Chaos;Child (PS4) Review

A ride packed with chaos.

 From the team behind the acclaimed Steins;Gate games comes Chaos;Child, a sequel to the Japan-only visual novel game, Chaos;Head. Featuring a new cast of characters and returning Shibuya premise, we follow another murder-mystery adventure as a group of high school students become involved. Despite the game being a sequel, no prior knowledge of Chaos;Head is needed, so it's a great entry point for VN newcomers. How does the game fare and is it an interesting read? Let's find out.


 In 2009, a massive Earthquake destroyed a large portion of Japan's Shibuya district, leaving it in shambles and ruining the lives of thousands. Six years later in 2015, we follow high school student Takuru Miyashiro and his friends as they investigate a series of murders occurring in Shibuya that are related to the earthquake. Who's behind them and why are they related? That's what they're aiming to solve, however, they get more than they asked for when they get personally tangled with the case and Takuru soon develops special powers only a select few can posses. The story is told from the perspectives of several characters such as our timid protagonist Takuru, his foster sister Nono, fledging detective Shinjo, and other characters who were interesting. It does a great job of making you feel like you're a part of the adventure with well-written descriptions of  what the characters are thinking and feeling, which helps you relate with them to an extent. 

The story's engaging as well as the characters. It's

also not short on some dark moments.

 There's multiple character-related endings that offer added backstory to the characters by exploring their dark pasts too. Though it's hard to get all of them without resorting to a guide. The game is not short on horror with gruesome depictions of death and killings, that'll keep you on edge at times. That said, there were funny bits and jokes between characters to ease you from the game's tense moments. My only complaint with the story was how it felt super-slow initially, as you'll read long walls of text without anything interesting happening yet. I enjoyed the shocking revelations and twists the game throws at you and while the ending was a bit meh for me, the game wrapped up nicely.


 Chaos;Child has you reading through lines of text, like many VNs. Occasionally, you'll be given choices that will alter the course of the story in the form of "Delusions". Blue delusions are funny, perverted scenarios Takuru pictures in his head when he's around certain characters. Red delusions are far more darker and ominous scenes where Takuru is often paranoid or threatened by things around him. The rare White delusions offer extra secret scenes when you encounter them as well. In short, the delusion mechanic is pretty important in unlocking the character endings, which are worth a read.

You'll be making lots of weird and unsettling 

choices throughout the game.

 The game has a tendency of  being confusing when it comes to explaining the science behind its story and it knows that. Thankfully, the glossary contains key terms and other lingo the characters use to keep you from feeling lost. Other than that, there isn't much in the way of gameplay aside from the options menu. You can speed up text, turn off voices, and save between chapters. The game took me around 50 hours to read, which included getting all endings, a very lengthy process.


 Chaos;Child is a nice-looking game as I liked the anime art-style and bright backgrounds. The game's "Di-Sword" weapons, were also very unique yet pretty unsettling at the same time. However, things can get blurry when the game zooms in on some objects. The voicework is entirely in Japanese with English texts. Each character's voice suited them and none were overly annoying. The soundtrack was good and had a wide range of cheery, sad, and unsettling tracks to draw your attention as you read. I just wished that there were more tracks as the soundtrack can get on the repetitive side.

Chaos;Child packs great production values,

pretty important for a VN game.

 Overall, Chaos;Child was an enjoyable read. The story was well-written and the cast were fleshed-out, which are the most important parts of a VN. The presentation was great too, with nice art and soundtrack. It's a long-read topping at around 50 hours, which is worth its $34 price. Visual novel fans looking for a sci-fi mystery adventure with a bit of horror will definitely enjoy the game.