Those who love the Steins; Gate visual novels and or Chaos;Head anime will love Chaos;Child. Acting as a sequel to Chaos;Head, the world of Chaos;Child takes players through a murder mystery that isn’t so easy to solve. Choose to delude yourself in positive or negative responses via a delusion based system or ground yourself back into reality when a situation arises. Your choice will ultimately affect the story and characters around you thus providing dozens of branching paths of narrative. If you love narrative filled tales with horror themes and mind-bending realities, then you’re going to love Chaos;Child.

Chaos;Child is first and foremost a visual novel. This means players should expect a more narrative driven experience and a lesser focus on interaction with prompts. However, Chaos;Child does have several endings based on how you respond to certain events via the positive and negative delusion themed choices. Will you think of positive thoughts during an intense scene or will you mind wander into a more negative approach? You could also choose to not fall into a delusion and keep your mind rooted in reality. Each one of these choices will lead to events transpiring in different ways and ultimately providing players six possible endings. Chaos;Child will both mystify you and horrify you as you enter a world where dreams and nightmares share a space within reality.

In 2015, Shibuya was hit with a strange and powerful earthquake that caused devastations and death. Several students survived that day six years ago including a young man named Takuru Miyashiro. Takuru has been living a seemingly peaceful life since losing his family during the earthquake and enjoys days being part of the newspaper club. However, when an odd series of murders begin to take place on the same day as what was dubbed the New Generation murders, Takuru finds himself following various leads as he becomes driven to solve this case as those close to him become more and more involved. However, in this world, Takuru will learn that reality isn’t so easy to spot when delusions and supernatural forces cloud what is truth and fiction. Can Takuru solve this murder mystery or will he lose his sanity to the truths that seem to be unfolding before his very own eyes?

Whether you wish to call them games or not, we here at Honey’s Anime feel visual novels are still amazing. Though if we had to complain about visual novels, we’d probably say our biggest issues with them tend to be how little they allow interaction from the player or offer few choices. That’s why as much as we love the visual novel genre, we always reserve ourselves till we play one before making any judgments. With that being said, clearly today we are talking about Chaos;Child from publisher PQube and developer 5pb who are both known for providing excellent visual novels—such as Steins;Gate—to the world. Does Chaos;Child fit into that category of excellent visual novel? Find out in our review of Chaos;Child.

Unlike most games we review here at Honey’s Anime, visual novels must be approached differently. Chaos;Child doesn’t have tons of action or make players hit QTEs every few moments. Instead there’s only a simple system of making choices in Chaos;Child. However, this simple set up works wonders and is easily one of the best elements of Chaos;Child. Let us explain why.

In Chaos;Child, the player is thrust into the shoes of Takuru Miyashiro. As the player talks to various characters of Chaos;Child, choices will pop up in the form of positive and negative delusions. Here is where Chaos;Child shines as players can choose what happens to Takuru at these points. Will they have a positive delusion and respond to something in a positive way or choose to be negative and thus face sometimes harsh consequences? You could also have Takuru not fall into a delusion and instead just keep his mind rooted in the current situation.

As you can see, choices matter in Chaos;Child. Each choice you make can potentially affect Takuru’s path through the story. Flirting with a girl, saving a life by acting fast and or doing nothing when a bad situation arises each leads Chaos;Child down one of several possible endings. Though it is important to note that many of the endings you can choose are locked until you beat the game one time. This might seem like a gimmick to make players replay the game but we assure you that isn’t the case and will make sense once the story gets to a specific point.

Visually, Chaos;Child is absolutely gorgeous. Everything from the menus you use to lookup helpful in game diction to the presentation of how the game reacts to specific scenes is extremely stylish and beautiful. Many times, we here at Honey’s Anime felt like we were watching a still motion anime more than just playing a visual novel and for us that is a good thing indeed, seeing as how we love anime after all. With each scene being accompanied by amazing Japanese dialogue and wonderful tone fitting music, Chaos;Child looks and sounds epic which is a nice deviation from most simple visual novels.

Now if we have to complain about anything in Chaos;Child, we will say this: Chaos;Child is a long—and we mean long—visual novel. With all the different choices and endings, Chaos;Child can clock in around 70+ hours and that is based on our reading speed. If you read fast or slow, the time for completion can be shorter or longer but regardless expect Chaos;Child to eat some time from you. Though with such a great game that latter remark won’t be a bad thing for most.

Chaos;Child hands down is one of the more interesting visuals novels we’ve played here at Honey’s Anime. In most games, when a player makes a choice, the various responses don’t deviate much which in turn makes players not care about what they end up choosing. However, in Chaos;Child, each choice—or lack of choice—impacts the narrative in unique ways making players want to re see specific moments and nab all the possible endings that Chaos;Child offers. However, Chaos;Child is still a visual novel and that means players who want more than just narrative and a simple choice system might want to look elsewhere. Though if you’re were looking for a great visual novel, then you need to go out and get Chaos;Child as soon as you can. Just be prepared for a game that can clock in over 70+ hours depending on your reading speed.

We here at Honey’s Anime have played our fair share of visual novels. Chaos;Child while adhering to the basic structure of what a visual novel is doesn’t rely on the same tropes and clichés you typically see in a visual novel. The choice system, story and art style make Chaos;Child easily one of the most immersive and enjoyable visual novels released in the last few years and we know fans of the visual novel genre will find nothing but love for Chaos;Child. Are you excited now for Chaos;Child when it releases October 24, 2017 or are you maybe now a bit hesitant to buy it? Talk to us via the comments below and if you loved this review we have loads more here at Honey’s Anime.