Shuten Order Review (Switch)

Undercover Cult Leader

Honestly, I didn’t really pay attention to Shuten Order when it was first announced. It was definitely on my radar and I knew it was a multi-genre game, but I think I was busy at the time. Plus, I wasn’t really planning on playing it right out the gate and didn’t watch any of the promotional stuff that was released. It wasn’t until the release date was coming closer that I turned my eye to it, watched the trailer, and decided yeah I’ll probably like this. I was sure I would since I’ve played (and loved) most of the games that the writers here previously wrote for, but you just have to make sure. Luckily, this also let me not get too hyped for Shuten order, which turned out to be a good thing, and theorize on what could be going on.

I will try my best to keep my review spoiler free, but if I do feel like spoilers are needed I will mark them so you can choose if you want to view them if you want to. So don’t worry about that.

I have a feeling this review is going to be a long one so let’s dive right into Shuten Order.

After a cutscene that is a bit confusing when you first watch but does make a bit more sense once you have more information; Shuten Order starts with the character you play as waking up in bed. It’s the afternoon on New Year’s Day and…they don’t remember anything. Their mind is blank, their head is pounding, and the doorbell rings. You soon find out that the ones at the door are two angels, Himeru and Mikotoru, sent by God to guide you. In addition to naming our lovely protagonist Rei Shimobe, or servant made by God, much to her displeasure (oh yeah, Rei looks androgynous but she’s female…this plays a part in the story btw), you learn a lot during the time the prologue takes place both at the hotel and at the Minister meeting that you eavesdrop on at the Shuten Headquarters. Rei can’t remember anything because she was murdered. Something seemingly impossible happened that changed her fate. She tried to resist, but in the end prayed to God to be given a little more time as she couldn’t die here and God answered her prayer. So a miracle happened and Rei was not only given a temporary body with a temporary life, but also granted you the power of God to help on your journey. The power of God basically means you now have God’s protection and if you pray, God will answer by giving you a power he deems is necessary. Your mind was able to be transferred, but not your memories. To fully restore your life, achieving a true revival, and your memories you must overcome God’s Trial before your time is up. However, to put a little more pep in Rei’s step the angels also reveal that if Rei doesn’t complete God’s Trial and revive in her original body, the world is going to end. There’s even a countdown and everything, but what it’s counting down is a bit of a mystery.

There are a couple steps to God’s Trial. First up, learn the truth behind your death; which is what the prologue goes over and man it’s kind of gruesome. Second, find the one who killed you and make them confess. This one is a bit tricky as you can’t reveal yourself as the Founder as godly miracles are illegal for everyone (and that includes the Founder) so to avoid being labeled as a heretic and arrested, they decide that Rei’s cover is a detective who somehow sniffed out the Founder’s murder and is reaching out to help solve it. And thirdly, you need to kill your killer to take back your soul…plus have all the body parts with you (which you won’t have anyway unless you find your killer). Luckily, there are only five possible suspects, the five Ministers of the Shuten Order. After all, they would be the only ones Rei would have let her guard down enough to be caught off guard.

So yeah, and then you get to choose which route you want to do first. This determines which Minister you investigate first and also the genre that the gameplay will transition into. The framing is a bit weird with the routes, but it does make sense by the end. Will Rei find out who murdered her and complete God’s Trial? Will you be able to stop the end of the world? What’s up with the Ministers? What’s up with this cult? What is the countdown to the world ending measuring and shouldn’t it be a concern that it’s counting down? Were Himeru and Mikotoru actually sent by God? Why don’t the angels help out more? Are my wild theories correct? Well, you just gotta play to find out.

I’m going to be totally honest here, I did not like the prologue. I think a lot of the elements do work really well, I like the characters (Himeru best girl btw), the premise is great, and it’s really interesting that this takes place within a cult that you’re now an outsider looking in; but I think the execution was pretty bad. This is purely my opinion, of course, but it honestly just ended up annoying me so much to the point where I don’t blame anyone if they ended up refunding it. I probably would have myself. Why? Well, it’s due to Rei, Mikotoru, and the writing. I understand Rei being disoriented and not trusting Himeru and Mikotoru, but Rei is such a dense brick wall of a person in the prologue. And that’s just not me saying it, the game says it too. She needs the same thing to be explained to her two to four times, with most of those being within the same scene and even back to back. I just wanted to shake Rei and tell her to listen. That’s why Himeru became my favorite character during the prologue because she was pushing Rei out the door to actually do stuff rather than letting her ask the same question to get the same answer cause apparently she wasn’t listening. For Mikotoru, I got annoyed with how he conveyed information. I feel he made everything more confusing by unnecessarily hiding things from Rei even though he was just going to tell her anyway. It’s even worse when they hide this by having Mikotoru give Rei slightly different information, which makes me more annoyed cause why didn’t you tell me this in the first place. You don’t have to have Rei be super dense or hide it when you could have just said it when you first mentioned it. Now, there are certain things I do understand not revealing as it would have unnecessarily freaked Rei out (and it does), but Mikotoru always mentioned something and then goes “oh it’s too long to tell you”. Which, due to me already being annoyed, made me go “No, you tell me this now”. It’s even worse when I found out that some information key to the worldbuilding was put into optional conversations. Like the reasoning behind needing to kill your murderer is behind an optional conversation. Himeru is best girl and I didn’t feel that she fell into this trap as while she does hide things from Rei too, it felt more fitting as it was to keep Rei on task. I did also find the world building pretty confusing here, but that ended up being the point and does make sense once you reach the final stretch of the game. However, everything had the side effect of making the prologue feel like it was dragging on and more slow than it should be. I was definitely struggling to get through the prologue and I don’t think it helped that I was rating about it as I was playing to whoever I was around at the time. Though, I guess it is a positive considering it got me yapping a lot and it did also get me theorizing a lot too.

