While I've heard many good things about the game, and have no doubt they are true, this port has no text speed options and the glacial pace at which it scrolls makes me want to eat a chocolate gun.

Minorikawa best man. Still can't fully recommend it tho.

That said I can understand why this game has a cult following being kinda like a "24", Japan Edition. It has a unique style in the VN space as instead of drawn characters, real actors are used.
The parallel story lines are a cool idea, but also with the constant jumping around it gets kinda hard to follow. The non-sense some characters get up and ranty side notes are charming but do not really help. The fact that there is no fast forward for sections you already read does not make it easier either, tho at least the bookmarks are generously set and the timeline updates whenever the actions actually had an impact.

If you consider buying it, maybe watch the first 1-2 hour slots on youtube so you know what you are getting yourself into.

I'm not a massive Visual Novel fan but I do love Ace Attorney and Danganrompa. Shibuya Scramble has less interaction than both of those games. My biggest issues with this game is that I just find it boring. The story has too much pointless fluff in it and the humour doesn't do it for me. The entire gameplay revolves around you reading a bunch of characters stories and occasionally making a decision for them. If you make the wrong decision, you won't be able to proceed with the game so you just go back and choose a different decision. If you like visual novels and like Japanese humour you'll probably love this but if you're expecting there to be gameplay on the level of a Danganrompa or an Ace Attorney then don't bother. You're not really thinking about how to solve a case you're just deciding what a bunch of characters should do occasionally and these decisions are boring "should this character get into a taxi?". While the game has some charming characters (Nasubi) a lot of them look like they were hired from Craigslist. The costume design is for the most part awful too, looking extremely cheap and just out of place. Ultimately, I would not personally recommend this game.

It's an enjoyable enough story but my god, the funny bad end gimmicks really lose its charm when you can't skip already seen text.

What I expected:
A gritty detective story with interconnecting characters fate, sprinkled with light comedy. And a VN with real people is a neat idea.

What I got:
An over the top save the world story with a lot of unnecessary filler and way too much annoying comedies that's borderline very cartoony, but it gets better at the near end chapters. And the ending (even the good ending) is a slap in the face, 30 hours of tension build up just thrown out of the window, just because the developer want an "unexpected" twist with a cliffhanger.

What it should be:
This game reminds me why I love the original Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy. Ace Attorney have a perfect balance between silliness that mostly happens on investigation phase and seriousness on the court room phase, it back and forth without insulting me with irritating stupid sub-plot.

Some of 428 Shibuya scramble characters plot are just plain stupid and far from adorable funny. Here's the best to worst characters plot:
- Shinya Kano is mostly a straight forward detective story. His story is the most intriguing.
- Achi Endo is a teenager who's trying to save the cute girl from her horrible predicament. His story is like a thriller movie mixed with the usual clueless stupid strong boy and hapless cute smart girl love story.
- Kenji Osawa has a quite good family drama but marred with a detective with maniac love for banana.
- Tama itself is ok, but the characters around her are just miserable. Nasubi's con artist character is so frustatingly not funny and dumb.
- Minoru Minorikawa is the worst. He has the mentality of chuunibyou without redeeming quality at all.

36 hours later, and unfortunately I don't like this game. I just don't have extra energy to play the additional story that suddenly become an anime with voice actings, I just don't care anymore.

This is game is recommended for someone who doesn't have problem with comedy filler on their games. If you bought this game, and like the opening scene and the tone of the tutorial chapters, and hoping that it will have that tone consistently, just abandon your hope.

It lacks on what "Zero Escape" series had, so it didn't manage to keep me hooked up in the story and wanting to play it further.

It's a decent game, but it's just not interesting or funny enough to be worth the time.

I don't recommend this game!

Game Review: 428: Shibuya Scramble

Rating: 5/10

428: Shibuya Scramble is an intriguing visual novel that provides a gripping narrative, but it does come with some notable downsides. Set in the vibrant Shibuya district of Tokyo, the game weaves together the stories of four distinct characters as they become entangled in a dangerous conspiracy. The plot is incredibly engaging, with lots of twists and turns that keep you hooked, but there’s a catch—it’s a visual novel, and this means a lot of reading.

As someone who’s not the biggest fan of reading, I found this to be a major hurdle. The game relies heavily on text-based storytelling, and while the writing is well-crafted, it can be a bit of a slog if you’re not into reading large chunks of text. The absence of voice acting made it even harder to stay immersed for long stretches of time. I can’t help but feel that the addition of voice acting would have elevated the experience tremendously. It would’ve made the characters feel more alive and helped reduce the reading fatigue that tends to set in.

Despite this, the game has its strengths. The visuals are fantastic, blending live-action photography with anime-style artwork in a unique way that really captures the energy and chaos of Shibuya. The writing is sharp, and the storylines of the different characters are surprisingly deep, offering moments of tension, drama, and even humor.

The gameplay itself is relatively simple, with most of the action revolving around making decisions that impact the flow of the story. The branching narratives are definitely a highlight, offering multiple endings and encouraging replayability.

In conclusion, 428: Shibuya Scramble is a solid visual novel with a fantastic story, but the heavy reliance on reading, compounded by the lack of voice acting, may be a dealbreaker for those who aren’t big fans of the genre or have trouble committing to long reading sessions. For fans of visual novels, it’s definitely worth checking out, but for those seeking a more hands-on or less text-heavy experience, this may not be the game for you.