My first (and last) foray into FMV games. Gotta say, not my thing. The production value was good enough, but I found the experience off-putting. It's an interesting take on the classic detective story, and the mechanic of playing from different POVs and timelines was enticing.
gameplay in the final section fucking sucks but the game is pretty good otherwise
Among the people who have actually played this, I think its actually a little overrated, but there's something charming about a FMV/live-action VN. Goofy characters and scenarios, I'd still recommend this if this sort of thing is up your alley.
Some annoying gameplay gimmicks but overall a masterpiece
martin scorsese absolute cinema
A great Visual Novel with brilliant writing and a gimmick that'll keep you involved while juggling multiple characters at once. You can see the immense effort and love put into it with every frame. Big recommend.
So epic how can a game make me like every character so much especially all the side characters. The epitomy of whacky humor
Had it installed for about 4 years, and was reading it on and off for a while.
It really is just a book with photos, but a pretty fun one.
It really is just a book with photos, but a pretty fun one.
man that was so fun so good I cried so fucking muchhh. the story mechanic is so different from anything ive played, following each person an hour at a time and the jump mechanic. i love you osawa twins i love you achi endo, every character in this even the brief side characters are so interesting and memorable this game is really special
incredible visual novel, just don't go for 100%
kız kaçırma
Might possibly be my favorite adventure game ever besides Psychonauts
This is a great ''first VN'' if I've ever seen one, it's just fun all the way through, with fun characters that are fleshed out very well as the story continues through it's mystery as it slowly unveils, with genuinely moving bits here and there, had a great time with this VN.
pretty crazy!! tonally its a bit like a yakuza game (goofy substories and all) but with the timeline fuckery and wild plot twists of a zero escape game. definitely some really really good moments in here, 100% check this out if you're a fan of other chunsoft mystery vns. it's got too many flaws[1] for me to give it a 9 but know that it's pretty damn close! should be way more popular than it is, pretty much the only acclaim i hear about this game is within vn circles, and this definitely deserves to have a lot more outside reach than it does. certainly a much more accessible vn for people who don't play vns than i surmise the grasshopper manufacture ones are (at least judging from the first half of the silver case i played a while back lmao)
the weakest bit is around the middle when the game goes from having a comedy focus with mystery undertones to a mystery focus with comedic undertones. both of these sections are good alone of one another (and sometimes in concert with one another--you'll see) but the transitional period was a bit rough since I had to readjust how seriously i was taking things lol. shouldn't be as much of a problem if you know it's coming, but once you power through that its really solid for the last several in-universe hours. really gripping stuff
[1] main ones that pop up in my mind are:
- at points some really bizarre tone shifts that are hard to keep up with (what with all of the jumping in and out of stories in the middle of them that you end up doing)
- the mystery bits being weak in the first half and the comedy bits being weak in the second half
- being a little too trial and error-y in the last timeblock specifically, but it is a much more minor lingering issue throughout the whole game (mitigated by the fact that many of the bad endings are interesting/funny enough so that you don't really mind)
- too many flashbacks near the end in general, not a huge issue but the game just starts having a ton of them out of nowhere lol
- a pretty cumbersome port (no mouse support or skip button? wtf)
- a couple side plotlines fizzle out near the end and dont really get any sort of real conclusion as the main mystery takes center stage, predominantly thinking about 2 characters here, won't say which 2 as thatd probably fall under spoilers but ppl who have played can probably deduce who im talking about
the weakest bit is around the middle when the game goes from having a comedy focus with mystery undertones to a mystery focus with comedic undertones. both of these sections are good alone of one another (and sometimes in concert with one another--you'll see) but the transitional period was a bit rough since I had to readjust how seriously i was taking things lol. shouldn't be as much of a problem if you know it's coming, but once you power through that its really solid for the last several in-universe hours. really gripping stuff
[1] main ones that pop up in my mind are:
- at points some really bizarre tone shifts that are hard to keep up with (what with all of the jumping in and out of stories in the middle of them that you end up doing)
- the mystery bits being weak in the first half and the comedy bits being weak in the second half
- being a little too trial and error-y in the last timeblock specifically, but it is a much more minor lingering issue throughout the whole game (mitigated by the fact that many of the bad endings are interesting/funny enough so that you don't really mind)
- too many flashbacks near the end in general, not a huge issue but the game just starts having a ton of them out of nowhere lol
- a pretty cumbersome port (no mouse support or skip button? wtf)
- a couple side plotlines fizzle out near the end and dont really get any sort of real conclusion as the main mystery takes center stage, predominantly thinking about 2 characters here, won't say which 2 as thatd probably fall under spoilers but ppl who have played can probably deduce who im talking about
The intertwining stories of each character mesh really well, but the game-y elements considerably drags them down.
