MANICHI GAMES has announced Singing Attorney: Verdict by Midnight, a musical courtroom mystery adventure launching for PC via Steam in 2027. The developer opened the game’s Steam store page on November 11, 2026, alongside new gameplay details and a trailer. A free demo containing the complete first episode, estimated to last approximately two and a half hours, is planned for release before the end of 2026.
The game combines evidence-based courtroom investigations with musical confrontations, allowing players to challenge witness testimony, expose contradictions and transform their deductions into song lyrics. Its structure draws on familiar courtroom mystery mechanics while introducing a musical system in which the prosecution and defense present competing interpretations of a case through performances.
Players take control of Kanade, a rookie defense attorney who awakens in a courtroom without remembering even her own name. Her first case involves defending Tsubame, a popular streamer accused of murdering a famous game director during a gaming festival.
The evidence initially appears to implicate Tsubame. Her fingerprints are the only ones discovered on the trophy identified as the murder weapon, while the victim was found holding an old handheld gaming console displaying its ending sequence. Kanade must uncover the truth by examining testimony and identifying inconsistencies in the prosecution’s account.
Courtroom proceedings form the core of the experience. Players question witnesses one statement at a time, request additional explanations and present evidence that contradicts their claims. Testimony can be reviewed repeatedly, while character information, collected evidence and previous dialogue remain accessible through dedicated menus.
The game’s defining mechanic transforms successful deductions into musical rebuttals. Players collect important words from testimony and insert them into missing sections of a case record. Completing these passages creates lyrics that Kanade uses to challenge the prosecutor’s version of events.
During musical confrontations, the prosecutor presents an interpretation of the case through a song before Kanade responds with her reconstructed account. Successfully exposing contradictions forces the prosecution to withdraw disputed lyrics, visually marking those lines as invalid.
Despite its musical presentation, Singing Attorney is not a conventional rhythm game. Players do not need to press buttons in time with the soundtrack, and the developer emphasizes that solving mysteries rather than musical timing determines progression.
MANICHI GAMES has confirmed three difficulty settings: Casual, Normal and Hard. Casual is designed for newcomers to mystery adventures, while Hard removes hints and increases the number of missing words players must solve.
An optional Self-Musical mode also allows players to perform songs themselves. Lyrics are highlighted as the music progresses, and compatible microphone setups can provide performance scoring. Singing is entirely optional and is not required to complete the story.
Additional features include a suspect-prediction activity during courtroom breaks, a post-case defense attorney scorecard and a music gallery that unlocks completed songs. Each episode resolves its central case, with the first episode designed as a self-contained mystery.
Unlike many detective adventures, Singing Attorney does not include separate crime-scene exploration. Its gameplay focuses on courtroom conversations, testimony analysis and deduction, keeping the player’s attention on resolving contradictions rather than searching environments for clues.
The announcement also provides a detailed disclosure of generative AI use during development. MANICHI GAMES states that AI-generated material has been used for character illustrations, backgrounds, evidence artwork, music, songs, vocal expressions and translations.
The developer also confirms that scripts, dialogue and programming were selected, expanded and revised from multiple AI-generated drafts. According to the disclosure, the developer retains responsibility for creative decisions, revisions and checking asset rights. The game does not require connections to external AI services during gameplay.
Singing Attorney: Verdict by Midnight is planned to support Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Korean. The developer intends to make the free first-episode demo available in all five languages before the end of 2026, although translations beyond Japanese are still being prepared.
The game’s price and exact 2027 release date have not been announced. A complete Steam edition containing the remaining episodes is in development, while the upcoming free demo will provide an opportunity to experience the courtroom deduction and musical rebuttal systems ahead of launch.
The announcement adds another mystery-focused independent release to Steam’s upcoming lineup, alongside other games preparing early playable versions ahead of their full launches. Recent examples include Bolt of Whalington's free Steam demo, which offers a different approach to puzzle-based gameplay before its planned 2027 release.
