Japanese gaming bible Famitsu has only ever handed out eight 40/40 scores in its time, with its four reviewers very rarely all agreeing to award top marks. Yet it’s now happened for the ninth time, and is the second Wii game this year to get the accolade.
Somewhat surprisingly it’s come for a game which few people will have on their radar - partly because it’s unlikely to ever see the light of day outside Japan. Published by Sega and created by Chun Soft, 428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de (official site here) is a sound novel which sees a group of disparate characters collide in the Tokyo district of Shibuya. It has several branching story paths and multiple endings - indeed, Famitsu was lavish in its praise of the story, which is presented mainly using a series of still photographs, rather than the painted look favoured by so many games of this nature.
I’ve mentioned before that I think visual novels and sound novels (Chun Soft owns the trademark to the latter title, with all others in the genre referred to as the former) would make excellent ‘bridge’ titles for casual gamers who want to move on from Brain Training and the like but aren’t quite prepared to dip their toes into hardcore waters just yet. But unless you’re counting the likes of Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk (which aren’t too far removed from visual novels) then the best examples I can think of are the superbly-written dream sequences in Xbox 360 RPG Lost Odyssey. If you’ve played that game, you’ll know how effective these can be, and it’s a great pity no western publisher is prepared to take a chance on such titles.
I’ve mailed Sega in the unlikely event that the Famitsu score (and hopefully healthy sales which follow) will encourage a translation. But given how Japanese the game is - Japanese setting, Japanese characters, Japanese…well, everything - I think there’s more chance of us getting Captain Rainbow. Or Mother 3. Or the surprise release next week of Super Mario Galaxy 2.
No Comment Received