Shadow City [Magical Girl][Noir]

[Parataxis]

| Story |

Nina Morales is a Sin Hunter in Lumina City. Six months ago her partner, Charlotte Mills, was killed on a routine mission. And now, long after the trail has gone cold, Nina is still searching for her murderer. When a new lead brings an unexpected ally, Nina's quest to unravel the mystery takes her into the dark underbelly of Shadow City. But as she gets closer to the truth about Charlotte's death, she finds herself in a web of dark secrets...
...One from which she may not be allowed to escape.[/center]

|Info |

Shadow City is a dark Magical Girl Visual Novel set in a Film Noir styled spirit world. Shadow, as this world is called, is populated with a whole cornucopia of spirit inhabitants, from giant crickets to begging fountains--and also plagued by evil Sins that seep into Shadow from the mysterious Beyond and feed on negative emotions. To fight this threat, human children are granted Sin-killing weapons called Virtues, that give them magical abilities. These Sin hunters are chosen all over the world to help keep the forces of darkness at bay. While the global war between good and evil remains a constant atmosphere, the story of Shadow City focuses on a more seasoned Sin Hunter, Nina, and her search for answers after her friend Charlotte is killed. Originally a TV show Shadow City started as a straight up mash up of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Veronica Mars, before eventually incorporating elements of Spirited Away, Shugo Chara, Big O and Supernatural. The result is a Magical Girl Murder Mystery Conspiracy story that potentially spanned 3 seasons of story. This VN will focus on the first season story--Charlotte's Murder--heavily modified for the VN format.

| Characters |

Nina Morales

Virtue: Insight
Weapon: Pistol
Nina is the wielder of Insight, a rare virtue which gives her the ability to see things and make connections others cannot. Haunted by the spectre of her dead friend, Nina throws herself ferociously into her investigation. Snarky, cynical, and stubborn, Nina uses her wits and determination to try to uncover Shadow City's secrets. Unfortunately, she will learn that not all her answers want to be found...


Atticus

Nature: Keeper
Atticus is a Keeper, a Spirit tasked with going into the human world to find people chosen to wield virtues. When Nina uncovers something unusual about Charlotte’s virtue, he enlists her help to run a full scale investigation. Grumpy and Jaded, Atticus often withholds information until he believes it is relevant, making him a frustrating ally. But with sinister forces at work in Shadow City, he is a source of magical knowledge and a powerful friend.


The Prism Guard

Charlotte Mills

Virtue: Loyalty
Weapon: Sword
Charlotte, deceased, was a member of the Prism Guard and Nina’s mentor. Sassy, vibrant, and fun-loving, she brought joy into the lives of her teammates and of everyone she met. She and Nina were particularly close friends, often acting as partners. Since she was killed, Charlotte's face has been haunting Nina’s dreams, as if there is some unfinished business she still needs to take care of...


| Phoebe Carlisle |

Virtue: Honesty
Weapon: Fists
Phoebe is the leader of the Prism Guard and Nina's former boss. Blunt and down-to-earth, Phoebe believes in facing painful truths head-on, and values the wellbeing of her friends over her friendships. She rather harshly suspended Nina from the Prism Guard after Charlotte's death, worried that she was becoming a liability.
Route Theme: The Nature of Truth


| Celeste Baruwal |

Virtue: Kindeness
Weapon: Bow
Celeste is a member of the Prism Guard and Nina's classmate. Quiet and shy, she is a good listener and nice to everybody, but tends to fade into the background in larger groups. Since Charlotte's death, Celeste is the only member of the Prism Guard to have reached out to Nina since her suspension. Her efforts are persistent, much to Nina's annoyance.
Route Theme: No one is alone


Quinn Taggart

Virtue: Bravery
Weapon: Trident and Net
Quinn is the youngest member of the Prism Guard and thus she brings a lot of raw power to bear fighting Sins. An enthusiastic and surprisingly vicious fighter, Quinn is still very green and has a tendency to be reckless. Because of this, she's kept on a tight leash by Phoebe when on missions. When not slaughtering the enemy, she gets along well with her teammates and is close friends with Celeste outside of Shadow.


