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428:
Shibuya Scramble

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Play OverviewPlay Overview

428: Shibuya Scramble (2008) is a narrative adventure where you follow five characters as their lives become connected through bizarre events that depend on your choices. You jump between the characters involved in mysterious kidnappings depicted by photos and choose what they say and do. It stands out not only for the real-life comic aesthetic but also for the sheer number of choices you make and the unintended story twists they produce.

Set in modern-day Shibuya, Tokyo, you follow five seemingly unrelated characters: a mascot, a police detective, a journalist, a former gang leader and a researcher. When a ransom kidnapping takes place, the five get caught in a mystery that can only be solved by their collaboration. As the narrative progresses, you learn more about each character and their complex backstories.

Play involves following each character through a different story genre, from comedy to horror. At first, they seem disconnected from each other but your choices in one story soon affect the others. You swap between the different characters as you play, sometimes having to make a critical choice as one person to advance the story of another. Depending on your decisions, there are over 50 possible endings, with many being "Bad Endings". When this happens, you go back and make different choices to arrive at a different outcome.

The result is a game that creates a bizarre, multi-genre mystery where your choices dictate the outcome. Getting the often humourous bad endings is often as much fun as the challenge of figuring out what decisions to make to reach the true ending.

Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked 428: Shibuya Scramble 2 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 7 days ago.
Kids not old enough for this yet? There are lots of games similar to 428: Shibuya Scramble. Here are some similar younger-rated games:

Play StylePlay Style

This is a Narrative game with Adventure, Brain Game and Communication elements. This is a single-player game.

 
You can play this game in the following styles:

DurationDuration

Play Time: This game will take between 23 hours and 39 hours to complete. As there are so many possible endings, depending on how many you get and the choices you make the time to beat varies greatly. Once you've beaten the game, you can then spend many more hours playing through the game again to see everything you missed by making different choices.

Age RatingsAge Ratings

Content Rating

Rated PEGI 16 for Violence.

Rated for younger players in the US. Rated ESRB TEEN for Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, and Violence. Game text includes details of violence, with descriptions of beatings and stabbings. Some story segments depict corpses, characters with stab wounds, and/or characters shooting pistols at one another. Several scenes depict characters with blood on their hands, near their bodies, or on their clothes/around a wound. During the course of the game, characters are sometimes seen with cigarettes or cigars in their mouths or hands; one scene depicts characters toasting and drinking from cans of beer. One character is described as a “tweaker” whose “mind was probably a complete mess from meth withdrawal.” The word “sh*t” appears in the dialogue.
The developer states that the game contains "Frequent Violence or Gore, General Mature Content".

Skill Level

10+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Still, it's important for parents and guardians to consider the maturity required to process the game content. Good reading comprehension is essential, as you need to parse through the text to find useful pieces of information and think carefully about each choice you make, sometimes having to go back to a previous section and rethink your choices if you reach a dead end.

CostsCosts

428: Shibuya Scramble usually costs £39.99 to £44.99.
 

428: Shibuya Scramble

Steam Store PC £39.99
PlayStation Store PS4 £44.99
There are no additional in-game purchases, loot boxes, adverts or subscription costs.
 
The game was only released internationally on PlayStation 4 and PC. All other platforms are for the Japanese market only. 
 

DetailsGame Details

Release Date: 04/12/2008, updated in 2018

Out Now: Android, PC, PS3, PS4, PSP, Wii and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Players: 1

Genres: Narrative (Adventure, Brain Game and Communication)

Accessibility: 21 features

Components: 2D Side-On and Filmed

Developer: Spike Chunsoft E (@SpikeChunsoft_E)


Taming Gaming Book Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships.

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