428: Shibuya Scramble on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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A kidnapping on the streets of Shibuya brings together a hot-blooded detective, hard-hitting journalist, former gang leader, the head researcher of a big pharma manufacturer and a part-timer stuck in cat costume for a series of events each more unexpected and outrageous than the last.
428: Shibuya Scramble is a visual novel, adventure and mystery game
developed by Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and Abstraction Games
and published by Spike Chunsoft Co. and Ltd..
Released on September 04th 2018 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 2,942 reviews of which 2,797 were positive and 145 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.1 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 12.49€ on Steam with a 75% discount.
The Steam community has classified 428: Shibuya Scramble into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at 428: Shibuya Scramble through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7
- Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 or better
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.2 or DirectX 9.0c compatible GPU with at least 1GB of VRAM
- Storage: 6 GB available space
- Sound Card: Version 9.0c
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Amazing read. 428: Shibuya Scramble is the perfect mix of comedy, mystery and, suspense. It doesn't take itself seriously (at all) but also tells an engaging story from the perspective of multiple characters - with most incorrect choices spelling the death of the other characters or a ridiculous ending for the character, all to get to that fateful hour where all of their stories converge. Through every twist and side story that the VN gave, I was hooked to read through to get to the bottom of everyone's case. While each story was engaging to read to various degrees, I felt invested enough and cared for what happened to each one of them, even the side characters. The way each story influenced each other was enjoyable to watch unfold. However the multiple timelines is also one of it's flaws - the lack of clarity on which stories continues which adds a level of tedium that is eliminated by using a guide, which sadly also removes the surprises of bad endings. The live-action format, as opposed to the typical anime style, adds greatly to the read. Even with the escalating absurdity hour after hour, it helps that the characters remain grounded in reality (despite the ridiculousness) of it all. I wish to see more of that format in the future. I highly recommend this VN to any reader. The read itself isn't too long nor overstays its welcome, I would advise not using a guide at the very start. I gave it a 9/10 on vndb.
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Scrambling in Shibuya This review may contain spoilers. This review is based after playing the International version, not the Japan only version. Differences between versions are not taken into account in the review In short Visual Novel set in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward. It tells the story of 5 different people who come together to solve mystery behind a ransom kidnap case. A crime thriller with different writing styles and multiple endings. Excellent and very lengthy read, which can slog at a time, but well worth it to read until the end. Best experienced without a guide. Recommended. Platforms Tested Windows desktop Steam Deck Pros Music Story Localization is very good Cons Story can be a slog at times Story can get very confusing at times because how it's told Things to know The game has no voice acting The game 428 Shibuya Scramble (hereinafter 428) is a visual novel adventure featuring use of real actors and photos as backgrounds instead of typical anime art. Originally released in 2008 on Nintendo Switch it has since been released on PS3, PS4, PSP, mobile and Windows. 428 was made by Spike Chunsoft, more known for their Danganronpa series. Overview of the Story and Gameplay The Visual Novel tells the story of 5 different people. The story is told from the point of view of each character with the writing style of the story varying between each character. The story takes place in Shibuya Ward of Tokyo and takes place between 10 am and 8 pm, a 10 hour time period of a single day. This is a visual novel. So, in other words, it’s a book that you read. The visual parts are photos of actors in different situations and sometimes actual video clips. There is no voice acting in the game with the exception of small part of the game. The gameplay mechanics come from choosing in certain points how the characters will react. The choices you make for each character can and usually do have an effect on other characters stories. To keep you from advancing too far, the game employs a “Keep Out” mechanic that stops a single character’s story until you reach far enough in other characters story to unblock the blocked story parts. The story is further divided into hour blocks. You need to complete each hour block to advance to the next one. Completing the block requires you to read through all the characters’ stories. Other than that, the gameplay is reading the text from the screen and pressing button or having the game on autoread to progress through the story. The Tech It’s a book. It runs great on Steam Deck and there are very few options available. Options consist mostly of resolution, window mode and control glyphs. In-game options have settings for autosave and vibration. Controls cannot be rebound in the game. Miscellaneous DLC : The game has no