Recent reviews by Lil Nom

As a warning, Chaos;Child is in the Scientific Adventure Series, which is a collection of games that take place in the same universe and play like those make your own adventure books. While this is a great game, it is not for everyone, especially those who do not enjoy visual novels or long periods of pure reading. This review will also not talk about the story of the game and more about the aspects I personally liked and disliked about it as well as core game mechanics.

Chaos;Child is amazing, it's attention grabbing, and it's hard to put down when you really get into it. Chaos;Child is a murder mystery about a group of killings in Japan that take place in the same ward as the main character. The first and possibly most important thing to note is that this game is a sequel to a game called Chaos;Head and some of the things may seem to lack information about certain characters in the story. While it is advised that you play it first, Chaos;Head isn't available in English except for fan translated ROMs, and is not essential to enjoying the game. All of that aside, as a stand alone game, Chaos;Child is absolutely amazing and really only specializes in story, as its only in game interactions are chalked up to tests to see if you remember certain information, picking between two choices every 30 minutes or so, and scrolling a few menus. However, I can faithfully say that Chaos;Child is one of if not the most compelling stories I have ever read. Characters are driven and have motivations, the side characters are great, and all the reveals send shivers up your spine, giving it an unforgettable feeling.

I believe Chaos;Child is an amazing game for two reasons, the first one is it's setup and execution. After playing through everything Chaos;Child has to offer, all of the important questions presented in the story should be answered (excluding connections to Chaos;Head and how that fits in). And the second is how well everything in-between feels. Nothing feels like useless dialogue, and in doing so the game makes you think about every word that's said, especially near the end of the game. Characters fell fleshed out, stakes feel real, and it almost feels like you're right there for the ride.

While Chaos;Child may be a great game, I do not believe it to be perfect, and for mainly two reasons. One, and less importantly, is that the world doesn't always feel real, as the game mostly focuses on the online side of things when it comes to how the world reacts to the murderers and the places the characters do visit don't feel lived in as if the location were only there to fill the purpose of filling space (excluding a cafe). The second issue I have with this game is the villain. While the villain does fulfill their purposes and is certainly impactful, I think the game spends too little time on him and how he as a character functions.

I will be talking about small spoilers and core game mechanics after this point, all of these things can be either found out by playing the first hour or so of the game and/or knowing how most visual novels work. Spoilers will end after SPOILER ENDS HERE

The main reason this is a game and not a visual telling of a story book are the various choices you make in the game. Like it's predecessor, Chaos;Child uses the delusion system, where the player can choose for the protagonist to have either a positive, negative, no no delusion pertaining to the situation happens to be in. As a warning, these delusions can range from silly, to gory, to downright lewd, however, while the gory stuff is some strong stuff (not the worst out there, but still pretty strong at points), the fantasies conjured up never show pornographic material (however they certainly do depict it). These delusions change the ending that you will get when you reach a certain point in the game. You WILL need a guide to help you get everything, unless you are extremely lucky and happen to read Japanese for one part, it would take over a couple hundred hours to finish this game. An intentionally vague and very helpful guide can be found here [sonome.dareno.me] but if this one doesn't cut it there are definitely more detailed ones out there.

SPOILER ENDS HERE

All in all, Chaos;Child is a game that any person slightly interested in murder mysteries or visual novels would most likely enjoy, but one that should never be looked over. It's personally my favorite visual novel and one I or anyone else who played this game won't be forgetting anytime soon.