souls into the afterlife. During the course of the story, it is revealed that Misaki arranged their return to the island so their illness might be cured, and that Chōshirō himself died ten years before, and is now helping the girls guided by the benevolent spirit of Ruka's mother Sayaka. It is gradually revealed that Ruka's father Soya Yomotsuki had become obsessed with completing the ritual dance, as it would also cure the disease and required the construction of a special mask for the dancer. Ruka herself became infected, and was treated at the sanatorium along with the other girls and the dancer, Haibara's sister Sakuya. The ritual was a catastrophic failure due to another tourist version of the ritual taking place concurrently; Sakuya reached the final stage of the disease and fell into a coma when the mask shattered, the other girls collapsed and had their memories wiped, and the dancers in the tourist ritual all died. Two years after Misaki and Madoka left the island with Ruka, Sakuya woke up and infected the whole island, killing everyone who saw her face including Yomotsuki. To lay Sakuya to rest and calm Rougetsu's dead inhabitants, the ritual must be completed, and for that the mask must be restored. Ruka comes into possession of all the mask fragments, which reform into the complete Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Confronting Sakuya atop Rougetsu's lighthouse, she manages to pacify her with a sacred tune called "Tsukimori" taught to her by Sayaka, then Chōshirō puts the mask on Sakuya, completing the ritual and allowing all the island's spirits to pass into the afterlife including Sakuya, Chōshirō and Yomotsuki. Depending on the game's difficulty setting, Misaki's fate is either left unknown, or her illness is cured after she is saved by Madoka's spirit and she leaves the island with Ruka. Development Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was co-developed by Tecmo, Grasshopper Manufacture and Nintendo Software Planning & Development. Tecmo was in charge of the gameplay and atmosphere, Grasshopper Manufacture were put in charge of character motion and other unspecified aspects of development, while Nintendo managed general production. Makoto Shibata and Keisuke Kikuchi, series creators and respective director and producer of the previous games in the series, returned to their respective posts. In addition, Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda acted as a co-director, co-writer and designer. Suda was initially reluctant to work on the project due to