I think it can all be summarized by saying that all the individual pieces are great, and great when put together, but it’s the execution of the writing that pulls the prologue down. I was still engaged with the plot, but it annoyed the hell out of me.

Now, since I completed the game, I have softened up on the prologue quite a bit. I ranted a lot more about the prologue originally and honestly once you get to the Final Chapter it all makes way more sense. I still think it has problems and I don’t fault anyone if they decide to drop the game here, but I will say it is worth playing past the prologue. It does all come together, it gets explained, and it does all make sense. Trust me. You just gotta let the game simmer.

I was debating on how I would talk about Shuten Order and I landed on just talking about each route into their own little section like I do for my otome reviews. After all, there are five routes all with their different storylines, genres, twists, and reveals that not only play into their route’s plotline but the overarching plotline. That way I can talk about that routes’ story, how I felt about it, and any complaints I had without it all getting muddied if I discussed them all together. Though, due to none of the routes being locked I debated on whether I’d talk about them in the order I played them in or the order the game has them in. I ended up doing it in the order I played them in as I can mark it as a spoiler if I feel the need to mention my experience playing the game in relation to the order I did them in.

Okay, let’s get into it!

The game out here predicting I would pick Yugen as my first route.

Minister of Health: Yugen Ushitora

I went through Yugen Ushitora’s route first. As I once learned from the great Dwight from The Office, it’s the one you most medium suspect and Yugen was the character I most medium suspected. I honestly had no reason other than just vibes and a feeling.Yugen, as you will already know, is the Minister of Health. That isn’t just a title, though, as Yugen is a doctor himself and the hospital director of Shuten General Hospital (which might or might not be the only hospital but I digress). Yugen is also not just a doctor, but one with such elite medical skills that he was nicknamed the “Gatekeeper to the Afterlife”. You also learn that the Ministry of Health has doctors so skilled (which I can only imagine Yugen helps train) that they can cure almost anything. While you don’t know much about him, you do know that he is very particular and I’d say boisterous based on the meeting that you eavesdropped on. He also doesn’t make it a secret that he loves his sister.

Picking Yugen’s route will take you to the General Hospital. Under the guise of being sick, Yugen thankfully accepts your request to specifically see him and after some stumbling, your interrogation I’d say goes smoothly. You gather some information, you can pick up on some subtleties that paint Yugen in a very suspicious light, and Yugen is obviously suspicious of you a little bit. However, you’re interrupted when you hear a scream from the lobby, find a group of armed men dressed in black, a shot rings out, and Rei blacks out. When Rei wakes up, she finds herself in the extreme escape adventure genre part of Shuten Order. It’s revealed that 21 members, including Rei and Yugen, have been abducted and placed in an unknown building with maze-like hallways. Everyone is forced to not only play death games for their survival, but it’s being livestreamed by a Vtuber named Nao Fukune to other Shuten Order members. So you not only have to stay alive yourself, but hope Yugen stays alive as well so you could get a confession out of him. How will the seemingly devout members react to this situation? And what is really going on?

I honestly ended up really liking this route and it was honestly a breath of fresh air for me. This was my first route so this was right after my annoyance with Rei based on how she was in the prologue and I was ready for that to continue through the routes. However, to my surprise, Rei was actually a smart cookie here. She was actually paying attention, catching on to little details, and finding loopholes. I was very proud of her. Was I still annoyed when she kept insisting that Yugen didn’t have the personality to be a murderer despite the subtleties I caught while interrogating him? Or when Rei made stupid decisions? Yes. But oh man did everything build up to the last act so well. I was not expecting the twists that we got here and it was so good. I also really liked all of the characters here. Nao seemed like she would be an annoying Vtuber streamer character, but she surprisingly wasn’t. And I really liked the side characters that Rei got to meet and interact with. Your time with some of them is short, but they were all able to have distinct personalities and I really liked how they all contributed to the story. How they all acted also made sense by the end. And oh boy, Yugen. I would talk about him but that would go deep into spoiler territory and I won’t ruin it for you.

I also really liked the gameplay here. I think I misunderstood it a bit as I thought it was going to be more escape room than death game with grid-based first person dungeon exploration, but I liked it still. I didn’t mind walking in the maze-like hallways, the exploration does set the mood and frame the story really well, I really liked how the story unfolded, the puzzles were good (though I have beef with the latter “fill this empty space with the blocks” puzzles) and I liked the death games that this route presented. This route even had my archenemy, the sliding block puzzle, and they weren’t too bad. I also did like how tongue and cheek it was referencing Danganronpa and to me I didn’t feel it was looking down on that genre but just joking about the common tropes.* The only complaints I have specific to this route is that it doesn’t have the side step move other first person grid-based dungeon crawlers have, the doors that are locked and have puzzle locks don’t have any distinguishing features (which makes it annoying since you have to check every door), and the actual escape room section of the route did feel a bit cumbersome (which I can’t tell is because I’m used to being able to click/tap around or just due to how this game in particular feels to play). Also, man, while it does give you enough time to do the puzzles here, I really wanted a skip puzzle button cause I was stuck on the last “fill this empty space with the blocks” puzzle (which also soured the escape room section a bit for me).

Also, one of the side characters is named Leo Phenomenon. I have nothing to say other than I loved this name.