Other Sin Hunters

| Rebecca Abrams |

Virtue: Hope
Weapon: Baton
Rebecca is a former Sin Hunter, now retired but with enough magical reserves to return to Shadow City at night. She runs a milk bar in Shadow called the Dusk and Tap, which is a popular hangout for humans and spirits alike. Nina meets her in the course of an investigation and she directs Nina to Atticus, her Keeper. Warm and personable but willing to tell it like it is, Rebecca acts as a sympathetic ear and occasional source of advice for Nina throughout the game.
Route Theme: Don't Dwell on the Past


| Isaac Chen |

Virtue: Wisdom
Weapon: Glaive
Isaac is one of the two Sin hunters who protect Shadow City’s Chinatown district. He and his sister come from a long line of Sin hunters and Isaac does his best to live up to the Chen family legacy. Wielding the Virtue of Wisdom, Isaac is generally reserved and taciturn; he spends a lot of time thinking about what he says before he says it, and will often choose to stay silent rather than cause trouble.
Route Theme: The Difference Between Choosing and Being Chosen.


Amanda Chen

Virtue: Love
Weapon: Sword
Amanda is Isaac's twin sister and Sin Hunting partner, wielder of the Virtue of Love. Unlike her brother she is cheerful and energetic, easily making friends with all kinds of people. Amanda is more casual about Sin Hunting than Isaac is, but she delights in helping others and can definitely handle herself. Of the twins she is the more active in a fight, able to dish out damage and take hits in equal measure.


| Luke Solomon |

Virtue:???
Weapon: Sword
An enigmatic young man who has been spotted around Shadow City's Goblin Market, Luke is a mage--a human with innate magical talent who can enter Shadow without using a Virtue. Luke belongs to one of Lumina's prominent magical families, but his goals and motivations are mysterious. Rumor has it that he's been hunting Sins, but that should be impossible without a Virtue...
Route Theme: The Price of Giving into Vengence


Gertrude "Gerty" Prinz


Virtue: Justice
Weapon: Shield
Gerty is another Sin Hunter who operates in Shadow City. Her Virtue is Justice and her Virtue weapon is a shield, but she often manifests a mace to go along with it. Gerty is the most powerful Sin hunter of her generation and something of a legend–she has been hunting Sins since she was seven years old and protects a territory the size of the Prism Guard’s by herself. Even now, with her power levels dropping off, Gerty can kick the ass of anyone stupid enough to mess with her. To say she does not play well with others would be the understatement of the century, but Gerty is the best in the business and she doesn’t need any help.

| Art and Screenshots |

I'll try to put examples of Game art here as they get finished:
[*]Some Preliminary backgrounds provided by our lovely background artist, Just a Dakota!

Preliminary Background. A Back street of Shadow

Another background for Shadow, this one closer to Sunset.

[*]The First Nina Pose is also Done! This may be one of only 2 poses she has for the Demo, but hopefully she'll get more later. The shading style is inspired by The World Ends with You, though the color palette is a bit different. There's also made a Mock-up to give you a sense for how the coloring will work on the background.

Testing the first Nina Sprite on our Demo Background. (Compiles in Photoshop)

|Game Features: |

• 10 Chapter story with two “alternate” chapters.
• 1-2 CGs per chapter
• Multiple paths of investigation
• Strategic “Battle” Sequences with timed choices and multiple outcomes
• 5 character routes with 7 possible endings

|Demo will Feature: |
(Under Construction)

• 7 Characters
• 2 possible endings
• 3 Battles
• 3 CGs

|The Team: |

• Vision: Parataxis
• Writing: Parataxis, Taslin and Duo
• Programming: Taslin and Parataxis
• Character Art: Parataxis
• Background Art: JustaDakota
• Music: Free Music drawn from Kevin Macleod

| Questions? |

• What do you think about the combination of the tags [Magical Girl] and [Noir]?
• What would you call non-romantic character routes? Do any of the 5 character routes above (Phoebe, Celeste, Rebecca, Isaac and Luke) immediately interest/intrigue you?
• Does the idea of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style timed-choice battles appeal to you? Why or why not? What about a similar system for high-risk conversations/interrogations?
• Given what you know, what do you expect from the plot?
• Do you think that the differing art styles for the background and Sprites works well together?

[kisa]

*posts something supportive*
Ex. I'm kind of looking forward to this I guess? XD idk what to say.

[Enigma]

| Questions? |

• What do you think about the combination of the tags [Magical Girl] and [Noir]?
• What would you call non-romantic character routes? Do any of the 5 character routes above (Phoebe, Celeste, Rebecca, Isaac and Luke) immediately interest/intrigue you?
• Does the idea of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style timed-choice battles appeal to you? Why or why not? What about a similar system for high-risk conversations/interrogations?
• Given what you know, what do you expect from the plot?

