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Machi

Title

Machi
Play timeMedium (26h6m from 4 votes)
DeveloperChunsoft
PublishersChunsoft & Dwango Co., Ltd. & SEGA & Spike Chunsoft
shikeyu
Relations
Same setting

428 ~Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de~

LinksWikipedia (en), Wikipedia (ja), Wikidata, MobyGames, GameFAQs, GameFAQs, IGDB, Lutris, VNStat
Shopssponsored links» US$ 34.90 @ PlayAsia

Description

Machi is a story of 8 unrelated protagonists, all with their own problems and objectives, all living in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan. The story spans 5 in-game days and is told through a huge number of live-action still photographs. The protagonists are varied, including a high school playboy, a gamer geek police officer, a struggling actor, an ex-Yakuza man, a TV scriptwriter and many more. Each of the protagonists lead a completely different story that even defies genres, with one story having a lighthearted comedy style while another having a dark, ominous tone.

The player must play all of the stories in parallel, jumping across different protagonists, and backtracking to re-select branches which not only affect the active protagonist, but also other protagonists through often bizarre twists of causality.

Since its release in 1998, Machi has amassed a cult following among Japanese Sound Novel players, causing a yearning for a sequel for years which did not come to fruition until 2008 which had the release of the spiritual sequel, 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya De.

Mini reviews

By aters on 2022-05-10r2663Vote: 8
<report>Three main differences between this and 428:

1. The different story lines never join in the end. They reach their own finales, only crossing roads with each other at various times.

2. It explores a wider range of genres and emotions. Without going into spoiler, all I can say is Machi is more daring, and at times has a stronger literariness flavor.

3. The setting location is the same, but the time period is different. Machi is a time capsule of the 90s. Shibuya itself is very much a main character.
0 comments 2 points