Minister of Justice: Kishiru Inugami

Next up is Kishiru Inugami. I actually was going to do a different route, but changed my mind at the last second (and I’m kinda glad I did). Inugami was a Minister I did not at all suspect had a hand in the Founder’s death. It just seemed way too obvious, if he had the time to stage the limbs and call the others then he had time to just hide the whole body, and his alibi of being asleep checked out since he’s the one in the intro cutscene. Yep, Inugami is technically the first character you see. Inugami is the Minister of Justice and while he doesn’t make the best impression, or overall impression considering his fellow Ministry workers wonder why the Founder even made him a Minister, he is actually really good at his job. Sure, Inugami may sleep a lot, be spontaneous, and addicted to drugs that he made legal so he wouldn’t be breaking the doctrine, but there’s a reason why he’s known as the “Ghost White Arbitrator”. Heck, he’s even so good he has three nicknames in total. Inugami is the judge, the defense, and the prosecution. He is the law. The Ministry of Justice as a whole deals with making the laws and punishing those that break them.

Inugami is definitely a guy you’d underestimate despite how capable he actually is and he’s also a guy that just keeps you guessing unless you’re already onto him or you see through his little guise. Plus it also helps when you’re sure he’s not the culprit. Anyway, going into his route is quite interesting as while you do visit the Ministry of Justice headquarters, the beginning actually doesn’t take place there as he’s off somewhere else. Where? Well Inugami is just off doing his own thing. After getting to see how his fellow workers view him, Rei ends up looking for him at the very place that would currently have all of his attention. After Inugami helps her out after having a little encounter with some heretics, they enter into a quid pro quo. In exchange for him answering any questions she has about the Founder’s death, Rei has to help him out with a little appointment he has today. After an entertaining interaction, Rei agrees. Luckily, Inugami answers your questions first as a little deposit, and since his appointment isn’t for a little while, and he turns out to be very forthcoming with the information he has. Of course, Rei isn’t able to get all of her questions answered before it’s time to do Inugami’s side of the deal. His appointment is actually to read the last will and testimony for the Kukuri family, which is the wealthiest family in the Shuten Order by a large margin. Their mansion is on a man made island in the middle of a man made lake for god’s sake. Inugami just wants you to be the witness to the reading, however everything changes when the conditions of how his inheritance will be distributed is read. At least the power of God will help you become the detective you’re pretending to be…with the downside of snapping your fingers a lot when you’re gathering clues or want to know more about something someone said.

I really liked this route as well. It’s very enlightening and Inugami is genuinely a very interesting character that even had me second guessing myself at the end on whether or not he was the killer. For the overarching plot of finding your killer and learning about the Shuten Order, what you uncover in this route turned out to be really enlightening (which is pretty funny considering the main man himself). The route itself was amazing. I’d say this is a bit of a slow burn and it works really well due to the plot and how well paced everything is. The plotline is really interesting and suspenseful, which is great for a route that is clearly inspired by Ace Attorney, and even if you can guess what’s going to happen it still keeps you at the edge of your seat. You don’t know how it’s going to happen, if it’s even going to happen, and it really does well in putting doubts into your mind. I do also think this route does a really good job in hiding information until it’s time to reveal the truth. It’s kind of hard to explain, but whoever wrote this route knew what they were doing. I also have to mention how much I loved how one of the route’s twists was set up from the start, it just isn’t until you’re at the end that you’re able to piece everything together. The twists here also matched really well with the vibe that this route had. It wasn’t crazy like Yugen’s route, but it didn’t have to be as it did fit really well with what was going on and how Inugami was acting.

I also liked the characters here, most of the side characters are huge jerks but they play their part well; while the others do a good job at being a neutral-ish party or being an absolute cutie you just want to protect and hug. Then there’s Iniugami who I loved all throughout this route. He has such amazing characterization here, is a very interesting character, and was so fun to be around. Not to mention that I loved that his cane handle is shaped like a judge’s gavel, he does look like a lawyer, I absolutely loved his voice, and there’s this one expression that he has that I loved. I did find it crazy how Rei was so confident that Inugami was her killer than Yugen though. I found Yugen way more suspicious than Inugami, especially considering how they both act during your interrogation with them. Granted, though, I loved how Inugami played into it. Man, really shows you how beneficial a good impression is.

As for the gameplay for this route, I liked it. It’s obviously inspired by the Ace Attorney games, but with a little bit of Danganronpa flair to it and a little bit of changes so it’s not exactly a clone. It’s basically split up between two phases: Investigation and Meetings. Investigation is just like you’d think, you’ll have time to investigate any key scenes and talk to any key people. Thanks to the power of God, Rei gains a Snapping ability that you can use in the Investigation phase. There will be certain words that are highlighted, with a little closed eye plaque accompanying the text box signalling that you can snap it. If you think it’s a piece of evidence you should gather, or something you need to ask the person you’re talking to to give you more detail about it, you’ll be able to snap. Don’t worry, the game does bring you to another screen to have you confirm it. And this screen also doubles for when a snap needs you to set a piece of evidence along with it. It’s basically like if the mechanic of pressing a witness during trials in Ace Attorney was instead used during Investigations to gather information. Meetings are basically like Trials, but you’ll be doing Evidence Puzzles. This is basically where you’ll build your theory of what happened by placing the correct evidence in the slots around the middle slot which is what you’re trying to answer.