1. Magical girl is a very flexible theme so it can go with anything IMO. It's also two themes I like to yeah I'm good with this.

2.I think you'd call them friendship routes, as for routes, I always like a good vengence story so Luke's kinda interests me. Though there are actually a lot of revenge stories out there and a lot of them are pretty bad. My favorite is probably Afro Samurai which is good despite, or maybe because, it being so simple. I like that Afro was never really portrayed as any better than the people he was going after. Especially in the manga where

the guy who killed his father, Justice, was long dead and had decayed into a skleton by the time he reached him. That was a great way to show how his quest of revenge wasn't worth it.

3. I think that it could work, but it would be wide to code your descisions in some way people don't have to read the choices. You can't really account for reading speed. For example, making all offensive moves written in red while all defensive moves are written in green would make it easier for some people, even better if the offensive coice is always the top box and the defensive choice is always below it (for colorblindness).

4. Honestly, I don't know what to expect, besides maybe a few magical battles and some kind of conspiracy.

[sorani]

• What do you think about the combination of the tags [Magical Girl] and [Noir]?
• What would you call non-romantic character routes? Do any of the 5 character routes above (Phoebe, Celeste, Rebecca, Isaac and Luke) immediately interest/intrigue you?
• Does the idea of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style timed-choice battles appeal to you? Why or why not? What about a similar system for high-risk conversations/interrogations?
• Given what you know, what do you expect from the plot?

1. I really love Film Noire and Magical Girls, so making this a combination is definitely something I'll read!

2. I would call non-romantic routes, friendship routes, or aromantic ones.
All the character routes seems interesting, that you have a decision on how you want to cope with your loss. I'm kinda interested in GIVING INTO VENGENCE.
And all the characters seems interesting! Shadow City seems pretty big and diverse with these characters.

3. I like CYOA style games, not so much on timed choice battles? I don't like the pressure of time on me. But high risk interrogation is awesome though. I would like to try that.

4. Kinda Madoka atmospheric like, but Noire adventure? I want some hardboiled detectives magical girls haha.

Good luck with your game, I really adore the period inspired design with the magical girl outfits, and even more hyped for the demo!

[Parataxis]

Thank you all so much for your quick responses!

@Kisa:Thanks!

@Enigma

3. I think that it could work, but it would be wide to code your descisions in some way people don't have to read the choices. You can't really account for reading speed. For example, making all offensive moves written in red while all defensive moves are written in green would make it easier for some people, even better if the offensive coice is always the top box and the defensive choice is always below it (for colorblindness).

Hm... I haven't fully designed how the system is going to go, but it will often be more complicated than "Offensive" and "Defensive". The Choices will be tailored to the situation and terrain of the battle, and might be things like "Move into a better position", "Try a distraction" or even "Wait". Variation in reading speed is definitely a concern though! The exact timing will need to be play tested for that. My thought was to make choices timed but not fast, with maybe 30-45 seconds on the clock, we maybe that won't be long enough. Worst case scenario I can get rid of the timer and just do the choice web. (Especially if more people are concerned about the timing.)

@Sorani

All the character routes seems interesting, that you have a decision on how you want to cope with your loss. I'm kinda interested in GIVING INTO VENGENCE.

This person gets it. Yes. Shadow City is very much about Grief, and each of the characters represents an aspect of Nina dealing with her grief. I'm glad you like Luke's ending Theme--even if it's not the most healthy. It's one of my favorite's too!

And all the characters seems interesting! Shadow City seems pretty big and diverse with these characters.
...
I really adore the period inspired design with the magical girl outfits, and even more hyped for the demo!

Thanks a lot! Just wait until I post art for Gerty, she is African American and also has one of my favorite outfits! (Flapper meets Roman Legionnaire --it is perfection.)

[neuropsy]

What do you think about the combination of the tags [Magical Girl] and [Noir]?
I've never seen one done before, so I'm super hyped to see how this story will unfold. Dark Magical Girl stories are getting more common, but not quite like the image I'm getting from the combination of your tags. So, overall, you're doing something unique!

What would you call non-romantic character routes? Do any of the 5 character routes above (Phoebe, Celeste, Rebecca, Isaac and Luke) immediately interest/intrigue you?
Friendship routes, if that's a major theme in them. I'm interested in Celeste and Luke's route; Celeste because the theme is something that hits home for me, and Luke because his story seems like an interesting mystery to unravel.

