428: Shibuya Scramble (2008)

# Game Completed!
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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.

If you get any enjoyment out of visual novels, thrillers, or games with unique presentation, you owe it to yourself to check out 428: Shibuya Scramble.

Unlike most games in the genre, 428 uses live-action photos and videos to tell its story, which I think adds something special to the presentation. The story is ostensibly about the kidnapping of a young girl, but you'll be bouncing between the stories of five different characters to figure out the mystery and see more of the story. There can be a bit of tonal whiplash from branch to branch, with some characters' perspectives being grim and (somewhat) grounded, while others veer into the utterly absurd, but I found this delightful, especially once you start to understand how the plot lines connect to and overlap one another. It can also be enjoyable to hunt down all of the Bad Endings, some of which are hilarious, but if you're not into that style of play they give you hints enough to point you in the correct direction.

Though the five-protagonists thing can make the pacing feel strange at times, I found the story compelling enough that I had a hard time putting this one down until the end. This game feels criminally overlooked to me and is absolutely one of my favorites, just because of how different it feels to many other VNs. Give it a shot!

(There is also a post-game story written by TYPE-MOON, which I enjoyed as a huge fan of Nasu's writing, but it feels very different from the main story both stylistically and in content.)

I was tentative about playing this game at first because of the real-world graphics. I haven't even played many VNs but I'm still attached the usual anime style and these graphics were off-putting.

Luckily, I gave it a chance and I was completely blown away! The visual style is actually great - once you get used to it, it feels so good. They take advantage of the photo style to have some really cheesy photos sometimes for the sake of comedy, but it helps you feel more attached to the characters. But it can get serious when it needs to and I got super drawn into it - I didn't have to suspend my disbelief or anything.

The story is fantastic. This is basically 24 but in japanese visual novel form. The plot is actually genius in terms of how it weaves together multiple narrative threads. Not only that, but every single thread comes to a satisfying conclusion. There is not a single character or emotional beat that doesn't get resolved brilliantly. The characters are amazing and I cared about every one of them way more than I thought I would. So many really relatable and emotional moments for all of them.

Highly recommended to basically anyone and everyone. Wasn't surprised to hear this was one of the few games to get the perfect score from Famitsu back in the day.

What immediately strikes you upon first playing 428: Shibuya Scramble is the use of live action photos and videos. This game is not a low budget FMV game with characters acting in front of a green screen but instead features numerous characters and extras on set, in Shibuya Tokyo. Scenes are incredibly varied taking place on the streets, in malls, on top of rooftops and more. The production quality of this game is genuinely impressive especially compared to other games of its’ genre.

In 428: Shibuya Scramble, you primarily follow the lives of 5 seemingly disparate characters whose paths intertwine in very interesting unforeseen ways. The main plot of the story revolves around the kidnapping of Maria Osawa. The kidnappers requested a ransom payment for her release, but the twist is they want Maria’s fraternal twin sister, Hitomi, to make the handoff in front of the Hachikō statue, one of the most popular meeting areas in Shibuya. The plot thickens when the handoff goes horribly wrong and Hitomi also goes missing. The only way to rescue both Maria and Hitomi is to have all 5 characters make the right choices, however big and small.

The game works in 1 hour blocks. Each hour represents a chapter in the game. You must complete all five character arcs to proceed to the next hour. It is impossible to simply mainline a character arc. Each character will experience scenes called a “Keep Out” that requires you to play through another character’s arc to unlock the scene. There are also cases where you have to make the correct choices for a specific character to avoid bad endings for other characters. An example is one character can choose to cause a traffic jam which influences the decisions of other characters. The game also provides hints whenever you experience a bad ending so that you will rarely be frustrated and stuck trying to run every single permutation like in bad adventure games.

The problem with 428: Shibuya Scramble is the lack of features standard to the visual novel (VN) genre. There is no option to fast-forward text. There are no text customization options or ability to change the foreground transparency. The localization is sloppy and reads like it was a first translation draft with noticeable grammatical and spelling mistakes. There is a definition/vocabulary feature, but I didn’t enjoy reading them. Some of the definitions were less explanatory and more jokey side-commentaries with fourth-wall breaking text.

The game also presents its’ story in wildly different tones for each character. Kano’s story is a cop detective story. Toma’s story is a light hearted slapstick comedy. Osawa’s story is depressing with subtle horror elements. While featuring characters with different tones is excellent in theory, the problem is that the player is required to frequently jump between characters and the tonal shifts can be quite irksome. I found it hard to stay engaged in the story especially when jumping from a scientist who received an email about a deadly virus to a mascot character selling diet drinks.

In addition, what bothered me most is how much effort the producers went out of their way to create a realistic setting, but feature characters that act and behave like Anime characters. It’s hard to maintain my suspension of disbelief when you have characters that are seemingly inhuman or behave so awkwardly in public that I’m surprised no one has called the cops. There are too many convenient plot devices: Random characters appear whenever narratively convenient. A character has amnesia, but recovers at the right moment. Multiple law enforcement agencies are utterly incompetent and can’t seem to figure out things that a junior detective was able to deduce.

With all that said, I enjoyed playing 428: Shibuya Scramble. The plot of this game is intriguing enough that it kept me guessing until the very last minute. The first half of the story meanders a bit but serves as a nice character building exercise and sets up the epic confrontations in the second half. I was disappointed with the lack of standard VN features like fast-forwarding through text and readability customizations. The use of photography and video is a nice touch, but I wish the characters were written in a way that suited the real life setting they were in rather than a cartoonish setting. All in all, 428: Shibuya Scramble isn’t my most favorite VN, but I’m glad I spent my time with it.