbon volumes as of February 2019.[12] A comic anthology featuring various artists was released on May 27, 2019.[13]

Anime

An anime television series adaptation by CygamesPictures aired from April 7 to June 30, 2020. The series premiered in Japan on Tokyo MX, BS11, Sun TV, and KBS Kyoto before airing on other channels.[14] Crunchyroll streamed the series.[15] The series was directed by Takaomi Kanasaki with assistant directing by Kana Harufuji. Satomi Kurita, Lie Jun Yang and Yasuyuki Noda provided character designs.[14]

On August 13, 2020, it was announced that the series will receive a second season, with CygamesPictures returning for production.[16] It is directed by Yasuo Iwamoto, with Kanasaki serving as the chief director and scriptwriter. Mai Watanabe joins Kurita, Yang, and Noda to provide character designs, and Imagine is composing the series' music. The main cast will reprise their roles. The second season aired from January 11 to March 29, 2022.[17][18]

Video games

PriConne: Grand Masters

Was available from 1 to 8 April 2022 as an April Fools' limited Auto Chess type game.[19]

Granblue Fantasy

Several ''Princess Connect! Re:Dive characters featured in a collaboration event for the role-playing game Granblue Fantasy'' between December 9 and December 21, 2018. Pecorine and Kokkoro are both playable characters while Kyaru and the player character appear in the story.[20] The event was reintroduced permanently in 2019 with Kyaru also being made playable.

Dragalia Lost

On November 5, 2020, it was announced that Pecorine would be featured in a collaboration event for Dragalia Lost.[21]

Web novel

''Princess Connect! - Princess Knight Sodatsusen (Japanese: プリンセスコネクト！ 〜プリンセスナイト争奪戦〜) was a web novel of the prequel game Princess Connect!'' was released on Dengeki Online. Author by Ōta Riyō with the supervision of and co-produced by CyberAgent / Cygames.[22]