DUSK INDEX: GION（ダスクインデックスギオン）

(I rarely write reviews but since this game seems to have flown under the radar, I wanted to contribute to its visibility a bit. Hope more players discover and get to experience this.) Went into this blind based on a recommendation and because I'm interested in VNs taking place in the Meiji era. It's a pretty good visual novel, but lacking in terms of gameplay and non-linearity. No choices and only one ending as far as I could tell from my playthrough. (Spoiler-free summary since the steam description is a little lacking): The story centers on a series of murders in 1906 and 2006, with each case bearing striking resemblance in both the crime scene and the murder circumstances across the two eras. The narrative tackles subjects like Gen AI, replacing human labor with AI, and cyberbullying, topics which are probably more relevant today than they've ever been. The reveal behind the mystery is a little nonsensical, but it's quite fun so long as you don't think about the logic too hard. The main characters are definitely the highlight of the game. I enjoyed watching them confront their trauma and move on with their lives, on top of uncovering the mystery. I also appreciated that th…

First, I have to mention that this game has virtually no interactivity. You just press a button to continue the story, there are no choices and the game is linear. There is one section with a choice but it is optional and only gives you a little bit of background on some things. If this isn't something you might enjoy than this game is definitely not for you. Overall it's a nice game. It took me around 11 hours to finish it, so not too short or long. The highlight is definitely the art by Kuregure (呉々 or krgrmo). The character design was great, even for relatively minor characters. The VA and music are also good, though I wish we had more tracks and more voiced characters. The plot is nice, it takes some time to start rolling and does get a bit messy here and there especially near the end but it was enjoyable and had some really great specific sections, which honestly would be great on their own without the context of the game. This is one of those "I can't wait to see their next game" experiences. It was a bit unpolished but not for lack of passion or skill.

A sci-fi novel packaged as a software. The visuals are static 2D illustrations. Both characters and backgrounds are detailed, with a more realistic version of manga style. Background music is good and changes with the mood of the scenes. Unusually it is almost fully voiced (in Japanese): all main characters are voiced, while episodic characters are not. Since the main characters also narrate the scenes (and parts of UI), this adds to several hours of quality voice acting. There is no gameplay. The reader's interaction is limited to clicking away text and saving before exiting. At one point it is possible to choose order of some lectures, but they make sense only if read in order. It takes about 24h to read and listen to the text, but it would be faster with only reading. The story starts as parallel sci-fi and historical crime investigation and is quite interesting. It held well untill the end, although some of the explanations turned more to metaphysics than science. The text is verbose and it can be fairly slow going, especially in the first chapter. Characters were interesting and went through a serious development. English localisation is good, but suffers from occatio…

Beautiful, atmospheric visual novel. The music is ambient, the characters are interesting, and the story unfolds slowly. Highly recommended!

I really like the art and the atmosphere so far, but there seem to be some spelling errors in the English version. Words like "Schrodinger" being written like "Schrdinger" and the like. A bit unpolished.

DUSK INDEX: GION is a gripping sci-fi murder mystery that deals with contemporary anxieties about artificial intelligence, and features an interesting dual future/past narrative structure. In Kyoto, 1906, Detective Nagahama, with the occasional help of geisha Saki, investigates strange, ritualistic murders in which the victims has a sigil painted in their own blood around their bodies. In Kyoto, 2006, society has massively adopted artificial intelligence and augmented/virtual reality in the past seven years since their conception. Technology-adverse police detective Katsuki, with the help of Quinn Rio, head engineer at the company behind those technological advancements, begins to investigate a bizarre series of murders that seem identical to the 1906 murders. Over time, Katsuki and Nagahama's investigations begin to overlap. DUSK INDEX: GION makes excellent use of its genre hybrid. The first half of the story focuses more on the murder mystery. Scored by an eerie soundtrack, the dual 1906/2006 murders highlight contemporary insecurities about artificial intelligence, but also how they mirror debates that have always happened with the advent of new technology. For example, in…