Loopers (stylized as L∞PERS) is a Japanese science fiction psychological horror visual novel developed by Key, a brand of Visual Arts. It was released on May 28, 2021, for Windows and is Key's 15th game overall. An English version was released on Steam in June 2023. It was ported to iOS and Android devices, as well as the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. The story follows high school student Tyler and his friends who get caught in a time loop, continuously repeating the same day seemingly without end. Before long, they meet others caught in the same predicament who call themselves "loopers", and the two groups join forces to try to break out of the loop.
Loopers is the third of Key's "kinetic novels"—after Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (2004) and Harmonia (2016)—since its gameplay offers no choices or alternate endings. Instead, the player proceeds through the story solely by reading. The story was written by Ryukishi07 of 07th Expansion, and character design was produced by Kei Mochizuki. The game's soundtrack was composed by Shinji Orito, Sōshi Hosoi, Donmaru, Hisashi Tenkyū, Shōyu and Sumi.
Plot A mother in a hospital is telling her son a story from a children's book about how giving someone your treasure can grant you a wish. The boy argues against giving away your treasure. Mom leaves for a medical exam. A girl in the adjacent hospital bed overheard their whole conversation. The boy decides to play a game with her. He pulls out a dinosaur eraser he calls his treasure and hides it somewhere in the next bed over, then tells her she has 15 seconds to find it. She doesn't find it in time. The boy's dad shows up and he's about to leave, but he decides to give the girl the dinosaur. Remembering the earlier conversation, she asks what he wishes for. He says a treasure map. She asks why not just wish for the treasure directly. He says he'd rather find it himself.
Tyler is out searching for treasure in the middle of the night, but he got lost and has been wandering around for a while. Hilda and Leona see him and think he looks suspicious. Leona tells Hilda he's a vampire and he needs to be stopped, so Hilda confronts him. They eventually realize they went to elementary school together. Tyler explains he was out geohunting and got lost, so the girls decide to help him search. On the way they talk about an urban legend, about the "Searching Woman" who wanders the night looking for her lost heart. If you see her you have to tell her you'll help her, and you have to find it, or else bad things will happen. Hilda is terrified and trying hard not to show it.
They arrive at the park where the treasure is hidden. Tyler and Leona are searching the sandbox, while Hilda is fretting about the Searching Woman. She's checking the bushes when she senses someone from a different direction than Tyler and Leona. It looks like a woman. The woman then turns to Hilda and says she's looking for something, then vanishes. She freaks out and the others come check on her, but they assume she was just mistaken. Leona shows them she found the treasure box. They open it, and inside is a logbook and a heart shaped brooch. It says you can take the treasure if you put something of your own back in. Leona jokes that they need to tell the Searching Woman they found her heart.
By this point the sun is coming up. Tyler goes off to find another treasure, and the girls head back to the convenience store. Leona is still teasing Hilda for being scared and for finding the treasure first, so Hilda headbutts her. But Leona wildly shouts and collapses to the ground. Hilda thinks she's just faking it, because she's done that before and she didn't hit her that hard. So she gets upset and leaves. Elsewhere, Hilda is wondering if she actually hurt Leona or not. She keeps checking her phone but Leona hasn't messaged her and she doesn't answer when Hilda calls her. Then she hears an ambulance heading toward the convenience store, so she follows it.
Paramedics are in front of the convenience store carrying Leona into the ambulance on a stretcher. Hilda is still in disbelief she caused this. Then Hilda sees a figure standing in front of the store that looks like Leona, shouting that she let her die over and over again. Then she vanishes. Hilda still can't believe she did this, so she thinks it must be the Searching Woman's curse.
Meanwhile, Tyler is out treasure hunting after parting with the girls. He's at a telephone pole where he thinks the treasure is. He finds it attached to the back of the electrical box with a magnet. Inside, he finds a dog keychain. He swaps it with a treasure of his own, then logs his name. As he's getting ready to leave, he sees a guy in glasses walking by with a serious look on his face. Then he hears a commotion and goes to check it out. A police car and an ambulance are parked in front of a house. Someone broke into the house through a window and attacked the residents in their sleep, and the culprit is still on the run. Tyler heads back to the house glasses guy came from and there's an ambulance there too. He thinks he let the culprit walk right by him, so he heads in the direction glasses guy went.
Tyler finds glasses guy at the park, eating a sandwich. He goes to talk to him. Glasses guy doesn't even try to deny being the culprit, but says it's not worth explaining it. He hopes this is the last time he has to do this sort of thing, and he's done it so many times he lost count. Tyler demands he turn himself in. Glasses guy says he has something he needs to do today. He offers to give Tyler his ID card, promises not to hurt anyone, and says he'll turn himself in tomorrow. Tyler refuses, saying the ID could be fake. Glasses guy is confused because that deal apparently worked before. Tyler tries calling the police, but glasses guy knocks the phone out of his hand and then runs.
