# Game Completed!
#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This is a really rough game to evaluate, so I'm gonna settle on a 3. It could be a 4! This is one of those games where I'm like, "I really enjoyed it, but it didn't make a major impact on me." So we'll leave it at a 3. But I actually really recommend it! At the time of writing, it's 85% off for Sony's "Days Of Play" sale on PSN. So if my review piques your interest, that's a dang good price.
428: Shibuya Scramble has a very unusual structure. Like many other visual novels, it has branching paths... But unlike others, the story is actually quite linear, and you can jump to a previous point in the timeline if you reach a Bad End. In fact, you absolutely need to to progress. You play as five different characters, and you will need to take incorrect paths in one character's story to unlock the correct path in another. This may sound confusing on the surface, but the excellent UI design and "gameification" of it really helps. That's not to say it's always easy, though; at times, I was downright stumped, and while the game rarely resorts to "moon logic," you can often wind up in a situation where you have to break one storyline to advance to another, then jump back to correct it.
Interestingly, the whole game features real-world photo stills, with occasional video clips, which really helps ground the whole experience to show you Shibuya as it existed in 2007; not an idealized anime version of it, but the real deal. There's a lot of love for the Shibuya neighbourhood and its people and landmarks in this game, and just seeing these snapshots of the back-alleys, old shops and Sega arcades was just really cool; like a little tourism trip for me, as I've never been there. In fact, the whole thing has made me more interested in visiting Japan one day - my brother lives there, but seeing it in a context resembling non-fiction was super interesting.
You play as five very different people - a rookie detective, an eco-conscious neighbourhood vigilante, a girl in a cat suit, a renowned virology researcher, and a sketchy news writer. They all intersect and diverge as the story goes, and the way everything comes together is, while perhaps a little predictable, is a lot of fun, and quite satisfying. The story revolves around a kidnapping, a ransom, and an experimental anti-viral drug - and in true thriller fashion, it takes a lot of wild turns. Things are rarely as they seem, and seeing things from different viewpoints will be the key to seeing the truth.
There's also a massive cast of side characters that really keep things interesting; and that kinda leads into some late-game info that I'll keep spoiler-free so readers know to check it out.
By far, the most interesting story in the game relates to a side character; someone you never play as, but who plays a major role in the story. There's a lengthy backstory chapter unlocked after beating the main game, and without revealing too much, it contains some shockingly frank analysis of global politics in the backdrop of a supremely well-told, high-octane anime style; in stark contrast to the live-action style of the main game. In reading online, I've found this segment was so well-received that people want to see a sequel focusing on this character, and I agree completely. If the Sound Novel series ever gets a new entry, I would welcome such a thing with open arms. I loved this chapter, and this particular character and their machinations were by far the best part of the game.
As I mentioned in a prior status update, this is one of the final games in Spike-Chunsoft's "Sound Novel" series; the first of which, Otogirisou, was one of the best games I played last year. However, I have to say, as much as I liked the structure and overall story of 428, I think I preferred Otogirisou's true "Choose Your Own Adventure" structure, where your choices will create one of many, many different scenarios and endings. And I think the linearity of 428 is my biggest fault with it... It does have multiple endings, but these refer to the ending of each character's story, not a different ending to the main story.
There's also a lot of attempts at humour that didn't really land for me. I think that's going to be partly related to cultural barriers, but I often felt that attempts at humour were okay at best, and perhaps even ruined the tension of a scene at worst. But having said that, the translation here was surprisingly great, with really competent writing and lots of little tool-tip prompts to define terminology the player might not be familiar with; often medical terms or local knowledge. The game often leans way, way too hard on lengthy flashback scenes, often introduced way too late in the game to be interesting, and always feeling like a needless distraction in an already-lengthy game.
But yeah. I think that about sums up my thoughts. 428 is a great game, and while I don't think it'll change anyone's life, it's a brilliantly-designed game with a fun story, and I think this format of storytelling has a lot of potential. It's been 17 years since this game originally released in Japan for the Wii, and I think we're long overdue for another game in this style. I'm confident one probably exists out there, but I would love to see larger studios take what works here and elaborate upon it.
Check it out! You'll probably like it.
