SHINRAI - Broken Beyond Despair

Some people have mentioned the beginning being a bit slow, but I honestly hardly felt it; what I've felt, however, was how deeply invested I was as soon as the story gets kicked into motion. I initially thought of playing one chapter per day, and ended up absolutely devouring it! The mystery was very satisfying too, and it left me happy I spent a weekend with Raiko and co. If you think fondly of late 2000s/early 2010s VNs you'll probably like the vibe of this one too; I know I did!

If you're searching for a good mystery game to test your deductive skills, SHINRAI is definitely the game for you! The game's quite short but also elaborated enough to let you immerse first of all in the setting of the game and then, most importantly, to let you really understand its cast: a group of teens that only want to enjoy a cool and fun Halloween party. SHINRAI not only has a very good mystery to uncover, but also lays its foundations on the cast's relationships with one another and the multitude of facets that a middle schooler could develop during those years of their life; how they often "don't know any better", and how some behaviors can affect the people around them in more ways than they hope or imagine. I'm writing this because I also think that the game's story and murder couldn't work as well as they do if the cast was composed by adults. Aside from this, the writing can appear as somewhat "cringe" in some parts, something that I found a bit too much only in regards to the adults of the cast (which are very few and peripheral). The game's art is good and the music did its work in setting up the mood of every scene, I also quite appreciated that there are a lot o…

decent mystery, even if my eyes were glazing over the text by the end.

The game is a decent murder mystery that'll scratch that whodunit itch. I've seen a lot of comparisons to Danganronpa, or Ace Attorney, but I don't think Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair is quite at that level. It feels more like a shoujo manga-esque "Murder, She Wrote" with Raiko Shinpuku taking the center stage as our sardonic protagonist. She reluctantly goes to Rie Miyamoto's Halloween party, in which a series of harmless pranks turns into the sudden death of one of their classmates. Bodies start piling up, and it's up to Raiko to figure out whodunnit before the wrong person goes to jail. The mystery itself is challenging, and requires a keen eye to skim the clues and the text in order to discern who the culprit is. There is one flaw to this game: Kotoba. It's bad enough he's more perverted than Minoru Mineta from My Hero Academia. It's bad enough that he mixes languages like an american twelve year old weeb who's trying to learn japanese from poorly subbed anime. It's both traits that make Kotoba into an intolerable cringelord. In spite of Kotoba, I am going to give this game a recommended because I did have a fun time with it.

Neat murder mystery game. The opening is a bit slow, but once things get going there's a good mystery to be had. I was fooled by several twists!

More Visual Novel than investigation game, wouldn't mind more investigation stages, however I liked the plot and characters. Enjoyable game, would recommend!