Milessama

Dark Auction was a game I was expecting since 2025. The plot looked interesting, Rika Suzuki was writing the scenario and it reminded me of Zero Escape and Danganronpa games which was enough to hype me up. First of all, even if some places are kind of nonsensical; this game has a really good story. It starts interesting and gets more interesting every chapter. Last chapter was nicely written and -even if it was a little weird- it explained the lore nicely. The characters are probably the part where the game shines the most since all of them have likable aspects to them and they are layered people; none of them are goody two shoes or comically evil. They develop and change throughout the story. Even the main character which is sometimes hard to make good is a really great guy and feels fun to play with. The voice acting is really good and the cast is superb. So if you want to play this for the story, you're good to go. You're gonna have fun. The gameplay on the other hand... This game is one of the most repetitive games I've played. The chapter structure is almost always the same and the gameplay part which is the auction is just... kind of boring. Nothing ever happens. Nothing new gets introduced. And it doesn't even feel challenging. The game usually doesn't let you deduce anything since it gives the answers a lot with the dialogues, maybe except for the Third Stage in the auctions. And I felt like I could be happier if these gameplay segments didn't really exist. Not to say the usage of GenAI in these parts too which didn't really affect me a lot but people who are sensitive to this stuff will leave with a bad taste in their mouths. But the developers are working to change the AI parts with real art so that's cool I guess. So in a way, this game is a good story with an interesting but bad and repetitive gameplay. If you have patience and care more about the visual novel part of this game, go on and buy it. -It's a little bit expensive so you can wait for a sale.- But if you go on expecting Danganronpa like gameplay, you're gonna be disappointed. You should treat this game more like a visual novel, maybe then you will have more fun.

[No spoilers, but a little information from the routes and gameplay gimmicks so if you really hate knowing some stuff about the game beforehand and you want to experience this blindly, do not read the paragraph starting with genre usage.] I really feel sad that this game doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Don't trust the metacritic scores, this game is a really good. First of all, this game is a visual novel at core. Sure, you may watch the trailers and think "Wow, 5 genres?" and proceed to play this game with wrong expectations. Don't do that, it will hinder your experience. This game is a visual novel game with genre shifts. First of all, this game is probably Kodaka's greatest game at world building. In the 5 routes, you learn about the Shuten Order from the perspective of an amnesiac person in the name of "Rei Shimobe". The world's secrets, how it works and everything in between is explained really well and the mystery aspect of this game is great. The story is pretty well too, just a little below Hundred Line, I think. The plot is consistent, characters are intriguing, the core mystery is pretty solid. Plot twists are used pretty nicely and even as someone who have played these type of games so much, there were some stuff I couldn't predict. But well, some of the stuff are really easy to predict so I guess they even each other out. I don't think any of the routes are written badly. Some are just better than the others but well, the ministers are really engaging and all of them feels different than each other. This game is long, so you probably will get your money's worth. (About 40 hours if you read normally, fast nor slow) This game got review bombed at release because of some price issues and translation problems. Especially some people experienced really laggy gameplay and some game breaking bugs.(I did too and then I had to change my system's locale to Japanese, which stopped the bugs. Probably will work on everyone if you experience bugs.) Translation on the other hand... it's not as bad as some people think. But well, the main character gets misgenderized a lot and there were some stuff which changed meanings because it was translated wrongly and I only understood what they meant because I know some japanese but I think this just happens for 3-4 times and will not really hinder your experience. Just trust your logic if something weird is said, especially in the Minister of Health route. I remember the biggest mistake in translation was there. Okay, so what about genre usage in routes? Well, Minister of Justice is Ace Attorney gameplay with Danganronpa vibes and it was used pretty well. Minister of Health is more of a Zero Escape type route, but I think it was undercooked a little in the gameplay segments, although the story was really nice. Minister of Science is pure visual novel but it probably is the best written route out of the 5, Minister of Education is romance. Not gonna say anything else about that, lol. It's a really good one but not everyone will like it. And last one is the Minister of Security one which in my opinion is the most unpolished one, I think story and gameplay was a little boring compared to the others. But well, what you can get from this is routes are usually pretty good and if you like these type of games, you will love it. I really love when games stimulate my mind by adding more genres to the mixture. It's just so fun. Well, at last, I think Shuten Order is a game that should be experienced, especially if you liked Kodaka's other games. I will give this a 9. Some translation stuff and bugs; and some unpolished story beats doesn't let me give this one a 10 even if I really loved it. I hope you like it as much as I do.

I'm not really sure what to say about this game... but I think this was the best game I've ever played in a long time. I don't ever remember being so emotionally invested in some game characters ever or feeling the connection with them. I'm glad I played this game. You should too. Cathy is so cute btw.

This game... was really good man. I was not expecting to have this much fun with this game when I started it. The story is nice, gameplay is great, arcade machines are a nice touch to the gameplay too. I like the Mita's and Mila. Especially Mila. Every chapter felt like something different which I'm assuming this is what the developers wanted us to feel like when we were playing the game and because of this the game didn't get boring at all. I was curious to see all of the Mila's and what would they offer to the players. The game isn't that scary except some jumpscares which aren't that scary too so if you don't like horror games you can still play it. I can see this game was made with love. You should play it.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]