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So the polls didn’t go to waste completely and this cult hit japanese Visual novel is coming to west

PS4/PC in spring 2018

Megaton!!!

Fellow AG review

https://ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.nl/2012/09/blog-post.html

Tantei KID - 03 March 2017 04:03 AM

Thanks for the link to my review

Welcome
There is no better source i know of japanese only VN breakdown

There is hour long 428 documentary on youtube please caption it

Nice. Been waiting 7 years or so for this to hit the western market.
Ironically it was TanteiKid who put this game on my radar.

Edit: It might have been Machi 428 which he introduced me to.

Is this game a good starting point for the franchise then?

Edit 2: Nevermind it was this game.

It’s quite funny since this game came around the time The World Ends With You got released and they both have a similar premise and were released on Nintendo systems.

Spring 2018? Seems so far away… But good that it’s coming

So awesome! This is the game that originally encouraged me to learn Japanese. I played through this game at a super slow pace but I was so proud when I finally managed to finish it and it was an amazing experience.

Now I can’t wait to go through the game in a language I can actually read at a normal pace

Here’s my “review” of the game for the Reddit’s “learnjapanese” channel from a few years ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1mu10p/428_a_recommended_visual_novel_for_intermediate/

Can someone sell me on this? The trailer just makes it look like a corny, low-budget, action FMV game. How does the gameplay actually work?

desiderio59 - 25 March 2018 07:16 PM

Can someone sell me on this? The trailer just makes it look like a corny, low-budget, action FMV game. How does the gameplay actually work?

I’ll try, but I’m not sure if it will actually appeal to you. It really depends on your stand on visual novel games. It’s more “game-y” than many other visual novels, but much less game-y than games like danganronpa or ace attorney.

As a visual novel, it is basically a “choose your own adventure”. The story develops (with text, music, sound effects, and still images - very little motion), and from time to time you are asked to make a decision (e.g., should you attack a given character or run away).

The “twist” - in the game you are playing 5 different characters simultaneously, and decisions you make with one character affects the outcome of the story for another character. The “puzzle” is to untangle the web of relations between the stories, finding the set of decisions for each characters that would allow all characters to advance the story (you are not allowed to reach a “bad ending” with any of the characters - at which point you need to rewind the clock and try making a different decision).

As a game, it is not very challenging. However, I found the story to be pretty fun, and the scenarios were pretty varied (e.g., the characters include a police detective, a former gang member, and a person stuck in a cat suit). Can’t comment much on how good the writing is because I played it in Japanese so it’s very hard to form an actual opinion on the writing style, but I really enjoyed it.

Matan - 25 March 2018 08:07 PM

desiderio59 - 25 March 2018 07:16 PM

Can someone sell me on this? The trailer just makes it look like a corny, low-budget, action FMV game. How does the gameplay actually work?

I’ll try, but I’m not sure if it will actually appeal to you. It really depends on your stand on visual novel games. It’s more “game-y” than many other visual novels, but much less game-y than games like danganronpa or ace attorney.

As a visual novel, it is basically a “choose your own adventure”. The story develops (with text, music, sound effects, and still images - very little motion), and from time to time you are asked to make a decision (e.g., should you attack a given character or run away).

The “twist” - in the game you are playing 5 different characters simultaneously, and decisions you make with one character affects the outcome of the story for another character. The “puzzle” is to untangle the web of relations between the stories, finding the set of decisions for each characters that would allow all characters to advance the story (you are not allowed to reach a “bad ending” with any of the characters - at which point you need to rewind the clock and try making a different decision).

As a game, it is not very challenging. However, I found the story to be pretty fun, and the scenarios were pretty varied (e.g., the characters include a police detective, a former gang member, and a person stuck in a cat suit). Can’t comment much on how good the writing is because I played it in Japanese so it’s very hard to form an actual opinion on the writing style, but I really enjoyed it.

Nice.  You completely sold me on it.  Looking forward to it.

I am currently at 20 hours of gameplay and so far, this game exceeded my expectations.
 
This is obviously a very good visual novel. It’s huge (it features an impressive amount of live action photographs), the story is captivating, inventive and full of weird japanese humour. It is not challenging, but finding the right path to make the story unfold is not always evident. Each character is memorable. The numerous bad endings are often funny, sometimes unpredictable or highly surreal.

I hope to see other nippon games of this type translated in english in the future, but sold at a more reasonnable price.

I’m playing this as well right now.  Haven’t gotten very far, but have had a lot of fun with it so far.

The way I’d describe it is Pulp Fiction: the game.  You play as a bunch of different characters in different situations, and their stories tie together in unexpected ways.