Does the idea of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style timed-choice battles appeal to you? Why or why not? What about a similar system for high-risk conversations/interrogations?
As long as you give as an adequate amount of time to read, yep! It'll keep on edge and basically make me feel more immersed in the story as I'm feeling the stress of having to choose a decision in the moment. High-risk conversations though, that sounds the most intriguing feature out of all--I wanna see how well I can maneuver the characters out of such risky dialogue. Character interactivity is my favorite part of visual novels and a feature like this is something I'd really look forward to!

Given what you know, what do you expect from the plot?
I don't think I'm allowed to answer this. All I can say is that I expect this to be really dark and psychological, and, judging by the themes, without making it depressing for the sake of being depressing.

As a side note, I find it interesting that Amanda isn't the main character. Usually Magical Girl stories would have characters with the motif of love as the main, so it's interesting to see Nina have the Virtue of insight!

[akemicchi]

Hey! You got the game up!!

What do you think about the combination of the tags [Magical Girl] and [Noir]?
I don't have much experience with noir (unless the game L.A. Noir counts haha), but I like mysteries! I also like magical girls. (: Less than the tags, I'm more interested in seeing how you're going to execute the two themes together!

What would you call non-romantic character routes? Do any of the 5 character routes above (Phoebe, Celeste, Rebecca, Isaac and Luke) immediately interest/intrigue you?
I don't think it's important to mention whether the routes are romantic or not, since this isn't a game about romance (unless it is? It should have a [Romance] tag if it is so you'll interest people). Unless friendship and nakama power is important (in which case you should add [Friendship] in the tag), they're just character routes. Not all games here are romantic or friendship, even with character routes.

They're all interesting so far. They all have really striking and different personalities from each other, so I'm not sure whose route I want to jump into. I'll figure out who I want to befriend when I play the demo and see them all in action, hehehe.

Does the idea of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style timed-choice battles appeal to you? Why or why not? What about a similar system for high-risk conversations/interrogations?
Timed choices... I'm totally fine with those, actually, but balancing them tends to be hard since people read at different speeds. I played a really old Japanese game with timed choices and it gave me like a second or two to decide on something. Being a slow reader, it was very difficult to even skim through the choices, so I just picked randomly as soon as it showed up. :'D One thing I recommend you don't do is give the players too much time. One game I played gave me 20 seconds to decide on something. The suspense and immediacy was completely lost on me-- I was able to get up and get some water before the timer ran out. It was completely useless, and it made me pretty angry since I felt like the developers didn't care enough about their game to try out the time limit for themselves.

Anyway, if it works out and you like it, then you should include it! If it doesn't work out, I think you should scrap it. A feature like that should be fun, but if it's an annoyance, it might be a big enough one that people might not continue with your game. Especially if it pops up a lot.

I don't know what you mean by 'similar system with high-risk conversations/interrogations', though. Can you explain that one in more detail?

Given what you know, what do you expect from the plot?
I expect a game with a lot of nitty-gritty, dark themes. I'm not really sure what to expect about the plot, since the only thing I'm given is, "There are secrets in Shadow City that needs to be uncovered." I'm sure I'd have more to say once the demo comes out! Any idea when you'll release it? :)

Also, I have a few things I want to mention:
When you mention the virtues, I kind of expect the seven heavenly virtues. I don't know if you're using the seven deadly sins for the Sins, but if you're using them, I'm wondering why you've chosen not to use the seven virtues. I guess it'd be a problem, being Nina's virtue as Insight which is actually important to the plot and probably the CYOA timed battle system you have, but I'm just curious. :)

Anyway, good luck with your game! :D I'll definitely grab the download when it comes out! ovo/

[Parataxis]

@Neuropsy

I'm interested in Celeste and Luke's route; Celeste because the theme is something that hits home for me, and Luke because his story seems like an interesting mystery to unravel.

Yay! A point for Celeste! And yeah, I think Luke is getting a lot of attention because he is intentionally a little mysterious, but I actually like all the character routes we have up our sleeve. My co-writer who is in charge of Celeste's route was telling me a bit of what he has planned for her character chapter and I am just very excited.

As a side note, I find it interesting that Amanda isn't the main character. Usually Magical Girl stories would have characters with the motif of love as the main, so it's interesting to see Nina have the Virtue of insight!