However, there is a Trust bar that stops you from snapping at every opportunity and if it reaches 0 it’s an early end and you’re sent back to the last autosave (with a full Trust bar, which can be a plus). You also have a Trust bar during Meetings so you can’t present the wrong thing too many times. Luckily, each scene has its own Trust bar so you don’t have to worry about it carrying over throughout the whole phase (or day). Oh! And there’s also a Case Record where you can view a summary of the cases, the evidence you gathered, and information about each character here.

So yeah, I liked the gameplay here. I like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa so it wasn’t surprising that I really liked being able to actually be a detective that Rei is pretending to be, investigating murders, gathering evidence, and refuting lies. It felt so good piecing things together myself and finding out the truth. Especially since you’re given the means to theorize what might have happened, making it even better when you prove it’s true in Meetings, since all the hints in the form of evidence is given to you rather than trying to hide it from you. You might not have the full picture, but it does make you think that there’s something there that you’re just missing and then everything just clicks once you figure it out. I do have a complaint though. I did find that the Evidence Puzzle became tedious and slow after the first two. I believe this is just due to how much Rei talks and reiterates things. Plus the majority have slots locked until you do the ones before them and despite having an unlocking animation that takes a couple seconds that hovers over the slot, it doesn’t actually move the selection for you. I understand this was made so it could be distinct from Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, but it could have worked if you were able to just slot them in using just what it says in the box that tells you what it needs. I think you can trust players to know what evidence it’s asking for and how it connects, you don’t need to explain it again. Not to mention it’s going to be explained after the puzzle as Rei is presenting her theory. I got to the point where I dreaded whenever the Evidence Puzzle came up, especially since the ones towards the end that uses all the slots. There was also one piece of evidence that did not match the color where it supposedly came from.

Conversation between Teko Ion and his robot Arale

Minister of Science: Teko Ion

Next up is Teko Ion. Teko was my second favorite Minister during the prologue and honestly was the one I least suspected. He just didn’t really care and he didn’t seem like he would have murdered the Founder. He’s also a kid who most likely doesn’t have the strength needed to do what the killer did. Granted though, he could have used his robots, which not only negates him needing to be at the scene, but the strength he would have needed. So while I didn’t think it was Teko, it’s pretty 50/50. Anyway, Teko is the Minister of Science which, as you suspect, controls all aspects of science, technology and basically the whole infrastructure of the Shuten Order. Teko is a genius with an unmeasurable IQ and due to his contributions is also known as the Prodigy. Sad that he doesn’t have a nickname like the others, but I feel it could be due to how he actually is. While you might not believe it when hearing from others, Teko is actually cold and ruthless. Like, the second Teko deems you as unworthy or worthless, he just throws you away. Whether that means firing you or using you as a pawn to sacrifice for his goal. Oh, and he also has a little robot named Arale. I love Arale, he’s the best.

Teko’s route actually starts out pretty differently. Teko is pretty secretive and while you know he’s most likely at one of the science facilities, you don’t know which one. So Mikotoru and Himeru, who surprisingly seem to really dislike him, suggest sending something through a public messaging forum he monitors, hinting that you know about the Founder’s death to grab his attention. It does, and Teko actually responds really quickly with where to meet him, a research lab he’s a director of and is located at the outskirts of Shuten Order. However, you shouldn’t have underestimated Teko. Right as you get comfortable and think this is just going to go like the others, Rei falls right into Teko’s trap. You suspect Teko? Well Teko suspects you. Don’t worry though, you easily get out thanks to the power of God before anything horrible happens and make your way into the underground part of the facility where you’re met with a wonderful sight…before it gets invaded with heretics. Now Teko has to work with you and any other survivors if he wants to save the research facility and a big secret that hides deep underground that could spell disaster if the heretics reach it.

I liked this route. I’d say this route will probably be the one you may feel a bit meh on, but it does build up to a really great last act. Also, if there was any character that needed you to be able to read what they’re thinking, it was Teko. I don’t think this route would have worked as well if you weren’t able to read what he’s thinking as he very much plays the villain and no amount of Arale saying otherwise would have worked. It was so interesting learning about Teko, his thought process, his personal connection with the Founder, and seeing the growth that he ends up having as the route progresses. And while there aren’t that many side characters here, thank goodness for that, the writer did a wonderful job here with them. The writer here definitely achieved their goal of making the player get attached to the characters you spend most of the route with cause I definitely did. The growth they have was great too and it was also interesting seeing their backstory as well as learning a little bit more about the Shuten Order that this route is able to provide. Rei also was really good here; she has some really interesting growth as you progress and you get some interesting insight on how she was when she was a Founder. This route also does a lot of hinting and misdirection, both on the reveal for the route’s plotline and the overarching mystery. Also, man, do the reveals here have that “WTF” factor to them.

The gameplay here is closer to being a traditional, straightforward visual novel. So, it’s pretty easy to say that I liked it here. Surprisingly, might I add. Instead of having the text box on the bottom, this route is like older visual novels where the text box takes up the whole screen, hosts multiple lines, and doesn’t say who’s talking. To be honest, I don’t like playing visual novels that use this style, but Shuten Order surprisingly made it work for me. Probably because the text is big and it often doesn’t have that many lines at one time (like between 1-4) with it very rarely having moments where it’s hitting the bottom of the screen. Not to mention I did like how this also describes what happens, even though sometimes it doesn’t fit the CG. However, the whole gimmick here is the multiple perspective aspect paired with a flowchart. This seems a bit confusing when you first read about it, but it makes sense once you start playing. Instead of staying with Rei throughout the whole route, you’ll actually be jumping between Rei, Teko, and key side characters. Not only that, but while the flowchart does look linear, the story isn’t exactly told in a linear or traditional way. You’ll actually be jumping around, mostly between characters and sometimes in time, and making choices in those points of the story that can also affect the others. Each point in the timeline are called scenarios and you’ll either get three screens when you finish it: Closed, Locked, and Bad End. Closed just means that you can’t proceed with the story and you need to go back to make a different choice. Locked just means you can’t proceed at the moment because you need to switch to a different character. While Bad End is just like you’d think, the character you’re in the perspective of ends up dying. For Closed and Bad Ends, you do actually get a hint on what you need to proceed or where the choice was at. I do also recommend trying to fill out the flowchart.

