Category Archives: 428 Shibuya Scramble

428 Shibuya Scramble, Cover Games

428: Shibuya Scramble – In Search of the Truth

8 Comments

cropped-header-5671442This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous

Many games these days make a point of providing some sort of “added value” over and above their base experience. Be it a postgame chapter with stiff challenges, post-launch DLC or a New Game Plus mode, these features are typically there to keep you playing even after you see the credits roll.

Visual novels, as an offshoot of video games, aren’t typically known for having substantial postgame content other than the “metagame” that multi-route titles have: seeing all the possible narrative routes and collecting all the CG illustrations. But, as we’ve already established fairly comprehensively in this feature already, Spike Chunsoft’s 428: Shibuya Scramble isn’t a game to do things… “conventionally”.

Oh, sure, the base game has 85 “bad ends” to collect (with a series of trophies and achievements attached to these, encouraging you to seek them out rather than avoid them — and it’s worth doing so because several are very odd indeed!) as well as a “normal” and a “true” ending, but once you’ve seen the main narrative through to a satisfactory conclusion, you’re not done. Not by a surprisingly long shot.

Continue reading 428: Shibuya Scramble – In Search of the Truth →

428 Shibuya Scramble, Cover Games

428: Shibuya Scramble – A Question of Identity

4 Comments

cropped-header-5671442This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous | Next > | Latest >>

Well, it’s time to unravel some of the mysteries at the core of 428: Shibuya Scramble. And there are plenty of them!

Not only that, but “beating” the game isn’t the end, either; once you’ve seen the “normal” or “true” endings, there are other, more deviously hidden scenarios to track down… but that’s a tale for another day. Today, we’re going to focus on the how the game explores its various protagonists and one of its most important core themes.

Let’s step back into Shibuya, then… the beating heart of one of the world’s busiest cities.

Continue reading 428: Shibuya Scramble – A Question of Identity →

428 Shibuya Scramble, Cover Games

428: Shibuya Scramble – The Mechanics of Storytelling

4 Comments

cropped-header-5671442This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous | Next > | Latest >>

When we’re talking about conventional games — particularly today’s games — it’s important to consider them from a wide variety of perspectives.

Typically, we look at a game from several different angles: the way it’s presented through its sights and sounds; the way it plays through its mechanics; and, where applicable, how it handles its story.

When contemplating visual novels, the balance tends to be a little different. We tend to up the focus on narrative considerably, and in many cases mechanics don’t enter the picture at all — many visual novels simply don’t have any! That is, unless you’re 428: Shibuya Scramble, in which case your narrative and mechanics combine together to produce something exceedingly interesting…

Continue reading 428: Shibuya Scramble – The Mechanics of Storytelling →

428 Shibuya Scramble, Cover Games

428: Shibuya Scramble – Introduction and History

4 Comments

cropped-header-5671442This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
Next > | Latest >>

Every so often a game comes along that really makes you sit up and pay attention.

Sometimes it’s because it features a beautiful refinement or evolution of some established mechanics. Sometimes it’s because it really pushes graphical technology forwards. Sometimes it has famous names attached to it.

And sometimes it’s 428: Shibuya Scramble, a title so far removed from what we traditionally think of as a “video game” that you can’t help but notice it.

Continue reading 428: Shibuya Scramble – Introduction and History →