{"rewrite":{"id":"r_da1145e295f4f0f9e7f8fe21","clusterId":"c_e20add5d5d9171cef7d7d8a0","slug":"july-revisited-the-dreamcast-launch-title-built-on-nostradamus-and-1999","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"JULY Revisited: The Dreamcast Launch Title Built on Nostradamus and 1999","summary":"Game Spark looks back at JULY, the Dreamcast adventure game released November 27, 1998 as one of four launch titles for the console. Produced by FORTYFIVE, it follows two protagonists through a July 1999 Japan: Takamura Makoto, a student who lost his sister in a terrorist incident, and Yoshua, a victim of human experimentation, in a conspiracy involving a corporation and a new religious group.","whyItMatters":"JULY shows how tightly a 1998 launch game was wired to its own moment: it was built on a Nostradamus prophecy whose date arrived eight months later, so the game's premise expired almost as soon as the console's first year did.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eThe game shipped alongside the Dreamcast itself, one of four titles available on day one. Its structure is text and still images, with a zapping system that lets the player switch between Takamura Makoto and Yoshua, the student and the human experiment victim. Character design came from animator Yasuomi Umetsu and manga artist Tony Takezaki.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGame Spark traces the premise back to Tsutomu Goshima\u0026#39;s 1973 book on Nostradamus, which spread the prediction that humanity would be destroyed in July 1999 and helped drive Japan\u0026#39;s occult boom. The game\u0026#39;s themes of human experimentation, psychic ability, religion and corporate conspiracy sit inside that boom rather than outside it.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"JULY shipped with the Dreamcast on November 27, 1998, set in a July 1999 that Nostradamus said would end the world. FORTYFIVE's adventure game ran two protagonists, a zapping system, and character design by Yasuomi Umetsu and Tony Takezaki. Game Spark picks apart the end-of-century baggage.","twitterPost":"JULY was a Dreamcast launch title set in July 1999, the date Nostradamus supposedly gave for the world's end. Game Spark traces FORTYFIVE's adventure game back through Japan's occult boom: two protagonists, a zapping system, designs by Yasuomi Umetsu and Tony Takezaki.","threadsPost":null,"newsletterBlurb":"Game Spark revisits JULY, the FORTYFIVE adventure game that shipped with the Dreamcast on November 27, 1998. Set in July 1999, the date Nostradamus supposedly gave for humanity's destruction, it ran two protagonists through a conspiracy of corporate power and a new religious group. Character design came from Yasuomi Umetsu and Tony Takezaki.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"Game Spark\",\"url\":\"http://www.gamespark.jp/article/2026/11/01/174370.html\",\"title\":\"In July 1999, Humanity Was Supposed to Perish - 'JULY,' the Dreamcast's Unconventional ADV Packed With Terrorism, Cults, and Human Experiments: The Madness of the End of the Century [Feature]\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":5601,"outputTokens":832,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1793531548,"createdAt":"2026-11-01T11:07:05.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-11-01T11:11:24.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-11-01T11:11:24.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_e20add5d5d9171cef7d7d8a0","canonicalTitle":"1999年7月、人類は滅亡するはずだった――テロ、カルト宗教、人体実験……世紀末の狂気を詰め込んだドリキャスの異色ADV『JULY』【特集】","representativeArticleId":"a_ba9425e379cabdeeb170ace6","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"JULY\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"op_ed\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-11-01T10:30:03.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-11-01T10:30:03.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-11-01T11:11:26.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"Game Spark","url":"http://www.gamespark.jp/article/2026/11/01/174370.html","title":"1999年7月、人類は滅亡するはずだった――テロ、カルト宗教、人体実験……世紀末の狂気を詰め込んだドリキャスの異色ADV『JULY』【特集】"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["JULY"],"studios":[],"people":[],"type":"op_ed","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":["JULY was released on November 27, 1998 and was one of four launch titles for the Dreamcast.","FORTYFIVE produced the game, which is set in Japan in July 1999.","The two protagonists are Takamura Makoto, a student whose sister died in a terrorist incident, and Yoshua, a victim of human experimentation.","Character design is credited to animator Yasuomi Umetsu and manga artist Tony Takezaki.","JULY uses a zapping system that lets the player switch between the two viewpoints."],"pageLinks":{"healthSlugs":["july"],"storySlugs":[],"entities":[{"slug":"july","supported":0,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":1,"overall":"unverified","story_count":1,"has_dossier":false}],"stories":[],"entitiesOk":true,"storiesOk":true}}