428: Shibuya Scramble

Overview

428: Shibuya Scramble (428 〜封鎖された渋谷で〜) is a sound novel created by Chunsoft and Jiro Ishii that involves the stories of five different individuals who, over the course of 10 hours, help solve the mystery behind a kidnapping that took place in the city of Shinbuya, both intentionally and accidentally. The game's presentation is made up of live-action photographs and footage reminiscent of Machi, another sound novel that is considered the spiritual predecessor to 428.

Shibuya Scramble was published by Sega for the Nintendo Wii on December 4, 2008 and was the last title released as part of the Sega×Chun partnership between Chunsoft and Sega. Spike would later take over publishing duties for 428, releasing the game on the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 in 2009 as well as mobile devices in 2011. Eventually, Spike Chunsoft localized 428 into English on September 4, 2018 for the PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam. The English ports were developed by Abstraction Games and the translation was handled by Kajiya Productions.

Story

The plot revolves around a kidnapping in Tokyo's Shibuya district, the game takes place between 10 AM and 6 PM in the lives of five different characters: Kano (a detective), Achi (a punk/ex-gang leader), Tama (a girl wearing a cat costume), Minorikawa (a journalist), and Oozawa (the kidnapped girl's father).

Gameplay

Similar to other titles in Chunsoft's Sound Novel franchise, 428 is an interactive narrative that branches its story based on choices made by the player. However, choices made as one character will not only effect that person's story but the events of the other four playable characters as well.

428 is divided in several chapters, each chapter encompasses an hour in the lives of the characters. In order to progress the story, the player needs to lead all the characters to the end of the hour, if the player finishes the chapter the story will move to the next chapter in the game.

The gameplay in 428 its quite different from other sound novels, it is impossible to beat the game without using all the characters, since the decisions made with one character may effect every other protagonist in the story. For instance, in one portion of the game two yakuza are looking for a building and ask directions to one of the main characters, if the player tells them where the building is it will lead another protagonist story to a bad ending, when one of the main characters gets a bad ending the player has to go back in time using the time chart and correct the decisions.

Depending on the player's choices, a number of new scenarios become available, which ultimately lead to different outcomes and endings. The game has up to 87 different possible endings, and over a hundred different alternate story pathways.

Anime Sequel

An extra scenario is contained within 428 that was created by the founders of Type-Moon, writer Kinoko Nasu as well as artist Takashi Takeuchi, featuring a prequel story staring characters from the main game. 428 would later received a sequel in the form of an anime created in the style of Type-Moon's scenario that was produced by P.A. Works in 2009 called Canaan. The show takes place two years after the events of 428 and was 13 episodes long. Sentai Filmworks later licensed and released Canaan in North America on home video in 2010.

Reception

428: Shibuya Scramble scored a perfect 40/40 in Famitsu becoming the ninth game to receive a perfect score in the magazine's history. Years later in 2017, 428 also won 2nd place in the Famitsu's reader poll for Best Adventure Game of All Time with Steins;Gate obtaining 1st place by 34 points.

Trivia

• During the making of 428, over 120,000 photos were taken.
• The photos of Heaven's Publishing Company featured in 428 were taken at Famitsu magazine's Chiyoda office.
• The character Minoru Minorikawa first appeared in the game 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei as a newspaper reporter, which was the first game directed by Jiro Ishii at Chunsoft.
• Minoriawa has a younger sister named Midori who appears as a journalist in GachiTora! Abarenbou Kyoushi in High School. She was included in the game because GachiTora's producer was a fan of 428 and Spike was helping to publish 428 at the time.
• Prolific Japanese voice actor Akio Otsuka, the voice of Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series, makes a cameo appearance as Dr. Saeki in the Heartbeat of Spring bonus chapter. Additionally, voice actor Yosuke Akimoto also makes a guest showing as Shizuo Kudo in the main story.

References

1. You Know that Thing from 428? A Little Secret about the Classic Adventure Game (Famitsu, 2018).