Misane: Can we maybe...do something about you willingly calling yourself garbage, Nanashi?
Nanashi: Should we? That's what everyone says I am! People at school told me not to come anymore, which is why I became a shut-in.
Misane: ...I've decided an objective. Let's put my memories on hold and make some friends for you, Nanashi.
Nanashi: Should we? That's what everyone says I am! People at school told me not to come anymore, which is why I became a shut-in.
Misane: ...I've decided an objective. Let's put my memories on hold and make some friends for you, Nanashi.
1BitHeart is a freeware RPG adventure game created by Miwashiba. Taking place in a world 20 Minutes into the Future, it centers around a young boy named Nanashi who keeps himself shut inside his home. One day he enters his room to find a girl asleep on his bed who claims to remember nothing outside of her own name, Misane. With Nanashi hoping to return her memories and Misane hoping that he will make some friends, the two venture out into the world and meet a wide variety of interesting people. While out, they become entangled in a mystery involving hackers who seek to cause havoc among the populace by "possessing" people via their technologically integrated devices called Bit Phones. It is up to them to stop the enigmatic Hacker Boss from hacking the Master Program.
Gameplay is focused on making as many friends as possible while also interrogating certain suspects to solve mysteries. You can download an English translation of the game here.
It is also available on Steam.
Not to be confused with the "spinoff" sequel, 1BeatHeart.
1bitHeart contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: After befriending a character, certain pieces of information will be available in Mutter, such as their height, age, weight and a little bio about them. There will even be messages from them.
- Alternate Timeline: It turns out that Mikado is from the future and that he wasn't the original creator of the Master Program. The future that Misane came from has the Master Program developed seven years into Nanashi's future and it was developed by multiple people. This is a sign that Mikado isn't who he claims to be.
- Amnesiac Hero: Misane, who remembers nothing but her name. The end of chapter 1 reveals that she lied about losing her memories.
- Anime Hair: You will encounter various characters with crazy hair styles, including a few with an ahoge.
- Art Shift: The characters get new avatars as the game progresses. Makes sense, seeing as how the game is still being made.
- Big Bad: The Hacker Boss is the one who hired the hackers to cause chaos and is behind the plot to hack the Master Program. He's Mikado Aisaka, actually Nanashi from the future, who wanted to unify all humanity with a single mind for world peace and therefore prevent a Bad Future.
- Big Brother Instinct: Mikado may be Nanashi's cousin, but he treats him like a little brother. Subverted as they are the same character with an eight year gap.
- Bland-Name Product:
- Bit Phone and Mutter.
- Some gifts as well, Coola Cola, Wolpis, Larikkuma, Ao Haru Road...
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Mikado; he created the Master Program that connects everyone's Bit Phones and holds each citizen's unique IDs, and he is covered head to toe in notes written in red marker because he claims it helps him remember things better. However, Misane reveals that Mikado is not the original creator of the Master Program.
- But Not Too Foreign: Miumi is half Japanese.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Both Nanashi and Mikado have shades of this, to say nothing of some of the wackier citizens of each area. In fact, they are the same person.
- Delayed Reaction: Nanashi has one when Misane tells him that she's from the future. This may also apply to the end of chapter 3: when Misane confesses she likes Nanashi, he reacts only a little while later.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The ending theme, "1BitHeart", is sung by Minx, who voices the protagonist Nanashi.
- Dueling Hackers: Whenever the team of hackers dishes out a virus in an attempt to control the heroes, Nanashi must work to disable it.
- Easter Egg: If you aren't interested in winning money through the minigames, checking the bottom right corner in BitWorld will give you 999,999 free bits.
- Evil All Along: Nanashi’s cousin Mikado is the one behind the hackers; though he’s mainly a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- The Evils of Free Will: Mikado’s goal for world peace is to unify everyone’s thoughts.
- Fiery Redhead: Akitaka and his family are a prime example of this. There are other redheaded characters, but these characters stick out the most.
- Foreshadowing:
- Natsukage saying that Nanashi "comes off like a program" near the end of chapter 3 may turn out to be this. But it's actually a Red Herring as Nanashi is very much human.
- Mikado's age according to his Mutter account. He's 22 and Nanashi is 14, putting them at an eight-year gap. Misane is from 2230, eight years from the current timeline.
- In the original Japanese, Shiren tells Nanashi to “come back two days ago”, meaning don’t come back. Nanashi tells her he’s not a time traveler. If only he knew.
- Future Me Scares Me: The Big Bad Mikado is Nanashi’s future self.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The ‘bigshots’ that Mikado created the Master Program for in the original timeline, who used it to enslave people and create a technological Dystopia; Mikado’s actions are to prevent this Bad Future from occurring.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: Misato and Kiri have one during Aira's sidequest. She tries to get her "parents" to meet and the two scientists have a silly confrontation.
- Hidden Depths: Occurs a couple of times when getting to know some of the locals.
- Hidden Villain: It's hinted at early on that the Hackers have someone higher-up that they answer to, and that they aren't just operating on their own. Near the end of Chapter 3, it's revealed that it's Mikado, the main character’s cousin/future self.
