Tokyo Dark

Tokyo Dark offers some great animation and character design that reflects Japanese anime and film noir.

If you’re after a horror-tinged point and click adventure game you really can’t go wrong with Tokyo Dark. The few control niggles you’ll encounter will quickly be cast aside as you put your nose firmly to the floor searching for the next clue, which is surely the hallmark of a great mystery.

Overall, Tokyo Dark stands as yet another impressive and surprisingly gripping entry into Square Enix Collective’s portfolio of diverse titles, given its scale but more prominently its tone. One that executes the seemingly-impossible task of fusing the elegance of traditional point-and-click gameplay with the engaging story-telling of a visual novel. Doing so in a way that reaps the beneficial joy of both genres, yet still making sure to ask many a question to its player on what the next logical step should be. While it doesn’t re-imagine or reinvent the conventions, Cherrymochi’s take on the choice-driven style of play — fed notably through the lens of its uneasy Tokyo setting — makes this a must for either community. Be it those of the point-and-click sway, the visual novel variant or perhaps neither of the two. Because even if your decision in-game turns out to be the wrong one, there are plenty of twists and turns to discover in Tokyo Dark‘s hybrid of narrative and investigative gameplay to make the experience all that more focused, all that more perplexing, but ultimately, fittingly satisfying to resolve.

Tokyo Dark blends visual novel with point and click to create a terrifically dark story, filled with mystery. With eleven endings and so many choices to make, it goes well beyond the four hours of that first playthrough.

An awesome experience for the classic point'n click adventures. Tense, deep and with several ending which makes the player to try again in order to change the consequences of his acts.

Tokyo Dark serves as a very good primer for those who are either curious about the visual novel genre or just want more to do than click through text boxes. The multiple endings are certainly a tempting thing for completionists, while the short runtime makes it so that the journey to the endings doesn't feel so tiring. Though most of the journey is rather linear and there's a significant lack of puzzles, the various choices at your disposal and needing to actually move to the spots gives you more to do than idle mouse-clicking. More importantly, the story is engaging from beginning to end, so you'll want to see the various paths along the way. While Tokyo Dark may not drive players toward the visual novel genre, it provides a better appreciation for the genre's capabilities.

I can count on one hand the number of times where Tokyo Dark fully takes advantage of its powerful storytelling abilities, and you’re left looking for more of them.

Tokyo Dark pulls you in with a captivating atmosphere and a really competent script full of decision-making opportunities. So much that it makes you forgive its simplistic point and click mechanics.

The game’s biggest strength is how it observes life through its characters and narrative design. Too bad some promising opportunities are missed. I can’t go into details without spoiling the story but as a long-time fan of Asian horror, I was disappointed by how Tokyo Dark eventually goes to obsessive lengths to explain its mystery. The excessive pile-up of endings only manages to undermine the room for interpretations, which seemed so open in the beginning. Some things should be better left as mysteries. In the end, I was most content with the first ending I got; a non-nonsense and weary recollection. Nonetheless, I found myself returning to the seedy streets of Tokyo, replaying the same events time and again.

Although falling short of its full potential, Tokyo Dark tells an intriguing mystery story and nicely integrates elements of both western and eastern cultures, combining point-and-click adventure-style exploration and simple puzzles with visual novel-length conversations and multiple endings, some more satisfying than others.

Quite a good show for a new studio. Tasteful presentation and a great sense of atmosphere manage to elevate it above the issues I had with the scope of the game.

Even though I had to eventually look up the other endings after playing the game 1.5 times, it’s fair to say that Tokyo Dark is not just a good game but one unlike you’ve ever played. Whilst the art may make it look like a flash game (besides the occasional anime-style cutscene), it does delve into some pretty testing and philosophical topics, merging them with the paranormal. The characters are interesting and deep; even those with little screen time seem to have complex personalities that can often inform the player of their reactions to certain decisions. The audio design is simply disturbing in the most perfect way – pulling off what I believed only Silent Hill could by actually getting to me through sound alone. And every time you do something the smart way, such as when I managed to get into the Police evidence locker without anyone in the building knowing, you’re rewarded with positive SPIN changes. All of these little pieces come together to form something completely new and intense; I hope to see a lot more like it in the future.

With its lovely visuals, grim atmosphere, compelling story and well-crafted system of choices that makes us go for more after the first run, Tokyo Dark is game that's worth the try.

A flawed but brave take on a traditional genre, and one which oozes enough atmosphere to keep you playing until the credits.

Tokyo Dark isn’t necessarily breaking new ground for adventure games, but it’s one worth checking out. Its spin via S.P.I.N presents an intriguing approach to depict a psychological thriller. Instead of leaning heavily on environmental puzzles, Tokyo Dark focuses more on multiple solutions to character interactions. The uneven pacing and inconsistent artstyle hold Tokyo Dark back from being great, though it’s certainly an impressive first game from Cherrymochi.

Dreamy yet disturbing, Cherrymochi’s Tokyo Dark keeps its crosshair leveled at a sweet spot between Japanese visual novel and point-and-click adventure. Backed by beautifully illustrated environments and an eclectic soundtrack, Tokyo Dark gives the impression of having been carefully crafted; the creators were thoughtful in how they integrated different elements to evoke a striking ambiance. Featuring supernatural cults, dark family secrets, kawaii cat maids that wax existential and a protagonist who speaks primarily in ellipses, the game nails narrative but misses the mark on a pointless stat system.

At first, Tokyo Dark seems to be little more than a pale replica of better Japanese adventure and horror games. The game’s presentation is amateurish, its characters are stereotypical, and its depiction of Tokyo doesn’t break any new ground. Thankfully, the game’s innovative SPIN system and focus on player choice heightens what would otherwise be an uninspired homage. Tokyo Dark falls well short of greatness, but hardcore point ‘n’ clickers looking for something a bit different may want to give the game a stab.

Tokyo Dark is an enjoyable supernatural mystery that holds your attention up until the end, which makes the disappointing execution of the SPIN system a real shame.