I honestly really liked the way the story was told. It was a bit annoying having to switch scenarios a lot, but the way the route is written really made it feel like it was an advantage rather than a hindrance. I do also thinkit sets this route apart from the rest of the game both with its writing style and how it describes what happens. My only complaints here are that it does feel like it drags a little bit just due to the nature of how this is set up, but trust me it pays off. There’s a reason and at least for me it worked the way I believe it was supposed to. You also can’t re-listen to voice lines, which stinks as there were a handful of lines I wanted to listen to again. I also really wished there was a skip to choice option cause sometimes the choice is towards the end of that scenario and there are some loud sound effects here. Lastly, while I do think this route did a better job at doing what the prologue tried to do (bringing up the same piece of information multiple times, with each time you learn something new), it did get a bit old whenever a character was about to reveal something only to be interrupted by another character/situation or it be a cliffhanger locked scenario deal.

Ministry of Security: Manji Fushicho

Next up is Manji Fushicho. Manji was the one I didn’t expect was the killer due to how she acted. She makes a grand entrance to the Minister meeting and she has a rough exterior, but you do get hints that she’s actually taking the Founder’s death pretty hard. Manji is the Minister of Security, which is basically like the police. The Ministry of Security deals with public order, guard facilities, catch criminals, and more importantly eliminate any heretics that rebel against the Shuten Order. Manji, in particular, focuses on that last responsibility of her Ministry a little too much. So much that she does kind of have a personality that does make it believable that she would murder you. Manji is really impulsive, merciless towards heretics, reckless, and people actually see her as a sadistic psycho whose sole purpose is torturing heretics. She’s actually nicknamed Queen of Heretic Hunting and while this route sadly doesn’t go into the Ministry itself or Manji’s feelings on how other Security workers are like, there’s no doubt they get their behavior from how Manji behaves. However, despite all that, she does care about citizens, truly wants to protect the Shuten Order, and is actually quite sensitive. I did also feel like she’s a very ride or die kind of person.

Going down this route, you actually don’t get a chance on using your detective cover story as she’s pretty hard to really pin down. You eventually get a chance to speak to her once you sneak into a crime scene that was reported on while you were at the Ministry of Security Headquarters; which you saw Manji speeding off to on her motorcycle. By the way, her motorcycle is named Mifa, talks, and has his own personality. He’s great. However, this puts you in the middle of a whole scheme the heretics were cooking up for Manji. You see, this murder scene isn’t just a normal murder scene. It actually points to a brutal serial killer who shook the Shuten Order to the core when he was active. Called Nephilim based on the cartoonish mascot costume he wears, he is unidentifiable, ruthless, elusive, and has his own calling card through specific wounds that he inflicts on his victims. Nephilim did disappear for a while, enough for him to become like an urban legend, but has recently resurfaced alongside the rise of heretics causing trouble. And, well, looks like you’re teaming up with Manji to try and catch this guy.

This route was my least favorite route from the bunch. I feel it was a mix of already knowing most of the reveals (aka the ones that hint towards the overall mystery), not really vibing with how this route was written, just not liking the gameplay sections and then really hating the route’s plot twists. I do wonder how I would feel if I played this route earlier, but I found it pretty boring which is weird to say considering this is Manji and there’s a psycho serial killer after you, but that’s how it felt. One twist was pretty obvious if you already played its sister route (as they share a certain key element). The events that happen are also super confusing even if you did play most of the routes already like I did, though I’m a bit in the middle of liking or not liking this as it kinda does work. Even though they don’t explain one scene at all and there’s an inconsistency between this route and the sister route. Then the big route twist I didn’t like at all, don’t even get me started on that one.

I will say though, that I did really like the characters. I felt Rei was more like how she was in the prologue, but she was still pretty good here especially with what she was dealing with. I did also really like Manji and her motorcycle Mifa, though I really wished we got more from them. Especially since if you don’t count Mifa, there’s no side characters in this route. I guess long rant short, I think the character writing was good, I like bits of the route plotline writing, but I overall don’t like how the route was written. I honestly was just wishing the route would end when I was approaching the last act of it. I did also like the visual glitch that happens during this route, which hints at something else being at play, coupled with the effects Rei was feeling.

As for the gameplay, I didn’t like it. I found it pretty boring actually. This route’s gameplay genre is stealth action horror and has you explore these 3D maps that you’re looking at from an isometric viewpoint. Your goal is to try and escape as during these sections Rei is actually being pursued by Nephilim. Nephilim will be patrolling certain parts of the map and if he sees you, he will start chasing you relentlessly. There’s also some scripted chase scenes here and there as well. He is pretty fast, but luckily you can bring down shutters to slow him down for a couple seconds and there are closets you can hide in. You’ll be exploring, using the isometric view to your advantage to look out for Nephilim, run away and hide if you get spotted (or run into a scripted chase), explore and pick up items, and work your way towards the one way to drive him away and allow you to get away with your life intact.

