SHUTEN ORDER

Shuten Order is a wildly inventive visual novel adventure that fuses detective work, horror, romance, and satire into five distinct storylines, backed by stunning art direction and a compellingly bizarre narrative from the creators of Danganronpa and Rain Code.

Shuten Order is a fantastic text adventure that truly sets itself apart from the crowd with its brilliant use of multiple routes to create the complete story. Other than some technical issues that hold the game back, it’s an impressive feat that shows how the Too Kyo team knows very well how to tell compelling stories.

Shuten Order is a great-looking game with a compelling story that you can’t wait to finish. I couldn’t wait to solve the mystery behind my character’s death!

Shuten Order is an excitingly fresh new kind of game, creating the same sort of one-of-a-kind identity for itself that Danganronpa did when it first released. I can't wait to experience more of this terrific terrifying world.

Shuten Order is a fantastic, incredibly unique game that stands out from the crowd. The narrative and world-building are captivating, the characters are endearing and entertaining, and the gameplay is engaging due to its variety. While not without flaws, the experience it provides is genuinely unforgettable.

Shuten Order is a dark visual novel that blends multiple narrative genres depending on the path you choose. Although its mechanics are somewhat superficial and certain sections can feel tedious, its intriguing story and memorable characters make it worth seeing through to the end.

Even after a week of finishing Shuten Order, I am still pondering how I feel. It's an excellent experience I overall enjoyed, yet left a tad bit unsatisfied at where the adventure ended. Strangely, I feel this is its own unique merit. A destination that invites you to reflect back on the journey, wishing to see more of the path forward, but content with the distance that has been trekked. Kodaka, Nakazawa, and the writing team’s simultaneous celebration and critique of religion is one I found thoughtfully uplifting just as much as it is deeply disturbing. A take that plays on familiarity to craft something subversive. Shuten Order may not reach the peaks present in their other works (thankfully it also avoids the pitfalls), but it is a deeply introspective murder mystery that left me lost in thought about the nature of my own existence past its conclusion.

Shuten Order is a well-written game that incorporates gameplay elements from multiple genres, including visual novels and adventure games, across multiple routes. The narrative, led by Danganronpa creator and writer Kazutaka Kodaka, is engaging from the very start. Shuten Order's immersive art style and Japanese voice-overs also make it a game that will be hard to put down once you get started.

I really enjoyed Shuten Order. The narrative kept me excited to find out the identity of The Founder’s killer. I really enjoyed the structure of every investigation being a different style of visual novel. But the game suffers from many of the issues that plague the visual novel genre. The writing is long-winded, and can be lazy at times. There are lots of bad anime tropes that are going to turn away anyone who isn’t already a visual novel fan. But if you love the genre, Shuten Order is one of my favorite new visual novels in quite a while.

Overall, Shuten Order’s real selling point is its sense of style. Each screen of the game is a feast for the eyes full of colour and interesting designs. While its main story is solid, the individual routes vary in quality and their gameplay often feels a little lacklustre. Even still, there is a lot to love in this strange world and it’s hard not to enjoy the time spent there. Praised be the Shuten Order.

Shuten Order is so all over the place that its eShop listing doesn’t even provide a genre. But don’t take that as a lack of focus; this game knows what it wants to accomplish, and does so effectively. Players seeking a text-heavy adventure with uncomfortable choices to make are in for a wild (albeit occasionally overlong) time.

Shuten Order is a frustrating game to enjoy. The writing team at Too Kyo Games clearly has a lot of ambition, and I respect the kind of game Shuten wants to be. Every route felt hampered by something, held back by execution that didn’t match the full potential. Despite everything, it lands with such a tremendous note that I think it’s worth experiencing this at some point. Your mileage may vary on whether you find the core routes to be predictable, depending on how invested you are in ADV games, but I do respect what they were going for. What it lacks in cohesion, it makes up for in spirit. If you can get past the blemishes, and there are a lot to look past, I can see a certain kind of person really getting a lot out of Shuten Order.

The story, characters, and gameplay of Shuten Order are genuinely enjoyable, but the translation doesn’t match the game’s innate quality. I’m not trying to discourage anyone from buying Shuten Order. It’s fantastic. I hope it’s as successful as Hundred Line. But I also sincerely hope that a patch comes out to fix up the English script. Blessed be the Shuten Order.

Despite its loud style, Shuten Order doesn’t land with the same explosive impact as its predecessors. It has a more tame energy, and seems more interested in being a true mystery story at the expense of Too Kyo Games’ more absurdist tendencies. That stuff is still in there of course, but it’s almost like Shuten Order takes itself a bit more seriously. And there’s something to that train of thought, especially since the biggest boon from its anthology-like structure is a greater emphasis on character development compared to games like Hundred Line or Rain Code. Many of the gameplay gimmicks ring hollow, with generic puzzles and busywork interrupting the stuff you actually care about and threatening to drag the momentum down. I mostly appreciated the novelty of this approach, especially as a fan of short stories as a format. Let’s just do without the slider puzzles next time, please!

Shuten Order is a multi-genre mystery that can feel like a real celebration of its gaming legacy as you unravel a pleasingly head-scratching conspiracy. Switching genres, however, means each can feel like a light touch. Still, with wonderful art and plenty of narrative variety, this is a gripping yarn more often than not, though one that struggles to stick its lengthy landing.

Shuten Order is an ambitious visual novel that tells an intriguing story with consistently engaging characters and more than a few twists and turns. Unfortunately, with the inclusion of five distinct forms of gameplay driving the story, it ultimately feels bloated and directionless, and not one of the sub-genre sections is polished enough to stand on its own two feet. I wholeheartedly commend the audacious, multi-genre effort, but Shuten Order would have benefited from a lot more focus.

Shuten Order is a unique and stylish murder mystery visual novel with wild narrative ambition, but its lack of consistent execution, pacing issues, and underwhelming gameplay variety keep it from reaching the heights of its inspirations. It could have been really good if it was about a third as long. Each side branch takes 5-10 hours when about two is the max they should have ran. Mystery fans and visual novel enthusiasts may appreciate the experience, but most players might wish for a more focused, narrow adventure.

The real art of Shuten Order isn't in the puzzle pieces, then, but the finished picture. A shame constructing isn't a more well-rounded journey. [Issue#415, p.98]