428: Shibuya Scramble / 428 ～封印された渋谷で～

428: Shibuya Scramble is an amazing game. It's a visual novel whose gameplay consists solely of reading and making choices, yet despite being a relatively reserved format, it feels like 428 was developed with the guiding principle of making as many components of the game as possible provide entertainment in some way, which is what allows 428 to transcend the bounds of the format.

The First Hardship of Nagomu Ichiyanagi - The Rain-Lattice Mansion / 雨格子の館 一柳和、最初の受難

An isolated house in the rain... A series of gruesome, themed murders... And a wimpy kid who has to solve them all.

These are the elements that make up Nagomu Ichiyanagi.

Chaos;Head Noah / カオスヘッドノア

Takumi Nishijou is just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill reclusive socially anxious MMORPG-addicted anime-obsessed self-absorbed rude cowardly acerbic loner Japanese teenager that lives alone in a storage container on top of an apartment building. Y'know, the usual. One day weird things start to happen, and Takumi wants them to stop, and... that's pretty much the entire plot of Chaos;Head. (I'm not calling it "ChäoS;HEAd," sorry not sorry.)

Missing Parts: the Detective Stories / ミッシングパーツ the TANTEI stories

Most murder mystery video games tend to be pretty silly. Maybe it's because, compared to mystery novels, they generally have a younger target audience, or because the visual element requires some extra pizazz, or some combination of the two along with some other things. While there are some novels that are out there, generally they're more restrained than video games.

But then we have a game like Missing Parts: The Detective Stories, which is about an ordinary guy, Magami Kyousuke, investigating ordinary murders in an ordinary city during his ordinary life. While there are some flavorful characters, there aren't any hyper-talented high schoolers or spirit mediums. These murders take place in apartments and alleys, not secluded islands or space stations.

And it's sooooo good.

Steins;Gate / シュタインズ・ゲート

In my Raging Loop review, I said that one of the things that I thought made the game work so well was that the protagonist was intelligent and approached the situation in the same way the player would, creating a narrative flow that was engaging, natural, and aligned with what the actual player wanted to do even though there was very little direct control.

Steins;Gate is not like that.