Recent reviews by Pastreality

This game is purely a Visual Novel/ADV game through and through with the added novelty of it being a VR game. If you're a stranger to these type of games, the only gameplay here is read, choose a story path, and more reading. For anyone that doesn't want to read or wanting more gameplay than that, unless you're interested with the premise of the story, I'm afraid that this game will not be to your taste. Treat these types of games as a book instead of a traditional game.

Tokyo Chronos is a mystery story about a group of friends that was transported to an isolated alternate version of Shibuya which they dubbed as the Chronos World. Without any memory of how they got there, the giant electronic billboard on Shibuya Tsutaya springs to life with a message,


Thus, kickstarting the mystery of who died and who's the killer.

I wish there was a "mixed" recommendation here on Steam.

From the start, the story and writing here is interesting but unfortunately predictable for anyone who's a sucker for mystery VNs and theorizing along the way. The questions I have until the credits was enough to grip me into playing through the whole thing. However, I had mixed feelings by the end of the game. On one hand, I'm happy that the characters was given a satisfying closure by the end of the game unlike the other VNs of its genre; On the other, at the risk of spoilers, the "killer's" motivation of why they did it felt kinda stupid but still understandable.

But I'm not here to knock this game down and say it wasn't great. The story is genuinely engaging and the characters here really felt like a group of friends that has history. While they all kinda fall into a generic anime personality stereotype, there is actually a reason of why their personality is like that in the first place. I really appreciate that the writing didn't overexaggerate their stereotypical personality and are one-dimensional and instead made them believable but not boring.

Graphics-wise, if to be judged as a PCVR game here on Steam, it's kinda lacking. I understand that this is an early VR game and a native Quest app, but they could have at least enabled shadows for the characters only, upped the background quality textures a bit and some minor post-processing to at least spice up the quality for this release. Then again, this could be a design choice to make the background otherworldly aside from the huge ass scale of the game. I really liked the isolated feel of the game, with its persistent fog and the dreary gray of an unpopulated city. It felt like literally being stuck in a liminal space amplified by the immersiveness of VR.

Animations here are almost non-existent. This is understandable as this is meant to mimic still images/CGs in visual novels, but still kind of disappointing.

Character design is solid. Unique but still grounded designs and has an artstyle that can be comparable to Danganronpa games. Compared to other anime-stylized games, this game truly has a AAA feel to it.

Music here is great too. Overall game soundtrack here may not be earwormy catchy, but it really fits well with the overall tone the game is trying to provoke. Opening themes and Ending themes are great, really felt like watching an anime in VR. I really like the alternate ending song too, (Kobo (光芒) by ASCA). Been playing that on repeat.

Voice acting is extremely solid too. Their character design and body expressions really fits with the voices. Not once have I ever been taken out of the experience due to bad/irritating voices or mismatched expressions.

I went through five stages of grief from Chapter 8 until the True End.

10/10 would grief again

TL;DR: Even with its flaws, this game was a great experience. If you want to buy the Deluxe Version, get it on sale. While this is heavily similar to Dark Souls, this game still has it own gameplay quirks to the point that you can't just pass this up as a simple weeb DS clone. And, for the most part, I think they've done alright modifying the DS formula. Story can be better though.

The story is not exactly what you can call superb, but its not bad either. At the very least, it's an "interesting meh" to me. Probably not something that can make you get hooked, but the lore kinda makes up for it. It's kinda sad since I actually liked the setting (and found out that it's from God Eater too). I also liked the vestiges (all done ala Fallout 4's Memory Den style), since it gives the side characters a backstory and really fleshes out the characters that don't really have the time to be in the spotlight.

But too bad! The main story is a generic shounen anime story. Specially in the parts near the end, it's mostly cheesy "the power of friendship" shtick that you can get from a usual JRPG/Anime. It's hard to take the story seriously after that. Since for every major boss after the first half of the game has the "friendship" line or something to that effect. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the "power of friendship" is a bad thing. Having one or two speeches about it is fine. But here, holy hell, tone it down! The power of friendship in this game is so strong that you're even all buddy-buddy with the person who stabbed you to death!

