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March 28, 2024, 02:12:24 PM

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428: Shibuya Scramble

Started by Jerzy Bondov, February 28, 2019, 12:26:22 PM

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Jerzy Bondov

This is the stupidest shit I've ever played in my life. Sat there reading a video game.

It's a Japanese game from like ten years ago but they recently brought out an English translation. It's almost all photos and text with the odd bit of video. You have five characters to control and you go through their stories, making the odd decision, until something goes wrong. Then you go back and change your decisions, or hop to another character and make some decisions there. They all effect each other in different ways.

For example you've got a bloke hiding in an alley with a girl, and a cockroach falls on her, causing her to pass out and die. So you switch to this girl dressed as a cat who is upstairs with a cockroach, and have her run away instead of lobbing it out window. Problem solved. And so on.

Absolute gibberish. But I love it.

5/5

Bazooka

I find text games harder to play than a book made out of paper made from wood, wish I could, and glad you can.

Timothy

Also playing it right now. Almost in the last chapter.

Literally the best visual novel I ever played. If you like this I also recommend Danganronpa, The Nonary Games, Phoenix Wright and Steins Gate Elite.

Visual novels rock.

Jerzy Bondov

I finished Danganronpa 1 and liked it but went straight into Danganronpa 2 and found it a bit tedious. Steins;Gate I also bounced off - took too long to get going. Got Zero Time Dilemma on PS+ and liked it (bit more gameplay than others - great puzzles - and the timeline gimmick is good fun) with some reservations (too many annoying characters). I know that's the third in the trilogy so I've spoiled the first two by playing it.

428 is probably the most enjoyable visual novel I've played - although it's lighter on the gameplay side, the mix of tones and genres keeps it a lot fresher. The writing is generally snappier than a lot of the others I mentioned, even Danganronpa, where characters are constantly repeating themselves or having really long conversations that go nowhere. I'm not really a convert to the genre but I'm up for the really special ones, of which this is one in my opinion.

Space ghost


Jerzy Bondov

Fell asleep playing this last night. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep playing a game before. Must be getting old.

brat-sampson

This a actually sounds fucking great. Wish it was on Switch, but I'll look out for it on PS4 when I have more time.

Cheers.

Consignia

Is there any game play to this? I hear it getting praised all over the shop, but from what I can tell it's a standard visual novel in terms of presentation. I used to be really into them but I find it a real drag to spend so much time reading text on a screen. Doubly so if it's on TV.

Timothy

Quote from: Consignia on March 01, 2019, 01:31:18 PM
Is there any game play to this? I hear it getting praised all over the shop, but from what I can tell it's a standard visual novel in terms of presentation. I used to be really into them but I find it a real drag to spend so much time reading text on a screen. Doubly so if it's on TV.

Reading text and making decisions. The story and characters are worth it.

Finished it today. Got a lot of bonus content.

Might be my favorite visual novel ever.

Jerzy Bondov

You spend the game looking at pictures, reading text, and selecting text. That's all there is to it if you boil it down. No puzzle rooms like in Zero Escape and no word games like in Danganronpa. It is good though.

Timothy

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 01, 2019, 01:43:34 PM
You spend the game looking at pictures, reading text, and selecting text. That's all there is to it if you boil it down. No puzzle rooms like in Zero Escape and no word games like in Danganronpa. It is good though.

In the later chapters/timeslots there is some puzzling otherwise you can't continue. Gets quite difficult sometimes to follow the exact path you have to follow. And in the bonus content there are actual puzzles.

Jerzy Bondov

Oh, ta! I've only done the first 3 hours so far. I can see finding the right path becoming quite tricky, it does ramp up from hour to hour.

Timothy

It starts easy but around 15:00 or so it gets quite tricky. Had a day off yesterday and apparently played 11 hours in one day. Mental. It's like binge watching a good TV show. You can't stop.

Any other visual novels people here can recommend that are similar to this? I've already played Steins Gate, Danganronpa and the Nonary Games and Psycho Pass.

brat-sampson

The Ace Attorney games are bloody good fun. Bar a couple of obtuse connections you're expected to make.

Jerzy Bondov

My save file says I've played this for 115:22. What? There's no way I've played it for 115 hours. But if it's minutes, there's no way I've played less than two hours. Maybe it keeps counting if you leave it on stand by?

brat-sampson

PSA: This is currently on offer on PSN in the EU/AU regions for nearly 2/3 off. £15.99 or 20 Euros.