I didn’t mind how easy these sections were and I did like how bite sized the levels were. It meant I didn’t really feel scared outside of Nephilim’s first appearance, but I was glad that this didn’t mean I would get stuck like I thought I would. It also meant that stealth wasn’t annoying here. I also really liked the design of the maps you’ll be exploring. It’s just that it’s so handholdy. Rei talks so much and the game walks you through everything and it’s just like, you don’t have to tell me what I just did every time I do it. Or repeat what I have to do every time it comes up. The breathing sound effect was also so annoying and I don’t really know why it was included considering there’s no stamina and Nephilim doesn’t detect you by sound (the sound effect stops if you don’t run for a couple seconds and also starts if you run for more than a couple seconds). There were also two scripted chases where Nephilim just disappears and I just wish it would show him passing by where you’re hiding so you know it’s safe to come out.

Ministry of Education: Honoka Kokushikan

Last, but not least, is Honoka Kokushikan. Honoka was the one I just hoped wasn’t going to be the killer. She’s the only one that has a motive, as there’s rumors about her wanting the Founder’s position, but she was my favorite Minister during their meeting. I did connect with her personality and especially so when I learned that her route was going to be like a dating sim. I actually thought it would be too obvious if it was her due to this, but then what you learn in the other routes had me doubting that a little bit. Anyway, Honoka is the Minister of Education where she’s in charge of not only education, but controls information that the public gets. Everything about Honoka is a total mystery. She’s hard to approach, hard to get a read on, doesn’t speak often, acts quietly, and no one knows her true identity. The only thing you know is that she’s nicknamed the Conjurer of Words due to her being able to manipulate info like magic and she has a whole information network that allows real time reports on everything that’s going on in the Shuten Order..

So, yeah, you’re pretty much going in knowing nothing but the fact that Honoka can and will control the conversation. That is, if you even get the chance. Don’t worry though, you will. Rei goes to the one place that Honoka would most likely be, the Ministry of Education Headquarters. Which, fun fact, is also officially an educational institute that teaches teachers, uniforms are designed to look just like school uniforms, and it’s, in a sense, the most dangerous place. At first, it seems like Rei is out of luck as the receptionist won’t let her meet with Honoka without an appointment, let alone let her know if she’s actually here. However, Honoka herself actually allows you to meet with her. It’s kind of weird, as Rei is just a stranger that she’s suddenly inviting up, but hey if it gets you through the door. Honoka turns out to be quite talkative, a total 180 from how she was during the Minister meeting, and it becomes quite apparent that she totally has a crush on Rei. Honoka actually thinks Rei is a man, a cute handsome one at that, and while she is a bit suspicious about you knowing about the Founder’s death and not knowing anything about you; she pretty much dismisses it cause she has a crush on you. Honoka lets you ask some questions, but it doesn’t take longer before she takes control of the conversation. Showing that she has a little bit, okay maybe a lot, of yandere in her. Honoka sees Rei as the man of destiny she has been waiting for and she wants Rei to fulfill her wish of falling in love. Not the normal type of love, no, but the one that will drive her crazy and give her the determination (and madness) to carry out her plan. Honoka specifically wants a school romance and to carry that out, she decides to poison Rei a little bit and tells Rei to go to Shuten Academy to look for her. Except, when Rei does, she finds out that she’s not there, but triplets sharing her last name, some students, and some Education staff. If Rei wants to survive, she needs to figure out which one is the real Honoka.

This route was my absolute favorite one out of the bunch. I thought it would be since it was categorized as a romance adventure, which is how dating sims are categorized in storefronts that have a more broad genre categorization. This route did not disappoint. I loved the storyline here, how Rei dealt with both the situation and a Minister full on hitting on her, and the characters here. The triplets were such a delight to interact with, I liked how Rei had to work for the girls to actually accept the confession, how it escalates as time goes on, and just everything that has to do with how it’s framed and the sequence of events that needs to happen. I really don’t mind the structure this route went for as it does work, especially for the genre that it’s inspired by. And oh my gosh the twists. I did guess one, though it was more jokingly, but the others I did not expect at all and it was great. This route also has a lot of lore and worldbuilding bits here, which was really nice. It made me glad I played this route last and it did fill in some gaps that were left.

I also absolutely love Honoka. I know she’s crazy and what she ends up doing at the end of the route, but I still love her. 10/10 would date her. Also, I absolutely love Honoka’s design. I’m probably reading too much into this, but I didn’t notice until I was absentmindedly thinking about her and sketching out her three hair loops that it kind of also foreshadows her route.

As for gameplay, I loved it as well. With Honoka being a total romantic, her route’s gameplay section is inspired by dating sims. Which, as someone that loves otome games (which is under the dating sim umbrella), I was totally for and I left this route last just for that. It turned out to be a great decision not only because I ended up with my last route being the one I loved the most, but because it transitions really well into the final chapter. Anyway, so the gameplay. You first start on the Day Phase where your goal is to learn more about the triplet Rei is currently pursuing. Since the route takes place at a school, you’ll get a map of the school with its various locations, some of which will be open and some will be closed. You just have to select a location to go there, however, you won’t know who’s there until you do, you have limited turns (which decrease each time you visit a location), and there’s a little…bomb obstacle that gets introduced after the first confession. You’ll either get a student or staff event, which is pretty quick, or you’ll get the triplet which will lead you to her event where you’ll get to deepen your bond with her. Just like dating sims, there is a hidden affection meter which will be affected by the choices you pick. If affection is too low, well, it won’t go too well for you (I checked and the game does indeed have consequences for this). So you have to pick a choice that fits with that girl the best. Each event will raise the intimacy gauge, which basically is the amount of events you need to get before turns run out to be able to confess to her. While you won’t know where they are, the triplets do have locations that they do often hang out at and sometimes they’ll even tell you where to go due to an event. Though, I do recommend checking out the other locations to get the optional dialogue. Once Rei is able to confess, you’ll go into a Danganronpa-esque Confession minigame* where you’re at the home stretch at getting your confession accepted. You’ll have the last conversation with them where you’ll make choices on a time limit. Using what you learned about the girl and gauging how she is feeling and how the conversation is going, you’ll have to not only pick the right choice, but also before the timer runs out. Though, there are some that requires you to timeout. A lot of these do have long timers, but there are some with short ones. The triplet will also have an anger gauge that fills up if you pick the wrong choice and it’s game over if it’s maxed. I did find that it was pretty easy to tell what choice you were supposed to make and even then the anger gauge does give you enough chances if you pick wrong.

