Our Verdict
City Delusion Dissolution Middle is a strikingly fashionable, mystery-solving visible novel that blends the digital world with the supernatural. Whereas a little bit of a gradual burn, its gorgeous pixel artwork and distinctive reimaginings of iconic city legends are actually value investigating.
City Delusion Dissolution Middle is a really intriguing recreation the place you play as a younger clairvoyant lady named Azami Fukurai. Looking for to get a greater understanding of this capability (and later trapped in a contract because of an unlucky incident with a cursed chair), you end up employed by the mysterious City Delusion Dissolution Middle.
Below the tutelage of the middle’s eccentric but extremely proficient director, Ayumu Meguriya, you got down to resolve varied circumstances revolving round myths and supernatural occurrences. From rental issues to cursed relics, every case has its personal distinctive narrative that attracts on recognizable city legends, from Bloody Mary to Hanako of the Bathroom.
City Delusion Dissolution Middle is a high quality mixture of a visible novel recreation and point-and-click recreation. It sees you journey between places associated to circumstances, questioning witnesses, inspecting places, and placing collectively hypotheses based mostly on the clues you’ve uncovered.
As you examine, you collect threads of knowledge in your journal, uncovering recent leads as you progress. In fact, you additionally should make use of Azami’s distinctive energy, which you hone by placing on a pair of spirit glasses. By these, you’ll be able to see shadowy figures and glimpse into previous occasions in every location, however it’s as much as you to find out whether or not these figures have been people or spirits and what their actions imply to your case.
Between places, you get the chance to carry out social media analysis. I actually love this technique, because it lets you scroll by way of practical posts associated to the case and get a greater understanding of the world round you, searching feedback and looking out up related phrases, then discussing them together with your frosty but lovable co-worker Jasmine.
As you uncover extra particulars in regards to the case, you get frequent alternatives to recap the data you’ve uncovered. These segments usually depend on a number of selection questions or on you filling out blanks in a speculation. When you’ve gathered sufficient data, you’ll be able to group up with the director to carry out a ‘dissolution,’ the place it’s essential to use the entire clues to kind a conclusion and crack the case.
The method is easy but satisfying, as you slowly peel again the layers of every thriller and start piecing every thing collectively. I additionally recognize that no case is completely simple – generally you face hoaxes, lies, misinformation, and deceptive conditions, all of which add a way of ‘realism’ to your job as an investigator.
The writing is stable all through, with attention-grabbing takes on acquainted legends and dialog that makes every character stand out. Nevertheless, I’ll admit that City Delusion Dissolution Middle may be very a lot a gradual burn and is way from ‘scary’ – so don’t go in anticipating any substantial frights. Typically circumstances can even really feel somewhat drawn out, however I nonetheless discovered myself engaged all through.
This sense of engagement is probably going due in no small half to the sport’s placing aesthetic. It’s superbly simplistic, with distinctive 1-bit sidescrolling gameplay, gorgeous pixelated scenes, and emotive character portraits. On prime of this, the selection to render the sport with such a easy palette that contrasts muted shades in opposition to a vibrant, contrasting purple is extremely efficient, particularly throughout the ‘gory’ horror scenes.
Sadly, City Delusion Dissolution Middle options no voice appearing, as a substitute choosing an oldschool typing sound impact when characters converse. Nevertheless, the delicate sound results and retro OST are fairly impactful, even with the quick music loops.
I genuinely really feel like the perfect City Delusion Dissolution Middle expertise is on a handheld. For this assessment I’ve been enjoying it on my Nintendo Swap, however it’s additionally Steam Deck appropriate, that means you’ll be able to play it on all the perfect handheld consoles. Its simplistic design makes its efficiency extremely easy, and it helps full touchscreen controls, from biking by way of dialog and opening menus to strolling.
General, City Delusion Dissolution Middle is a simplistic but placing episodic thriller journey with a trendy aesthetic and distinctive viewpoint. It efficiently blends the digital world with the supernatural, reworking acquainted city legends into recent new frights. Whereas it may be somewhat gradual at occasions, it nonetheless manages to grip you with its uniqueness, and its moreish mysteries are excellent for some bedtime sleuthing.
If you happen to’re in search of one thing a bit extra spooky, we’ve received loads of suggestions in our guides to the perfect indie horror video games and the perfect horror video games general. We’ve additionally received a listing of the perfect thriller video games for those who’d choose to proceed investigating as a substitute – simply watch out to not sit on any cursed chairs!