Jerzy Bondov

Bargain. Hours of fun. Timothy, you're not wrong about it getting trickier once you get to 15:00. Fucking Yanagishita. Total bell end. My favourite character is Minorikawa at the moment, running around pointing at people with his funky theme tune. Spoiler:I got him blown up by the van and the way it shifted to video made me think it was the correct path so I was genuinely upset watching him die. Luckily it was yet another Bad End.

Is it the case that if I get everyone to the end of an hour that's correct path and there's no need to go back? Or are there multiple paths through the game?

brat-sampson

JUst finished the first tutorial hour. Took me a bit to realise that sometimes making decisions you've already made before (and thus are greyed out) can still give new content if you've done other things *since* which I think could have been indicated a little more clearly.

Other than that, yeah, it's a good time. Also a tutorial point popped up explicitly saying that yeah, once you've made it through an hour you've basically 'solved' that hour and there's no need to go back to it unless you're looking for obscure other endings etc. There's no way to start, say, hour 4 any other than one pre-defined way.

Timothy

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 06, 2019, 09:23:39 AM
Bargain. Hours of fun. Timothy, you're not wrong about it getting trickier once you get to 15:00. Fucking Yanagishita. Total bell end. My favourite character is Minorikawa at the moment, running around pointing at people with his funky theme tune. Spoiler:I got him blown up by the van and the way it shifted to video made me think it was the correct path so I was genuinely upset watching him die. Luckily it was yet another Bad End.

Is it the case that if I get everyone to the end of an hour that's correct path and there's no need to go back? Or are there multiple paths through the game?

Yaganishita is great. Amazing character.

Agree about Minorikawa. His dialogue is great and hilarious.

When you finish the main story there is SO MUCH ADDITIONAL CONTENT that you unlock. I finished it last week and am still playing. This game might be my favorite game of the year so far. Great story. Great dialogue. Hilarious. Awesome soundtrack.

Any other games that are like this?

Jerzy Bondov

Getting near the 'end' now I think, a few characters have come to their END bit. I absolutely love this game I really do. I've laughed, I've cried. Okay, I've not cried, but I felt sad.

It got a massive laugh out of me when Minorikawa bullshits the debt collectors that Toyama is in some park, phones him up all smug, and it turns out that's exactly where he is. Just a really funny joke. Another thing I really like about this is Tama's storyline and how it keeps being light and funny after you find out it's Maria in the costume. Maria is a great character and you really want her to survive after spending all that time getting to know her.

Jerzy Bondov

Done the last block and the epilogue last night. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. That last block is outstanding. You spend so much of it hopping around between characters making tiny changes, trying to buy time for other characters, getting one bit to click into place but then something else happens elsewhere that fucks it and you have to hop back to someone else, make more tweaks. It really feels like you're fighting against the villain. In the end I managed to get the 'true' ending - didn't realise it was anything other than the normal ending until I read the trophy description. Fucking loved it.

I was beaming when the theatre troupe with the dry ice machine rolled onto the scene. Jack mentions dry ice in a flashback so I'd seen it coming but it was still fucking brilliant. What a fucking stunning game.

Timothy

Good to read that!!!! I had the exact same experience.

And now you have a lotttt of bonus content to look forward to!

Gonk

Got stuck as a bollocks at the point Minorikawa's mate gives up on it all, vowed to not look at a guide so as not to ruin the whole thing, tried again, looked up a guide, couldn't find one helping for that bit, figured it out on my own and was hugely relieved by the whole affair. Thanks a mass for recommending one of the best games this year so far. Splendid writing, all 5 characters have solicited a joyful chuckle and only up to 13:00 yet.

Jerzy Bondov

Glad you like it! I only really got stuck once on a bit I thought was quite unfair, where you have to answer a question wrong to get the response that leads to a jump point. Used a guide and didn't feel bad when I saw the solution, but didn't use it again after that.

Timothy

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 20, 2019, 07:08:27 AM
Glad you like it! I only really got stuck once on a bit I thought was quite unfair, where you have to answer a question wrong to get the response that leads to a jump point. Used a guide and didn't feel bad when I saw the solution, but didn't use it again after that.

I think I got stuck at the same spot. The name that you had to get wrong which made for a jump point for Endo. Also only used the guide for that. Could never have guessed that myself.