Shuten Order

While everything does eventually come together, what's perhaps pitched as a victory lap through what came before ends up a bit of a slog, spending an incredibly long time reiterating what you already figured out.

Shuten Order is an ambitious visual novel that tells an intriguing story with consistently engaging characters and more than a few twists and turns. Unfortunately, with the inclusion of five distinct forms of gameplay driving the story, it ultimately feels bloated and directionless, and not one of the sub-genre sections is polished enough to stand on its own two feet.I wholeheartedly commend the audacious, multi-genre effort, but Shuten Order would have benefited from a lot more focus.

Despite some missed potential and a frustratingly poor localization, Shuten Order lands with such a tremendous note that it's worth experiencing. What it lacks in cohesion, it makes up for in spirit.

Many of the gameplay gimmicks ring hollow, with generic puzzles and busywork interrupting the stuff you actually care about and threatening to drag the momentum down. I mostly appreciated the novelty of this approach, especially as a fan of short stories as a format. Let’s just do without the slider puzzles next time, please!

Shuten Order is a fantastic text adventure that truly sets itself apart from the crowd with its brilliant use of multiple routes to create the complete story. Other than some technical issues that hold the game back, it’s an impressive feat that shows how the Too Kyo team knows very well how to tell compelling stories.

In conclusion, if you have a good command of English and are looking to dive into a mysterious new graphic novel filled with intriguing characters, Shuten Order is definitely for you. On the other hand, it almost goes without saying that if the language barrier prevents you from fully enjoying the game, you’d have every reason to look elsewhere. The lack of localization is certainly a major drawback for a title that is 99% text-based, but we hope Spike Chunsoft’s decision won't negatively impact sales.

While some of the diverse gameplay styles seem more like a tech demo, the detective and story styles can stand on their own, but it's really the story and how it's presented that steal the show.

For those who want a text-based adventure exclusively for Switch 2, this version of SHUTEN ORDER delivers on its promise. All this while fixing problems that many complained about with the original game.

SHUTEN ORDER - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition manages to improve upon what was already good, allowing the quality of this intriguing and expansive work to shine even brighter on Nintendo's new console. As a result, we have here an essential title for both fans of visual novels and those who don't have much experience with the genre but want to venture into a creative title full of mystery. In short, the time has come to face divine judgment once again, now in what can indeed be considered its definitive version.

Still a must-play Must-play Rated M for Mature multi-genre journey now Nintendo Switch 2