Analyzing the plot or trying to critique it would take length, yeah some plot twists are very cliché but overall the writing does a great job weaving the stories to cross and overlap.
428 tries to balance your experience by barring the continuation of one story too far unless you catch up with other characters, choices here affect characters there and so on, but it gets tedious through the third quarter, requiring you to pick specific combinations to progress, I honestly needed to google a few points to be able to continue.
428 is a LONG visual novel, taking over 30 hrs with me to wrap it up, unless you suffer from a short attention span I'd recommend you try it.
Analyzing the plot or trying to critique it would take length, yeah some plot twists are very cliché but overall the writing does a great job weaving the stories to cross and overlap.
428 tries to balance your experience by barring the continuation of one story too far unless you catch up with other characters, choices here affect characters there and so on, but it gets tedious through the third quarter, requiring you to pick specific combinations to progress, I honestly needed to google a few points to be able to continue.
428 is a LONG visual novel, taking over 30 hrs with me to wrap it up, unless you suffer from a short attention span I'd recommend you try it.
This review contains spoilers
you have to admire the chutzpah it took to give the culprit of this game the same name as the culprit of a much better story
Largely a good time, even if Minorikawa is extremely annoying and the more serious end half isn't as good as the endearingly dumb beginning half; it'd be a five-star game if the protagonists were Chiri and Kajiwara.
Largely a good time, even if Minorikawa is extremely annoying and the more serious end half isn't as good as the endearingly dumb beginning half; it'd be a five-star game if the protagonists were Chiri and Kajiwara.
I have OCD, this game is gonna kill me one day.
An exercise in insanity, if you take it with that definition of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So many of the scenes are recycled. I would try something new and hit the same Bad End or To Be Continued... and feel like I just wasted a whole half hour. Everything is good - the writing, the characters, the gameplay. But the direction and design just does not take into account how much content is the same with each Jump.
28 Nisan darbesi
the good visual novel
Really a great game. Didn't hook me up for the first three chapters but after that things got interesting and I was pretty invested.
There are some bits that are pretty boring to read through tho (especially the Achi scenario)... and some things are easy to predict.
There are some bits that are pretty boring to read through tho (especially the Achi scenario)... and some things are easy to predict.
fun
lots of chads
lots of chads
This review contains spoilers
cute, but really tested my patience by springing a two hour long scenario written by fucking nasu that i had to read to unlock any other content. unforgivable.
Mi tipo de sangre debe ser Bombay, porque me han robado el corazón...
Best visual novel of the century
Mechanically, this game is a mess, not letting players control the speed of text very well and sometimes the flowchart is a bit clunky too. If you can tolerate that though, the cast of characters are all really fun and the plot is very engaging too
What this story lacks in mindfucky premise it makes up for with a great cast, decent pacing, and nearly flawless execution. I didn't expect to like this one as much as I do
i wish there were more visual novels with this big of a budget, this is charming as hell. i now know how to properly recycle.
It's so fucked up that something with storytelling and visual presentation as phenomenal as this gets bogged down by whatever the fuck they were cooking with the entire Cannan plotline. I adore literally EVERYTHING else about this but man I cannot get behind most things pertaining to that, which is so fucked up with how hard literally everything else here goes. That isn't to say the entirety of this is ruined because of that tho, it's still incredibly good even with that and one of my favorite visual novels. Also the bad endings go insane, they're so fun.
The English translation is infuriatingly unpolished, but that barely hinders the otherwise magnificent Visual Novel that this game is; heartfelt, with a daunting amount of twists and turns, funny even to me who usually stays away from comedy in media, and with certain mechanics that enhance the experience even more, 428: Shibuya Scramble is nothing short of a safe bet even for the most experienced Visual Novel enjoyers.
A proper alternative review for this game would be,
"I am simply cheesed to meet you."
A proper alternative review for this game would be,
"I am simply cheesed to meet you."