TooKyo Games’ second game this year, following the impressively massive Hundred Line Academy, is the shorter (though no less ambitious) Shuten Order, a visual novel hybrid split into five distinct parts and gameplay styles, showcasing the various strengths of the studio and its partner in this project: DMM GAMES. It drops you into its intrigue immediately—a heroine with amnesia, an insane world, and twists abound. You are not meant to comprehend it all at once; all will seemingly be revealed in time. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I have very little to discuss due to game-breaking bugs.
Having tested Shuten Order on two different PCs, I have encountered several severe issues. For one, the game’s screen randomly turned pitch black, removing all art and subtitles. Menus and the transcript of conversations are available with the use of their dedicated buttons, but affected scenes consisted of darkness with dialogue sound. The screen returned after a while. Mostly. Unfortunately, three out of the five routes I attempted led me to a situation where I could not interact with the object required to progress: two in different prologue sections and one near the end of the first route I tried.
With that, I can only speak on what little I played in hopes of a fix for whatever caused this issue on my setups in the near future, so that I can give it a fair go. I do want to, as I found Shuten Order very appealing whenever everything came together. Though plenty of the style, themes, and art will surely feel familiar to those following Kazutaka Kodaka’s previous works, the faster pace makes for an interesting, intense experience where each of the many revelations hits the protagonist Rei Shimobe like a truck. These range from religious epiphanies or godly challenges to simple human stories.
I got furthest in the first presented route: Kishiru Inugami’s Ministry of Justice mystery adventure, throughout which Rei seemed to have been slowly regaining her sense of morals and values as she defended a maid from accusations of murder in a classic evidence-gathering and trial gameplay loop known from Danganronpa, minus the social sections. I assume other routes explore different aspects and values that Rei would have to reform, as well as unique secrets that come together to unveil the ultimate truth.
Shuten Order purposefully drip feeds you information to the point where, even nearing the end of a route, I was unable to piece together anything about its ultimate mystery until I jumped over to the other ones. The multi-perspective visual novel route had me jumping between the perspectives of Rei and a presumed killer to have them unknowingly assist each other in reaching her desired goal. Most unique was the stealth action horror route, the only top-down gameplay style that involved avoiding a monster and unveiling its secret connection to the universe’s God.
The art, though far from anything abstract, serves as a look into the crazy, rugged and unstable world of Shuten Order. Helmed by Kodaka’s frequent collaborator simadoriru, the few off-model character portraits, simple 3D rendition of Rei, and the few unique shots in select scenes serve as a sort of unnerving and disruptive force in an otherwise deceptively squeaky clean land of Shuten. Like the giant, headless statue looming over the state, this mixture of uncertainty and familiarity is quite captivating.
Well, whenever I could actually see it, that is. With the aforementioned black screens abound, I am currently uncertain when I will be able to properly experience Shuten Order, or at least continue my playthrough. I enjoyed what I got to try, even excitedly pushing through the few bugs I could manage, but currently, with three routes I know I and perhaps others may be unable to complete, I cannot recommend Shuten Order on PC.
Mateusz played Shuten Order on PC with a provided review copy.