My only complaint is that I did wish it wasn’t as linear. Like, I wished you could pick what order you would tackle the three triplets in. Though, I do understand why it was linear since it would require alternate scenes to account for possible combinations, ones that not a lot of players would see. Other than that, while I do really like the lore bits here when you go to a location with a side character, the gameplay does discourage it both from it having limited turns and the tutorial encouraging you to only go to the locations the triplets are at.

Now will I do a route ranking like I do for my otome reviews too? Yes. Yes I will.

Education/Honoka > Justice/Inugami > Health/Yugen > Science/Teko > Security/Manji

I knew what route was my absolute favorite and what route I didn’t like, but the other three (the middle children haha) I had a hard time ranking them. They all are great, while having aspects that for me brought it down a bit, and I enjoyed all of them. Just know that for those, it was really close that they might as well all be tied for second.

I was thinking whether or not I should also include a recommended route order. It is a spoiler since none of the routes are locked, but at the same time…if I wasn’t playing as early as I am I would have wanted someone to suggest what route was best to start on. Especially considering I started on Yugen’s. So, I did. Though, it isn’t an easy of a task as I thought it would be. Usually, writers would have a route order in mind and I was sure Shuten Order did; but after completing the game the reveals are pretty much spread all over. Some routes do suggest doing one route next or is a good sister route, but it’s the reveals and twists that really throws things off. Some are purely contained in that route, as they only pertain to that route’s storyline, but there are ones that deal with the overarching mystery, lore/worldbuilding, and twists. Some even spoil the twist in other routes. Oh and did I mention that routes do mix in reveals that would suggest they would work for an early game route, or possibly go before one of the routes, but also have a reveal that suggest that it would be an end game route? Or even highly hints at a twist that is an end game reveal? Yeah that happens. I do like all of the twists and reveals and everything, but man I felt these routes simultaneously assume you’re playing them in the early game and in the late game. So, I did my best in trying to find an order that felt unraveled things nicely without spoiling the routes after too much nor had previous routes spoil it too much.

I will put my recommended route order under spoilers (along with why I picked the order I did) if you want to go in blind. I will give one suggestion though, don’t do Yugen’s route first.

This might seem like a surprise as someone that didn’t like the prologue, but I really liked the routes here. Manji’s route turned out to be a bit of a dud for me, but that’s bound to happen with a game with multiple routes and like I said I do wonder if I would have liked it more if I played it earlier than I did. Although, I did check the credits specifically to see if it listed who wrote each route and it turns out that the same writers that wrote the prologue wrote Manji’s route. Which explains why Rei was most like how she was in the prologue and why it fell flat for me (as I do have problems with it other than it being spoiled by other routes). The other four though, I really enjoyed and I had a lot of fun. I think it says a lot when I have a hard time ranking most of the routes because I enjoyed them that much. Each route does have aspects that it falters and some will be a bit annoying to replay, but the gameplay overall, the stories that each one tells, the characterization of the main and side characters, and how it contributes to the overarching story and mysteries is done really well. Not to mention how great the twists and reveals are, both for that route’s storyline and the overarching story. If you end up hating the prologue like I did, the routes certainly redeems the game. It even redeems the prologue as I did soften up on the prologue by the time I was at the Final Chapter and understood what it was going for. I really liked how each one tackled a theme too, how they all contributed to the overarching story, and how they all hinted at what was really going on. Hints that were honestly quite subtle and I can’t help but applaud at. Some I caught, but some I didn’t and I can’t believe I missed.

Talking about the Final Chapter, I really liked it. Everything comes together to a spectacular final chapter where everything gets revealed and comes to a head. I really like everything here and the reveals, however I have my complaints (of course). It is pretty long winded. I love it, I really do, but I can’t deny that it just goes on and on and on. I was honestly ready for it to end. Also, the game disables manual saving which I can’t see the reason why. There was nothing that I would say warrants it. No choices other than the one that determines what ending you get matters. It just means you have to replay the whole Final Chapter if you want to see the ending you didn’t pick since it autosaves literally right after you pick it. And honestly, I was not in the mood to replay it after I was all finished.

After finishing the whole game, you’ll unlock a gallery where you’ll be able to rewatch cutscenes, listen to the music tracks, or watch the credits again. I’m honestly pretty disappointed there was no CG gallery here. I was also hoping there would be a chapter select (especially since some routes would be a bit annoying to replay if you want to get to a certain point).

