428: Shibuya Scramble is a visual novel set in Shibuya, Japan. It was originally released for the Wii but was later ported to PC and the PlayStation family of systems, translated into English, almost ten years later. The game is unique in that it uses live-action stills and actors / actresses in its storytelling. Initially, it is weird since the text overlays against the images but it gives it its unique identity. Despite it being live-action, the game still gives up exaggerated reactions and responses, as well as crazy outfits. It is done well and gives us an idea of what anime would feel like in reality. Unfortunately, there is no voice acting. The translation isn’t completely error free either, with the occasional spelling mistake.
The game is set in one-hour blocks and told through various characters’ perspectives. There are points in the story where you have a make a decision. The twist is that one character’s decision can affect another character’s story. This leads to a multiple of bad endings but luckily, there is a handy chart showing where the branch-off points are. There are 85 bad endings in total and these can stem from just one bad decision, coming at a moment’s notice. Luckily, the effects of one character’s viewpoint on another can only happen within that hour’s block (aka chapter). This makes it easier when you hit a stopping point and need to do something different in another viewpoint to unlock it.
The story is set in Shibuya and starts off following detective Kano while he is on a stakeout. A kidnapping had happened the night before and right now, the kidnapped’s sister is currently waiting with the ransom in a briefcase. The other viewpoint is Achi who is a local of Shibuya. He accidentally gets involved in the case by being too nice of a person.
As the game progresses, a few more viewpoints are introduced. These are seemingly random characters with no connections to the kidnapping. Dive deeper into the story and it slowly becomes clear on how they are entangled into it all. It is quite interesting at how their paths intersect with each other in the most unorthodox of ways, and multiple times too. Most of the time, these interactions do not feel contrived at all.
The pacing flows and ebbs. There are certain sections in each chapter where it is very slow and the events that occur don’t feel like it relates to the plot (and they don’t). Although when it does push the plot forward, it is very good. The story manages to keep adding various facets into the scenario, some obvious, some not. Once things come into light, it is quite a revelation. There is more than one plot point at play and it’s quite clever to see how they intertwine with each other like this.
While not exactly gameplay, there are certain words which are highlighted that you can select to expand further. This could be a definition of the word, some context such as explaining the Japanese meaning of the location, or even backstories of new characters. The best ones are where it takes on an amusing tone and doesn’t take itself serious by frequently throwing in funny jokes. One thing the story does well is eventually get you to warm up to the characters, even without you knowing. Towards the end of the game, as the motivations and backstories of several of the main characters come to light, the vast majority of them are the sad types. You can’t help but feel sympathetic towards them and feel like you understand why their personality is like this.
The story does a fantastic job at wrapping up all its various viewpoints into one coherent revelation during its climax. However, at this point in the game, it is also where the many bad endings can be annoying. It can be frustrating trying to figure out how to undo the reason why you cannot progress. It also has a tendency to go through the same scene multiple times, one for each viewpoint which can get tedious.
The ending was solid but at this point you feel that the current situation is so much different to how it felt in the first half of the game. The tone changes from comedic to completely serious, and various plot threads are dropped or weakly resolved, making you wonder why they were even in the story in the first place. With that said, it manages to give a reason for plenty of background characters, and how they bond together to make it through this crisis.
There are certain quality of life issues with the game. The speed of the text cannot be adjusted. If you are a fast reader, then you’ll just have to put up with the at times, deliberate slow unveiling of text. The fact that you also cannot fast forward text or quickly skip chunks of text can be painful when replaying to get the true ending or the numerous bad endings. The game only features auto-saving, which is weird but it does save quite often. You can quickly jump from chapter to chapter via the timeline.
The story takes around 20 hours to get to the ending but there are heaps of post-game content. There are two lengthy extra scenarios, one of which is completely unrelated to the story. It tells the background of a minor character and it is overly long. It takes on a completely different tone with little relevance since it is about a character with little importance. It is so far removed from the main game that it feels completely out of place. The writing tends to drag on the situation for far too long with little point. The second scenario involving the sister of Achi is a lot better and ends up being an emotional story. It is around an hour long but it has a lot of touching and sweet moments, plus it resolves her character arc from the main story.
There are 22 side stories featuring short funny events related to a lot of the minor background characters. There’s a goofy longer scenario and several “hidden messages”. Apart from the side stories, everything else feels too bloated and hodgepodge. Unlocking these emphasizes the poor UI of the game and you’ll definitely need a guide to find out how to get to all of this content. Being unable to skip the slow revealing text to get to that one screen you need to input a specific button combination is infuriating.
Overall, 428: Shibuya Scramble is a good story but being forced to go along with its at times slow speed can be really painful. There are a lot of distractions along the way and not all of it works. The core mystery is fantastic and it leaves you eager until the very end. The live-action stills as a way of telling the story is also unique and works wonderfully well. If you don’t mind reading a ton of text and enjoy a good story then 428: Shibuya Scramble should not be missed.
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