I think this is where the game shined for me. It's far from perfect, but enough to get me hooked. One of the pros of this are Blood Codes that you can swap on the fly. Blood Codes are like a class system in the game and this is one of the game mechanics that separates the game from a just another DS clone. Each Code gives you enough variety of skills for a specific build. But, if you master those said skills, you can use them on other Codes so you can mix and match them for experimentation.

Other pros of this are the QoL additions. Sure, true hardcore DS fans might not want some of these, but I welcome the addition for casual play. One of these of having a minimap. Something that you would REALLY need if you're going through the Cathedral. In fact, they probably added the minimap because of that damn dungeon.

Next pro is having a partner to follow you. Which is both a pro and a con depending on your playstyle.

If you're going to play casually (and chances are, a first timer on a souls game), the partner system is probably a god send to you. This makes the game significantly easier since you have a partner to fight with you. It's a nice contrast against DS' lonely atmosphere. Gameplay-wise, they're great for having multiple enemies at the same time. As they can distract other enemies while you focus on one, and they will be able to revive you in the nick of time if you've ever managed to f**k up. But even with that, still expect dying a crapton though. Bosses are designed with partners in mind. So they're still pretty hard even though you have a partner by your side. I actually liked the partner system since your partner's AI is pretty competent for the most part. My only gripe about it is that they won't shut up and keeps stating the obvious. The devs probably know about this since there is actually a toggle in the options to shut your partner's mouth.

If you're playing hardcore, the fun of actually caring about your decisions is kinda lost here. With the perks that I've described above, engaging enemies won't be as scary as fighting solo. So this is probably not something what you'd want if you're looking for pure DS gameplay. But partners are entirely optional and the game can still be finished without them.

Now back to the gameplay cons. This con is more of a pet peeve for me than an actual con. And that is the really floaty movement of your character. The movement's alright and responsive but it just doesn't feel right. Their movement doesn't really feel grounded, and feels like your character do not have any weight in its movements. And lastly, is the map design. It's really bland in my opinion, but there are exceptions, particularly the Cathedral.

Eh. To be honest, there aren't much memorable pieces in this game. They are good, but not "I wanna listen to it again on loop on Youtube" good. I liked the vestige music tho.

It's really great. Art style is pretty great. It flows pretty well with the apocalyptic setting. Only complaint I have is the saturated colors. The saturation is great for the anime aesthetic, but I wish they toned it down to emphasize the bleakness of the world. Case-in-point, Dark Souls' color scheme. But this is just my opinion and in no way changes my rating for the graphics. Anyway, about the Character Designs. They sure make it pretty obvious which demographic they are targeting. First five minutes after the tutorial is your eyes to be sucked towards Io's... uh... Eyes. For such an apocalyptic scenario, the whole cast looks pretty fresh. But, I'm not complaining tho. I didn't start up the game expecting ultra realistic character designs.

It's a nice short Souls-like game that can be finished for around an hour and a half.

Graphics are great, but somehow not too optimized even if I set the quality at its lowest. Some animations feels stiff, but this is just nit-picking on my part.

Controls felt really clunky. I don't know if it's just me, or the game feels unresponsive. There are times that my character just stands still no matter how much I move my analog stick. The camera moves fine, but I can't attack nor evade. Its really annoying since this always happens when I'm battling enemies.

Aside from the bug in the character movement, dying also has a bug. There is one time that I died through burning. I was crystallized there but the game did not register me as dead so I was just a glass statue. Funnily enough, I can still move my character. It was good thing there was a save feature, because I had to go back to the main menu to respawn.

But, all in all, even if this game had these annoying bugs, It was still a nice experience. Liked the scenery this game provided, and certainly got me interested to the lore in this game. And if this game were to be released in a more polished state, I'll consider getting it.

You know, it feels nice being in this room.

It isn't everyday you get into an Intergalactic Clubroom.

It's like LIMBO meets Audiosurf.

Although, you don't control a dead boy in this game.

It has both of the campaign of the first L4D and the campaign of the L4D2 all in one game. It also has a nice co-op community playing this game.