As for negatives, aside from what I already mentioned I do have negatives that pertain to the whole game rather than route specific ones. I like the dialogue choices here, but there were instances where I just don’t understand why it was a choice. The most egregious choices were just ones that were the same thing (why even give me the choice?) and the ones that imply will result in a different scene…only to just course correct to the choice it wanted you to make. Why even make it a choice? If you give me a choice to slap someone, let me slap them and suffer the consequence of a game over. I do have some beef with the exploration mode segments too. Sometimes, the game doesn’t really let you examine your surroundings in a sense that it lets you click to inspect them, but tells you to do what it wants you to do (like opening the door). At that point, just have the door be the only thing I can select. There were also times when it deviated from the norm. Usually, you know when you’ll be progressing to the next segment when you get a “will you proceed”-esque choice rather than it going straight to giving you a description or to talking to the person. Except sometimes, multiple inspectable things will have that prompt for moments where it wants you to inspect or talk to multiple important points of interest. There were also some instances where the game takes you out of a conversation or inspecting an item only for you to need to click again to continue. I don’t understand why it didn’t just combine it all. This is a visual novel, you don’t need to break it up like that and I didn’t feel like I needed to save or interact with a mechanic (like Inugami’s route’s Case File) in the middle. In fact, during Honoka’s route I had no clue why the game wasn’t progressing until I noticed that some items were still gleaming after I exhausted all of Honoka’s dialogue.

I also felt that some screens go too fast and that’s coming from a fast reader. There’s a Keywords section of the pause menu which I feel should have been named differently. Personally, Keywords made me assume it would be like a Glossary especially since the game emphasises some words by highlighting them. I think it should have been named something like Clues instead. There were some inconsistencies and things that didn’t really get explained by the end. Though, for the last one, I do forgive the ones that happen during the Final Chapter on the grounds of the rule of cool. It doesn’t quite make sense, but hey it was really cool. There was also one tiny aspect of the ending (that I got) that I didn’t agree with. There’s some key lore that is relegated to optional dialogue. Lastly, saving, I highly recommend manual saving. This game does autosave, and there are some checkpoints, but I did find that autosaves were often pretty far apart.

The translation here was pretty good. There are mistakes sprinkled in the game, but most of them didn’t cause any confusion. You know, it’s the usual misspelling, or using the wrong version of the word, switching words, and missing a space. There were only a couple instances where it did cause confusion; like the two times I felt got the person the speaker was referring to wrong (as it doesn’t make sense otherwise) and there was a thought bubble during Inugami’s route that didn’t have a proper translation (just had a placeholder “x” there). In terms of non-textbox text, there were a handful of things that weren’t translated. Though, it didn’t really bother me unless the game was trying to emphasize something. Like in Teko’s route, there are a couple CG texts that didn’t get translated so when the game zoomed in on the background to emphasize it or talked about the text, I had no idea what it was trying to get me to understand. It was even worse considering one was very important to the storyline and was a part of Teko’s growth. I would have also liked to see what the characters were saying during the Danganronpa-style trials when they interrupt the conversation. I would be pretty interested to see what all the text after you complete a power of God prayer says as well, but that’s just me being curious.

As for the visuals and sound, I loved it here. I loved Shuten Order’s art style and how you can still see the Danganronpa stylings that this team does despite it being in a different style. I would say this is like a colorful, bold comic book style which I ended up really loving and gives Shuten Order an unique identity. The shading is a bit weird at first, but I came to really like it once I got used to it and I do feel it kind of plays into one of the big twists. I loved the style the cutscenes were in, as well as the character designs for everyone. You do get a feel for the characters based on how they look and some do hold some surprises. It’s almost a shame that it gets a bit crunchy on the Switch and that there is no CG gallery here as everything looks absolutely beautiful. I do wish there were more full CGs here, but I really like how it used them like dynamic comic panels. I really enjoyed the writing style and while I was a bit uncertain about the majority of the game not describing what happens like visual novels do, the sound design and CGs do a wonderful job. I think the only complaint I have is that there were a couple times where the action wasn’t as clear. There are also a lot of small details which I really liked as well.

I also loved the soundtrack. Each track fits really well with the scene it’s paired with, as well as going with the whole vibe. There’s tracks that play more into the religious aspect, giving that church feel to it, and the tracks that are in the various routes feel inspired by the genres the route’s gameplay is based on. And oh man, the voice acting. The voice acting is so good here. Everyone does an absolutely amazing job here. Though, sometimes I do feel the music overpowers the voice acting at times (granted, I also didn’t adjust the sound in the settings). The sound design was also great as well and really enhanced the experience.

As for performance, Shuten Order does play pretty well. The only problems I noticed was that there were hitches every so often for a split second. I only really noticed since it usually happened in the middle of dialogue.

Verdict

I may have had a rough start with Shuten Order, but I came to really enjoy the game. I honestly did not expect my feelings to have changed from my beginning hours, but it did. Despite each chapter of the game having its own flaws, everything else was done really well. I really liked most of the routes here, loved the characters, the worldbuilding and lore grew on me, and I loved how everything ended up coming together at the end. I also really enjoyed making up theories as I was playing, picking up (or not picking up) the hints, fighting doubts that the game plants in you, and then seeing all of the twists and reveals that were honestly so well done. Even if you guess what’s really going on, Shuten Order still manages to surprise you and it all makes sense. I do also really appreciate how the religious cult aspect was handled and how the unique perspective of Rei was throughout the game.

I’d say Shuten order is damn near perfect and is a fantastic visual novel at the end of the day. As long as you give the game some grace, like letting the game shimmer and keeping expectations in check for the different genre gameplay segments, I would definitely recommend checking out Shuten Order. It turned out to be one enjoyable, wild ride that surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, all comes together in the end.