Tokyo Dark was a 2017 blend of visual novel and point-and-click adventure on PC that gave players the freedom of choice to tailor their own story. Its psychological horror appealed to audiences despite its dialogue-heavy gameplay. Now, in 2019, the indie is back with Tokyo Dark: Remembrance for the Nintendo Switch, and while it retains its quirks, it still remains a fresh and enjoyable thrill ride.
Tokyo Dark is a fantastically written tale about a detective whose partner goes missing, and in the search for them discovers a mysterious world of insanity and horror. Throughout my nearly four hour adventure, I was constantly entranced by the sheer mystery of the happenings throughout Tokyo and just what exactly was causing these peculiar events. For those that haven’t played the original game, that is as specific as I will get, but it’s an incredibly engaging story.
On the Switch, the game runs as well as on its computer counterpart. Both on docked and handheld I never ran into a single technical issue, and it looked crisp either way. Detective Itō is consistently clear and clean throughout, as well as the world around her. The resolution statistics were never officially released, but I’d wager the game ran at the standard 1080p docked and 720p handheld. Neither looked poor whatsoever. The art style is very clearly anime-inspired, and is well done by all means. The text got a little bit small while playing docked, but this is really just a nitpick if anything; it wasn’t an issue that I’d shake my fist at.
Going through Tokyo was a blast as I explored the eight different locations periodically during the game (including the infamous Suicide Forest). Each environment was well-crafted and shined on the Switch, from the dull landscape of Shinjuku to the bright neon lights of Kabukicho. Each area had its own distinct flavor and didn’t feel like a copy-and-paste of previous areas, which was great for a small game such as this.
I played with both the Pro Controller and Joy-Cons, and while I will almost always recommend the Pro Controller over Joy-Cons, this game plays fine either way. Unfortunately, touch controls are not an option at the time of this review — something I think is a total lost opportunity, especially for a point-and-click game like this — but alas, no game is perfect.
There’s no quicktime gameplay in this game besides some decisions that need to be made rather quickly, and so controller options are not a huge decision when playing the game. I will HEAVILY push the Pro Controller until the day I die, but there’s no reason to purchase any kind of special controller for Tokyo Dark if you haven’t already. That’s the great thing about this Switch port — there’s numerous ways to play, and every single one works great.
I never noticed any loss of fps during my playthroughs, and the loading times were incredibly fast regardless of how I played. The game seemed to run at 30fps, but I’m personally not the best judge of that; I never really notice frame rate unless it’s just inherently bad. But overall I have no complaints in terms of technical prowess. It’s a beautifully made game, and the Switch does it justice.
The Switch version is in fact a director’s cut of the original game, thus bringing new scenes, art, and two new endings. The best feature of the original was its 11 vastly different outcomes that were affected by the decisions you made throughout the game, with one of them only being unlockable through a New Game +. I managed to get four of the now 13 conclusions, including the New Game + “true” ending, and they each truly diverged from each other in surprising ways. My personal favorite was the Insanity Ending as it wrapped things up really nicely, but they’re all great.
Tokyo Dark’s staple mechanic is the SPIN system: Sanity, Professionalism, Investigation, and Neurosis. With new scenes added, this system is only improved with this new version. Depending on your decisions, the four values increase or decrease, heavily influencing the events of the story. There are also no manual saves until New Game +, so going back to change your decisions on the first playthrough is an absolute no-no. It’s not necessarily a new mechanic, per se, just a form of rebranding in honesty. But it’s a cool take on the Telltale formula, and it works really well here.
The introduction of the aforementioned manual saves for New Game + really make the game shine, as you get to experiment with the different outcomes in an attempt to discover new endings. Your decisions really do matter, and some finales are not something you can just change in ten minutes; there’s a web of decisions that influence certain outcomes.
The game does suffer from an overwhelming amount of dialogue that doesn’t always pertain to the main plot, and quality of life improvements such as editing this were not made for the Switch. There was even one instance where, depending on your choices, Itō could have been at risk of being assaulted, but because of her plot armor was saved by the most obscure of circumstances that made no sense whatsoever. Given the gruesome tone of the story, it would have made perfect sense to just end the game there with her death had you selected decisions leaning towards this outcome, but they chose to avoid this. Maybe it was supposed to feel like an intentional cop out, but the solution surrounding it was poorly executed. Besides this, the story never really falters. The diverse endings combined with the portability of the Switch make this game a steal for $20. The replayability of this game is off the charts, partly just because of how tight they kept the story, keeping it brief but fleshed out. With manual saves introduced after, jumping back in is convenient rather than bothersome.
Tokyo Dark is a single-player game, so no internet connectivity is required or present. While other decision-based games such as Telltale’s newer titles included global decisions in their games, Remembrance does not. It does, however, support cloud saves, so your progress is safe no matter what device you use.
Verdict
The dialogue may be cumbersome to those either not experienced with visual novels or a fan of them, but the rich story and wealth of replayability make Tokyo Dark: Remembrance on Switch a fantastic director’s cut of the 2017 title. No matter how you play, the game is sure to please, especially on subsequent playthroughs. While it’s not a completely new take on the ever-growing genre, it’s an engaging one nonetheless, and at a retail price of $20, you really can’t go wrong. With storytelling as good as this, I’m excited to see what new things developer Cherrymochi will come up with next.
Final Score: 8.5/10 – Great
Check Out the Tokyo Dark: Remembrance Nintendo Switch Trailer:
To learn more, visit the Tokyo Dark -Remembrance- website and its official Facebook page.
Nintendo Switch Review
I am an obsessive gaming nerd that definitely spends way to much money on games. I like to consider myself a well-rounded gamer; while RPGs have my heart, if it's a game, it's my cup of tea.
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