The Truth Will Be Revealed
HIGH A striking pixel art style.
LOW The gameplay feels patronizing.
WTF The ending.
Hi everyone. Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
Urban myths are stories and folklore about unusual or scary events that people may believe are true, but are most often not. Azami Fukurai feels like she’s been around spooky events and urban myths her entire life, and wants to know more about them. She decides to visit the Urban Myth Dissolution Center to get some answers and perhaps help for some strange visions she’s been having, and ends up being instrumental to a change that will affect the world.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a 2D pixel art visual novel with point and click elements.
After getting to the center and talking to its director, Azami accidently breaks a priceless artifact. She can’t afford to pay for what she did, so the director makes her work to pay off the debt instead. Why? Because Azami is clairvoyant and postcognitive, which means she has the ability to see visions of people and items in the past, and with these powers she’ll be instrumental in solving the center’s cases.
Each of the six cases in Urban Myth begins with social media research. Azami will look for information about the client and the rumors in question by scanning online posts and comments to see what people are saying about a given incident. Some keywords will stand out, indicating a new search word that can be used to gather more information.
After gathering preliminary data, players will then investigate sites where any strange occurrences took place. Similar to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games, players will move between areas to examine items, interview those involved, and use Clairvoyance to find clues.
After gathering clues at a scene, players fill in a hypothesis statement using a short selection of pre-chosen words, Mad Libs-style, to complete a sentence that will explain what’s going on and to identify the urban myth in question. Then after more research and more sleuthing, Azami and the director will discuss the case and present any findings to those involved.
What first drew me to Urban Myth Dissolution Center was the artwork. The developers and artists expertly use a limited palette of blue to create a striking effect. Every character is expressive and feels alive in a way I wasn’t expecting for pixel art. In the cutscenes specifically, there are some breathtaking moments, and some that gave me chills. Getting this close to the supernatural can be a scary experience, whether they’re myths or not!
With that said, even amazing art can’t completely carry a game, and the mechanics slow Urban Myth down for me.
The social media research felt like padding to extend playtime, as one out of every ten posts may have something interesting to say about the case or the world at large. However, there were too many times when I found myself just clicking on comments in a ‘brute force’ method to speed up the process.
The investigations also started to grate on me due to too many things repeating multiple times. There were too many instances of seeing something to investigate and then being asked to “Observe” it, only to have it followed with “Look Closer” and then “Look Even Closer” to finally get the clue I needed.
It also felt sometimes like the info gathering process overall fell somewhere between an episode of Dora the Explorer and talking to a condescending parent. For example, one case has players investigating a cursed box. Multiple people clearly remark that it’s a cursed box. When getting to the identification of the urban myth, the first question asked is “How would you describe the artifact?” after being handed the correct answer multiple times. I don’t mind a bit of hand holding, but some of these sequences make it seem like they think players aren’t capable of even the most basic logic.
Now, about the story itself. Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a detective narrative at its heart, as players solve mysteries about urban myths and the eventual climax of the narrative at large. The script also has things to say about society, like mob mentality and how people behave behind an anonymous avatar online, and those subjects are just the tip of the iceberg. The tale is a bit slow to start and the mechanics don’t help, but the ending builds to what is probably the best plot twist I’ve seen in long while, and not just in games, but in any type of media including movies and TV.
Ultimately, I’m torn on how I feel about Urban Myth Disolution Center.
The story is phenomenal and the artwork is stylishly exquisite, but the mechanics and the hand holding make the experience drag on longer than it needs to. Perhaps that is partly the point, though — scrolling through nasty comments online is a certain kind of negative energy that the developers clearly want to make a statement about. Regardless of those downsides, Urban Myth Dissolution Center still gets my recommendation, especially for those looking for a spooky story or for players who love solving mysteries
For me, Urban Myth Dissolution Center gets 7.5 artistic parlor scenes out of 10.
Buy Urban Myth Dissolution Center – PC – Switch – PlayStation
Disclosures: This game is developed by Hakababunko and published by SHUEISHA GAMES. It is currently available on PC, PS5 and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 12.5 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Blood and Violence. There are some shots where characters will be bleeding, and there are significant instances of violence shown on screen — a spirit vision of someone getting stabbed (no blood), threats with knives/blades multiple times, getting kicked/punched and blood coming out of someone’s mouth. It’s not excessive, but it’s not a game for younger audiences.
Colorblind Modes: Colorblind Modes are not present.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, but subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. there are no audio cues needed for play. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control diagram. Players use their mouse to select items, move between different spots, and to advance dialogue.
While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved -- there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between -- if it’s available, he’ll play it.
While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on Twitter -- @eugene_sax.
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