Ha! It's funny you should say this because my sister actually pointed out that Amanda is not only literally the Power of Love, she is the genki girl and the Pink one and Wields a sword--all of which indicate that she is the main character here. (Especially as opposed to Nina who is Purple and the snarky one, wields a gun, and has the "smart person" virtue.) But I suppose this reversal is one of the ways that the genres interact for the story.

@Akemicchi

I don't think it's important to mention whether the routes are romantic or not, since this isn't a game about romance (unless it is? It should have a [Romance] tag if it is so you'll interest people). Unless friendship and nakama power is important (in which case you should add [Friendship] in the tag), they're just character routes. Not all games here are romantic or friendship, even with character routes.

Okay, this is about what I thought, but I couldn't seem to find any actually examples of people doing this. Thank you for clarifying I will keep them as character routes.

I don't know what you mean by 'similar system with high-risk conversations/interrogations', though. Can you explain that one in more detail?

Basically since the battle system in the game is basically a glorified choice web, we decided there is no reason to limit it's applications to direct combat. For instance, since this is a mystery game, there will be times when can't just beat the information you want out of the nearest monster. So instead of just making the "talk the information out of this colorful character" interrogation process a cut scene with a few choices we've decided to just go ahead and implement a full on "talk battle" where instead of battle tactics you pick what your character says to the person you're trying to convince--we even have "talk bosses" who will get battle themes and everything. These two systems can also work together to give a sense of excitement to the investigation.

An example: In an early chapter Gerty can catch you snooping where you don't belong. If this happens you are given a choice: fight her or talk. If you chose fight you enter a normal battle sequence. But! If you chose talk you enter into a talk battle sequence were you have to convince Gerty to let you stay and finish your investigation. If you win this talk battle Gerty remains suspicious of you but agrees to let you stay under a few conditions, if you super win Gerty is impressed with your spunk and will react more positively to you in the future. If you lose the talk battle, then you piss her off she attacks you. This way the player has the same amount of excitement and stakes choosing to solve their problems non-violently as they would if they had picked the battle to begin with.

Also, I have a few things I want to mention:
When you mention the virtues, I kind of expect the seven heavenly virtues. I don't know if you're using the seven deadly sins for the Sins, but if you're using them, I'm wondering why you've chosen not to use the seven virtues. I guess it'd be a problem, being Nina's virtue as Insight which is actually important to the plot and probably the CYOA timed battle system you have, but I'm just curious.

I can neither confirm nor deny the role of the Seven Deadly Sins in this story. >>
It's interesting you bring this up! I am actually quite cognizant of the Heavenly virtues, even though I didn't end up using them (Well the specific ones, the phrase "Seven Heavenly Virtues" is just too perfect to swear off using entirely.) Originally I had thought to give Nina insight as planned and use it to replace whichever one of the Heavenly Virtues was hardest to turn into a character for the (then) seven main characters. But When I actually looked into it and I found it rather difficult to work with over half of the roster.

To start with, having a female character--or even a male character--whose powers come from "Chastity" without having to explain that it was not about sex every time a new character entered was impossible, and such explanations would sort of make their character route inherently about them dealing with that which is sort of counter to the tone of this story. But! I liked the character I developed for Chastity a lot, so I actually still managed to work them in under a synonym virtue. Charity was tough to make as some one's defining character trait, so I was going to omit it and use the others, but in the end Patience, Kindness and Humility got me stuck. They were simply not different enough to create three separate 3-dimensional characters around. So I switched gear and looked at other "positive trait" based powers in fiction (Crests in Digimon, the Elements of Harmony in My Little Pony) and used those as a base instead (with a few additions like Insight, Justice, Tenacity, Diligence and Joy and a few Omissions like Magic, Friendship, Knowledge, laughter, etc.)

[Parataxis]

Hey Guys! Just a few updates:

First of all we have officially decided to participate in Yurijam! While not technically a Romance, Shadow City is deeply involved with the relationships between Nina and the other girls on her team and the demo is specifically focused on her relationship with Charlotte,(Posthumously) which makes us technically eligible. Anyway! It's mostly an excellent excuse to work really hard to push the demo out by October 31st. So hopefully we'll succeed in having some game for you to check out soon.

Secondly, I have finished the First Sprite for the Game!

Prelim Sprite Nina Nonplussed

Here is Nina's main pose with "nonplussed" expression. (I have finished all 6 expressions for this pose in the Demo.) The Coloring style was inspired by The World Ends with You, with slightly richer colors to fit in with...

