Urban Myth Dissolution Center sits at that awkward junction between enthralling detective game and slightly tedious visual novel. On the face of it, it looks and behaves much like Capcom’s Ace Attorney games, though more in the vein of the Miles Edgeworth Investigations duo than Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice. There are six cases to solve here, and you’ll do so through a mixture of 2D point and click investigation work, social media rumourmongering, and some Case of the Golden Idol-style blank-filling to draw your conclusions together.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center reviewDeveloper: HakababunkoPublisher: Shueisha GamesPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out on 12th February on PC (Steam), PS5 and Nintendo Switch
Unlike its legal thriller stablemates, however, there are no crimes sitting at the heart of these mysteries, nor are there any real villains that need to be brought to justice via your superior deduction powers. Rather, the cases you’re investigating here are all strange stories of paranormal phenomena – occult tales that are, perhaps, disappointingly more Western-leaning than you might expect considering its contemporary Japanese setting, not to mention quite tame and sanitised versions of them compared to the more overt horror fare found in similar games like Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. If you’re expecting a tour through Japan’s library of urban folktale here, you’re going to feel short-changed, as these stories of scary figures suddenly appearing from under the bed, doppelgangers causing mayhem and possible paths to the underworld can feel all too familiar at times, and a little too ‘children’s bedtime story’ in tone, to really get the blood pumping.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center – Announcement Trailer | PS5 Games Watch on YouTube
There are still some highlights to enjoy along the way. Cases that involve a dubious box that supposedly curses everyone who comes into contact with it, and a haunted apartment where vengeful ghosts lurk and are caught on camera are perhaps the closest it comes to feeling like you’re in a Japanese horror flick. Likewise, there’s an overarching plot rumbling away in the background that had a whiff of The World Ends with You about it. However, if it’s a purer kind of spooky, Japanese crime story you’re after, you’d probably be better off casting an eye over developer Hakababunko’s previous work, the excellent Makoto Wakaido’s Case Files Trilogy, which plays on the minutiae of Japanese myths and traditions much more effectively than it does here.
Still, even if you’re on board with the subject matter of these myths, the biggest hurdle standing in the way of this becoming a stone-cold detective classic is the game’s somewhat glacial pacing. With the exception of its third and middle case – a memorable night-time mystery tour through Tokyo’s Ueno Park that has a much heavier focus on riddles and puzzle-solving compared to the rest – each case takes place over multiple days, and the events surrounding each paranormal entity will gradually ramp up during the time you investigate. On the one hand, this gradual unravelling of events keeps you on your toes. Since each case is ongoing, you never quite know where you’re going to end up by the time it’s over, and its conclusions can regularly feel quite surprising as a result – even if it does have a somewhat bad habit of simply explaining the solution to you, rather than letting you work it out for yourself.