- Hikikomori: Nanashi, at the start of the game, has been a shut-in for over four months. He's clearly breaking out of it though.
- Hit Points: Nanashi loses them whenever he makes a blunder in his discussion and gains a higher number each time he makes a friend. Misane as well in the bonus scenario after clearing the game.
- Human Notepad: Mikado. Nanashi also takes this habit in the bonus scenario.
- Inconsistent Dub: There are a few flubs here and there in the dialogue.
- Info Dump: Nanashi delivers one to Misane early in the game, in order to give the player an understanding of the game's universe.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Natsukage is a downplayed version of this. He's not really a jerk, just very...grumpy.
- Just One Little Mistake: How Nanashi can catch the Hackers. Just pay attention to the dialogue and be wary of any inconsistent lines or words.
- Kid Detective: Misane for the most part, though she directs Nanashi to ask all the questions to help him get used to talking to others.
- Lonely Piano Piece: "Nanashi and Misane", which plays in quite possibly the most emotional moment of the game.
- Mama's Boy: Kaori's marriage interview involved this type of guy. It only gets weirder when he tells her that he wants her to be his mother. He doesn't say he'd like for her to be like his mother to their children. He wants her to be his mother. Make of that what you will.
- Mad Scientist: Kiri and Misato, in their own ways. Kiri is obsessed with growing muscles, and Misato loves creating Creepy Dolls and refers to them as her children.
- Multiple Endings: The endings are influenced by how many friends you made over the game.
- Bad Ending: If you don't befriend any side-characters, Nanashi kills his future self.
- Normal Ending: If you befriend less than 25 side-characters, Nanashi will jump out of the window to stop his future self.
- Happy Ending: If you befriend more than 25 side-characters, Nanashi won't do anything, but tell his future self that he doesn't think that he should change everyone in the world to bring world peace. Future Nanashi will agree to leave everything the way it is, seeing how much he has matured in the current timeline.
- No Social Skills: Nanashi has a very difficult time making friends. The game is dedicated to him making new friends.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Nanashi's real name is Yoshi Nanase. He will pretty much accept any nickname that someone gives him.
- Only Sane Man: Natsukage sees himself as this.
- Self-Deprecation: Nanashi simply loves to rag on himself. Even his Future Self, a.k.a. Mikado, beats on himself a bit. His Mutter info states that he dislikes himself.
- Shout-Out: A few in this game.
- Kiri has scars on his body with two screws on the side of his head.
- Akitaka has a mask with black fabric on the outside and white teeth over where his mouth is.
- Some gifts that can be found in-game are Ao Haru Road and SEVEN PIECE.
- The Larikkuma product is one for Rilakkuma, except that the rest is from Monokuma.
- And not to mention how all the gameplay mimics Danganronpa already, with the division of argumentative talking time and friend-making free time. Raising objections has Nanashi retort with "That's wrong!", which bears asimilarities to the protagonists of the franchise.
- Pressing, presenting, and objecting in dialogue bears similarities to Ace Attorney.
- The whole game is basically a huge shout-out to The World Ends with You. The similarities between Nomiya and Sho Minamimoto are especially blatant. Also, there's the whole Assimilation Plot...
- BitPhones work similarly to neurolinkers.
- Sibling Rivalry: Izuchi and Kirai have one. Izuchi had proven himself to be much better than Kirai in programming, so Kirai joined the hackers to prove himself that he is stronger than Izuchi himself.
- Suddenly Voiced: Parts of the game feature Japanese voice acting. Longer lines of dialogue are spoken when a character introduces himself/herself and also when they add Nanashi to their list of friends. Every now and then, there will be small noises made (giggles/chuckles, sighs, gasp, etc.).
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment:
- In chapter 2, Misato's friend event has you search through dark, creepy hallways to find her dolls. This small horror segment is completely unexpected, making it all the more jarring to players. Nanashi doesn't seem to be affected by it...
- The Bad and Normal Endings are really dark and unexpected. The Bad End has Present Nanashi strangling his Future Self, thus stopping him. In the Normal Ending, Nanashi decides to stop his Future Self by jumping out of the building.
- Teen Genius: Nanashi is smart enough that he can easily create apps on his own for fun. Not to mention he invented this universe's version of Twitter.
- Theme Naming: The areas have a certain theme and they're based off of real places in Japan.
- Third-Person Person: How Aira talks, basically. Though she alternates between this and using ‘I’.
- Time Travel:
- At the end of chapter 1 we learn that Misane traveled back in time to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. The full extent of her motive is unknown.
- It's revealed that Mikado is from the future as well. Chapter 4 reveals that he is actually Nanashi from the future, he created the master program with help and later went back to the past by his own by communicating with his past self. He plans to unify all humanity for world peace.
- Tsundere: Both Natsukage and his older sister Sakuma towards each other.
- Yandere: Saaya, to the point that befriending her causes her to worship Nanashi as a literal god.