Preliminary street Background

Another Street. This may double as the background to a CG.

BACKGROUNDS! Yes, our Background artist has delivered the first few of the backgrounds for the Demo--in this case Street shots in Shadow. Shadow has a purple/orange color pallet to reflect it's otherworldly nature and also to invoke twilight, since the Spirit world can only be entered after the sun sets. The Artist did a really excellent job and I for one can't wait to see what he delivers next.

Here's an example of how the sprite coloring works on the softer painted backgrounds.

Demonstration of Sprite on Background, Compiled in Photoshop.

[neuropsy]

Just popping in to say I love how the sprites and backgrounds mesh together. The style to me seems like a mix of mostly Western with definite Eastern influences--very unique for a typically unrepentantly-shoujo genre. Especially with the backgrounds, what I've seen so far definitely conveys the darker themes while still maintaining a relatively bright color palette traditional to Magical Girl works.

I'm excited to see more!

[ghostpel]

This post sleeps in my draft box for a while now. Anyway, after being encouraged(?). I finally have enough guts to post this.
Personally, I'll look forward to anything with "The town with the dark secret" tropes...when they're in a format that are easier to read.
So, this interests me immediately.

My limited vocabulary does make most sentence comes out as a bit rude. (don't know how to fix orz) Please understand I have no ill will.

What do you think about the combination of the tags [Magical Girl] and [Noir]?

- Colorful nature of Magical Girl genre vs. Monochromatic Noir film should be hard to pulls of without one weight heavier than another. (Not necessarily makes it a bad show, but will make you scratch your head..."where's noir/magical girl")
- As I typing this, I'm imagine something like Sin City...switched in a full-color show where the mafia burst out "xxx power~ makeup!!"... sorry, but I don't want to be alone imagining. ; _ ;

What would you call non-romantic character routes? Do any of the 5 character routes above (Phoebe, Celeste, Rebecca, Isaac and Luke) immediately interest/intrigue you?
- The route is the route. You can name whatever it fits (not even need to be character's name).
In Japanese game, it's pretty common for a story game. First to comes in mind is Falcom's Sen no Kiseki (which open a new can of worms..."can't girl befriend with boy!?"//oops, off-topic).
- Charlotte for being core(?) of mystery despite being a nice and a quite open individual.
- Luke stand out most for being mysterious. Also, scrolling down through character list feels like...

Nina : Hard to imagine her being snarky...maybe player's choice?
Atticus : Magical Persian cat? sold.
Charlotte : Why red girl has to die...anyway, haunts Nina more, I want to see you.
Phoebe: Looks like a boy scout in my country. Except orange. Wait, she's girl.
Celeste: Shy but caring with a small number of friends with protagonist included...um maybe easiest route?
Quinn : Closest to Loli. They're good at causing trouble when everything went too well.
Rebecca: Sisterly veteran? ...Mind your head.
Isaac : All guy named Isaac must be wearing glasses. +10
Amanda: An only character I can describe as 'cute' and nothing more.
Luke: Then what the heck are you doing there (in shadow)!?

In a more serious note, maybe stark contrast between his carefree expression on image and theme of vengeance helps to leave more impression too.

Or I'm just having 'last character in the list'-syndrome.

Does the idea of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style timed-choice battles appeal to you? Why or why not? What about a similar system for high-risk conversations/interrogations?
- Being failed every timed choice in Android game called Sorcery!... No, not at all. Be mercy, no timer! ; _ ;

Given what you know, what do you expect from the plot?
- Protagonist chasing after the truth while what she used to believe (organization, law, public etc.) getting on her way. (most magical girl show are more likely to keep the girls in vacuum to magnify their personal struggle. It would be interesting to see how will they going to deal with a social system.)
- being sucker for any story involve 'town/city with the dark secret" and will be disappointed if the whole plot has nothing to do with the city itself.

Do you think that the differing art styles for the background and Sprites work well together?
- Having completed all When they cry series as well as some Japanese free sound novel... I have very high tolerance for this. From the screenshot you posted, yes, It looks nice.

This reminds me of Fastermind Game's Selenon Rising (Still yet to play.) That title going full-noir with black & white background, dystopian world setup with color-coded superpower users and their job. (they look colorful enough to stand out, but still have enough grim aura to felt like good-average-mad people doing a morally questionable job in bad world.