DLC. Achievements : The game has 27 achievements. Some of the achievements require hitting every single bad ending in the novel, which can consume quite a lot of time. My Opinions This novel was a fun read. The localization was good and there were very few typos in all of the text I read. The novel is quite long to read through. At times when it got the ball running it felt like the writers wanted to force it to slow down and introduced some very questionable parts. I don’t know if it’s just for the international version, but I would’ve liked to hear the actors to voice act some of their lines. It was also a shame, that there were very few actual videos during the read (but it is easy to understand the lack of videos considering this was a Wii title originally). Now it feels like that the actors were bit wasted and could not show full range of their talents. However, the photos clearly showed that the actors weren’t found from the backstreets of Shibuya and the more experienced actors clearly could show their range in a Visual Novel style setting. The multiple endings kept the story quite fresh. At parts it became quite funny to see, just how this route would end. The story itself had few very good surprises, but some of the bigger twists were quite clear from early on. The jumping mechanism could make the story confusing at times, but rereading some parts of the route usually fixed those parts for me. I liked that it was divided into hourly blocks. It made reading it much easier than trying to read very long visual novel in one go. It also gave me some kind of indication on how far in the story I was and made reading multiple storylines much easier. At the time of writing this review, I reached the true ending of the story. The ending felt like they forgot to properly wrap up some of the storylines and the only typos I saw were in the final parts of the game. I have to say that the start of the novel can be bit slow, but if you can fight through the initial tutorial, the story will truly open up and get going. All in all, I really enjoyed the read. I just feel bit sad that I had kept from really starting to read this novel for so long, but better late than never. I am happy to recommend this novel if you enjoy reading fun stories and you have enjoyed visual novels. Best played on Steam Deck.
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All the fun of B-movie thriller, with healthy doses of humor and wit scattered between cheesy emotional scenes. That, on its own, wouldn't sell this experience, but what makes this phenomenal is how it tells a somewhat non-linear highly intertwined story that wouldn't really be plausible in any other medium. Combined with the absolutely jaw-dropping plot twists at every turn, this game is sure to keep you entertained throughout, whether it's hysterical edge-of-your-seat screeching or hearty laughs. There are only two significant issues: the inability to fast-forward through the story (even the fastest autoplay is pretty slow) and that sometimes you can get a bit stuck not knowing which timeline choices would progress the story. Paying attention to the details and hints is crucial to keep the game flowing. When you're stuck, looking up a walkthrough can even be a bit difficult because the plot flags are fiddly and interdependent sometimes.
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Great game. Both writing, and the presentation excels, even if it looks a bit jarring at first. The game also balances serious and comedic tones very well, similarly to the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. Only gripe with it is the bad ending hunting (optional) at the end, and no settings for text-speed.
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I wish there were more like this. Great characters, interesting story, well written dialogue. Definitely recommend if you like this style of visual novels.
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Frequently Asked Questions
428: Shibuya Scramble is currently priced at 12.49€ on Steam.
428: Shibuya Scramble is currently available at a 75% discount. You can purchase it for 12.49€ on Steam.
428: Shibuya Scramble received 2,797 positive votes out of a total of 2,942 achieving an impressive rating of 9.10.
😍
428: Shibuya Scramble was developed by Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and Abstraction Games and published by Spike Chunsoft Co. and Ltd..
428: Shibuya Scramble is playable and fully supported on Windows.
428: Shibuya Scramble is not playable on MacOS.
428: Shibuya Scramble is not playable on Linux.
428: Shibuya Scramble is a single-player game.
428: Shibuya Scramble does not currently offer any DLC.
428: Shibuya Scramble does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
428: Shibuya Scramble does not support Steam Remote Play.
428: Shibuya Scramble is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for 428: Shibuya Scramble.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 07 June 2025 14:16 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 09 June 2025 11:37 |
| Steam price | 14 June 2025 20:41 |
| Steam reviews | 12 June 2025 16:08 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about 428: Shibuya Scramble, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about 428: Shibuya Scramble
- SteamCharts - Analysis of 428: Shibuya Scramble concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck 428: Shibuya Scramble compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
20
Developer
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.,
Abstraction Games
Publisher
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
Release
04 Sep 2018
Platforms