The Invisible Guardian (video game)

The Invisible Guardian (Chinese: 隐形守护者; lit. 'The Invisible Guardian'^[1]) is a visual novel developed in China by New One Studio. It has a spy-themed story set during the Sino-Japanese War. The game has players follow a story and make choices that open up branching paths leading to a variety of different endings.

The game was released in was released through services like the Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese versions of Steam. The game is region-locked. It became the highest-selling title on Steam in 2019, and led its producer Guan Dan being among the five winners of British Academy of Film and Television Arts new talent-cultivation program in China. The Invisible Guardian also influenced other similarly styled Chinese games such as Underdog Detective.

The Invisible Guardian features conflicts between spies against the backdrop of the Sino-Japanese War.^[2] In the game Xiao Tu, arrives in war-torn China from the Empire of Japan. He joins an underground resistance group, with the aim is to infiltrate Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Xiao Tu then meets a variety of characters with different allegiances and hidden motivations.^[3]

The Invisible Guardian has been described as both a visual novel and a full motion video game.^[1][3] In the Journal of Chinese Film Studies, academics said that the game has some minor animation effects, the game was primarily composed of text and still images and sometimes misidentified as an FMV game.^[4] Beyond still images, The Invisible Guardian features a variety of camera movements. In some scenes, images suddenly zoom in, zoom out, or pan, simulating the "push, pull, and pan" camera movements of traditional films.^[5]

As a visual novel, Invisible Guardian features a variety of branching paths that can lead to many different stories with different endings.^[4]

In 2015, a group of six people began experimenting with various forms of game formats. They cast students to act out their scripts. Among their projects was the visual novel The Secret Life of the Empress Dowager Cixi, which explored the life of Empress Dowager Cixi.^[1]

The game's producer was Guan Dan, a video game producer from New One Studio.^[6][7] In early 2017, she became the game's producer and started building her team.^[7] The developers immersed themselves in other contemporary games such as Heavy Rain (2010), which led them to the idea of a choose your own adventure-styled game with a spy fiction theme.^[1]

For the game, the costume designers, makeup artists, and props specialists researched and took educational courses during the shoot. The group used their own money outside their budget to pay professional music studios for the game.^[1]

The game was released on January 23, 2019.^[5] In January 2019, The Invisible Guardian was published on the Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese Steam service as well as the Chinese digital service WeGame.^[1] Zhao Erbadao writing in Jiemian News said that like previous Chinese titles like The Scroll of Taiwu (2018) Chinese Parents (2019), the game was a local hit.^[5] The game was the highest-selling title on Steam in 2019.^[4] The game is region locked.^[3]

Kamiab Ghorbanpour, writing for Rock Paper Shotgun complemented the game's recreation of historical settings, saying it was done in a "stunning fashion" while the highlight was the writing and interactive storyline used to grab the player's attention, saying that with its espionage theme, "every line has far reaching implications you might not see at first glance."^[3] Erbadao found its gameplay similar to a PowerPoint presentation and said that compared to other similar works Detroit: Become Human (2018) and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) the game was relatively rudimentary.^[5]

In October 2019, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced the first winners in its new talent-cultivation program in China. Among them was The Invisible Guardian's producer, Guan Dan.^[6]

Ding Liang said his experience playing The Invisible Guardian reminded him of playing other games, such as the Ace Attorney series. This led him to produce a title for his company in China that combined elements of both titles to create Underdog Detective (Chinese: 神都不良探), which featured the detective work of Ace Attorney with the branching storyline of The Invisible Guardian.^[1]

• Video games in China

• Davis, Rebecca (October 29, 2019). "BAFTA Inaugurates New 'Breakthrough China' Program With Five Winners". Variety. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
• Erbadao, Zhao (March 16, 2019). "《隐形守护者》出圈记" [The Rise of The Invisible Guardian]. Jiemian News (in Chinese). Shanghai United Media Group. Archived from the original on January 19, 2026. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
• Eyman, Douglas; Guo, Li; Sun, Hongmei (2024). "Introduction: Games, Gaming, and Interactive Aesthetics in Contemporary Chinese and Sinophone Cinema". Journal of Chinese Film Studies. 4 (3): 427–444. doi:10.1515/jcfs-2024-0049.
• Ghorbanpour, Kamiab (July 12, 2022). "The Joy of Being a Quadruple Agent in The Invisible Guardian". Rock Paper Shotgun. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on August 10, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2026.
• Ghorbanpour, Kamiab (March 27, 2024). "Exploring the New World of Chinese FMV Games". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on March 27, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2026.
• Wang, Cathy Yue; Hu, Tingting (2021). "Transmedia Storytelling in Mainland China: Interaction Between TV Drama and Fan Narratives in The Disguiser". In Gilardi, Filippo; Lam, Celia (eds.). Transmedia in Asia and the Pacific: Industry, Practice and Transcultural Dialogues. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-981-15-7856-4. ISSN 2662-7922.
• Yingxue, Li (November 13, 2019). "Game Set in the Past Makes History". China Daily. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2026.

•  Chinese Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Invisible Guardian
• The Invisible Guardian at Douban (in Chinese)