Tyler chases after him. Even after parkour-ing through an alley and over fences, Tyler is still right behind him. He finally stops and turns to Tyler, saying he's not paying attention. Then a girl in a hood jumps out and dropkicks Tyler.
By the time Tyler gets up glasses guy is gone, but the girl is still there. He asks if she's an ally of his, but she says humans outside the vortex shouldn't be acting this erratically. She says he may have been swallowed by the vortex. She also already knows Tyler's name. And she says Hilda has been acting weird too lately. She calls herself Mia. Tyler suddenly senses someone behind him that felt like the Searching Woman, but when he turns there's nobody there. And by the time he turns back Mia is gone.
Back with Hilda, she's still worried about Leona and blaming herself. She doesn't know which hospital Leona was taken to, or what to do. Suddenly she hears the Searching Woman's voice, but thinks it's just in her head. Then she heard Leona's voice and actually sees her there, so she goes to check. Leona screams and rampages like she's possessed, then disappears. Hilda can still hear the Searching Woman's voice, so she thinks she's cursed, or that this is all a bad dream. She decides to go home and get some rest. At home, Hilda wants to sleep but she can't. She hears Leona shouting from outside and goes to look, but she's sure it's another hallucination. She ignores it and passes out in the bed, still hearing the voice of the Searching Woman.
Tyler wakes up at home around noon, thinking he heard someone calling out to him. He sees a girl outside his window, looking up at him. She says "you were right, I have to apologize, I need to search." He thinks it's the Searching Woman, but she quickly disappears. He wants to help her somehow.
Hilda wakes up at home. It's midnight, so she's already late for work. She's still hearing the voices in her head. She shouts at it to stop, and then her dad comes in telling her to be quiet. She yells at him to get out, then shoves him hard enough he falls all the way down the stairs. He's not moving or responding. She freaks out about killing another person. So Hilda decides this must be a dream and goes back to sleep, thinking over the events from last night.
Around 5 am, Hilda is wandering around outside, blaming herself for killing Leona and her dad. She's thinking about turning herself in to the police. She opens the front door to her house and sees her dad standing there, asking what she's doing at this hour. She screams.
Tyler is walking around outside, but he forgot where he is and what he's doing. He remembers treasure hunting with Hilda and Leona, and saying he'd go do one more treasure hunt. He feels a sense of deja vu when he arrives at the telephone pole. He finds the treasure box attached to the electrical box with a magnet, and feels very confused by how familiar this feels. When he finds the same dog keychain inside he's convinced this isn't just a coincidence or deja vu. He checks the logbook, but his name isn't written in there. Then he checks his phone and it's August 1st, which should be yesterday's date. He remembers what Mia told him, and thinks Hilda might be caught up in this, so he takes off running.
Tyler finds Hilda on the street, wailing. She sobs into Tyler's chest while shouting she killed her dad, but he's alive again. Tyler bops her and tells her to calm down, then tells her to check the date on her phone. It's August 1st. They both remember treasure hunting together on the night of the 1st. Hilda explains everything that happened after she parted with Tyler. Tyler thinks the two of them timeslipped back a day. This is right around the time Leona got hurt, so they rush to the convenience store to check on her. At the convenience store, paramedics are loading Leona onto the ambulance. The paramedics say she still has a pulse, but can't say more without a proper exam. They both board the ambulance with her.
At the hospital, the doctor says Leona is in a coma but otherwise nothing is wrong with her. Two other patients are in the same state. A nurse calls one of the visitors Kuranuma, and Tyler remembers that name was written on the house glasses guy came out of. He wonders if these are the victims from yesterday, but they don't have bandages on their heads so the events are different. Tyler tells Hilda she's not responsible for what happened to Leona, unless she headbutted these other 2 patients too.
Hilda goes to call Leona's parents while Tyler heads to the nurse's station. He overhears that a patient went missing. He also spots glasses guy checking in on the other 2 patients. He might be responsible for Leona's situation or at least know something, so they decide to follow him.
Tyler and Hilda are arguing about if they're following too close. Mia suddenly interrupts them saying they should be quieter when tailing someone. She looks sad when Tyler calls her by her name, and she says they've been swallowed by the vortex. She says she'll bring them to Simon, the glasses guy.
They take a taxi to a large apartment building. Mia gives the driver a huge tip, and says money is infinite. Mia says she's been friends with Leona for 5 years, but Hilda says she's never mentioned Mia once. Mia lists a bunch of facts about Leona to prove it. They ask why Leona is in a coma and Mia says it was Hilda's headbutt, then says just kidding. She says Simon can explain more, so they take the elevator up.
They arrive at a massive, expensive looking room. Simon welcomes them and apologizes about yesterday. He says there's nothing they can do for Leona at the moment, but she will wake up eventually. Simon explains the time vortex, that they're constantly repeating August 1st. Tyler asks for proof, and Simon says come back in a few days. That's all the proof you need. Then Tyler and Hilda leave. At home, Tyler is thinking things over. He decides to get some sleep instead of going treasure hunting like usual.