Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

428 Shibuya Scramble

Repressed Homosexual
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
17,867
Location
Ottawa, Can.
Why isn't there a thread about this game on the Codex already? This VN is so good. I got it on the Steam summer sale. One of the best games I ever played. I understand why it got a perfect Famitsu score all this time ago. Think of it as a Yakuza game or drama in VN version. While there is nothing in it that you haven't seen before, it's just very well put together. I love the various stills too. Every single shot is just perfect. An absolute must for anyone with even a passing interest in VNs.

It's a bit like the novel Notre Dame de Paris, in that there is no main character. Rather, the main character is the Japanese borough of Shibuya. The story itself, with numerous twists and turns, is just an excuse to showcase the area itself and the various types of individuals who populate it. Like many other kinds of stories, it's about people from different walks of life, who learn how to overcome their differences and their prejudices, and work together for the common good. It shows that when people do that, they are unstoppable. It's a tale that will never get old, because it is what the world needs to learn and relearn above all else.

The localization is just perfect and just nails the tone, I'm not surprised this is from Alexander O. Smith.

You know a good game when once it is done, you practically now consider all the characters to be your friends, and you experience a sense of grief when realizing that you lost all of them and will never see them again. It's part of the reason why I mostly ceased playing VNs.

It's just so funny to see how insignificant events affect another character's progression and to look for all of the crazy bad endings there are.
 
Last edited:

distant

Learned
Joined
May 18, 2020
Messages
181
Yakuza? Yay. VN? Boo. How is it like Yakuza? As in the tonal shifts from funny to serious? Mini-games? Is there any gameplay in this?
 

Ialda

Learned
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
124
I despise most VNs I've forced myself to play, but 428 ? Loved it. It's a great love letter to a very special place at a very special time (Tokyo/Shibuya in the early 2000s and the pop culture that goes with it), good pacing, a believable plot carried by sympathic characters, and some really great use of tonal shifts between the different plots ranging the full gamut from pastiche of hardboiled journalistic drama to techno-thiller, love comedy and Tama's antics.

Yeah, the conclusion drags a little. And the bonus stories are crap. Otherwise ? Greatest VN I've played.

I hope I will be able to play Machi one day.
 
Last edited:

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom