SHINRAI - Broken Beyond Despair

A fun spooky murder mystery

kamen >

Short and sweet. Looking for a dark mystery that isn't going to consume countless hours like Umineko, and without the massive scale of the Zero Escape series? Something more intimate and grounded? Shinrai (meaning "trust" in Japanese) is for you. The VN is quite short, with an intro which serves to introduce all of the characters but doesn't outstay its welcome, and then begins the wild ride that is its main plot. You are treated with the feeling that is the hallmark of a fantastic mystery story - overwhelmed, but with enough breadcrumbs to construct some idea of what is going on, only to have your assumptions challenged again and again. Eventually, you will have to construct the full truth, and while the game does poke you in the right direction, you're required to make a lot of the deductions for yourself. The mystery itself is logical and doesn't require any absurd or unreasonable leaps of faith - it is very well crafted with lots of little details that will reward the perceptive reader. There are no Deus Ex Machinae and for those seeking an intricate and challenging but very satisfying mystery, I will happily recommend this game. It's not without its issues - a couple of the characters feel like somewhat absurd caricatures - and I find it annoying how you cannot review your evidence once you're forced to make a decision (so if one is suddenly sprung at you, hope your memory is good!) - but overall, I'd say it's a very satisfying VN. Also, there are lots of references to other games which adds to the fun factor - if you're able to read Japanese, you'll find some things very amusing too.

It's kinda weird the characters are all so young (14-15 years old) but the murder mystery was really good and kept you thinking. You could actually figure everything out yourself without having to rely on weird logic jumps or baseless assumptions from the protagonist (yeah I'm looking at you Danganronpa and Ace Attorney). Game was not too short, nor too long. Sure, it had a slow start but most visual novels do, so it was to be expected. Overall, it was a pretty impressive game from a small team. I want more.

epic

This game isn't perfect. There's a lot of flaws, and a lot. But despite all of them, it's still an enjoyable little murder mystery. The cast isn't great and the majority are insufferable, or are attached by the hip to the protagonist; not letting them breathe on their own merits, and suffocating them over 90% of the runtime. The leash she puts on the protagonist sometimes feels more like a plot device than a friendship. As negative as that sounds, if you can get over the hurdle and enjoy the atmosphere and mystery then it's a good game. Recommended if there's a sale.

A lot of love put into this game, but it was not my cup of tea; I knew going into it that I didn't like the art style or the sound design, but I could forgive that if the writing and narrative were engrossing. At best this was an ok VN with a few choices leading to a finale that asks you to walk through the mystery point by point, Danganronpa-style, but without the twists and interesting visual style or colorful characters. I did like that it required some attention to solve the mystery, but it was not a particularly difficult mystery. While the mystery at the heart of this story was fine, it was not interesting enough to make up for everything else. I didn't especially care for any of the characters; the prose style (at least of the English translation) was stiff and repetitive; moments of humor were really, really bad--perhaps they simply don't translate well--and the pacing of the story was rather slow. I could not recommend this to a lover of VNs or kinetic novels.

Good game if you are into danganronpa and zero escape types.

[spoiler] There is 1 impostor among us [/spoiler] Good mystery, decent plot. Overall an enjoyable read. Mika best girl.