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Chaos;Child

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This article is about the video game. For its anime adaptation, see Chaos;Child (TV series).
Chaos;Child
The cover art shows Takuru Miyashiro, a young man in a school uniform and glasses, looking directly at the viewer.
Cover art featuring Takuru Miyashiro
Developer(s)5pb.
Publisher(s)
Director(s)
  • Yuusuke Matsumoto
  • Toshihiko Kajioka
Producer(s)Tatsuya Matsubara
Artist(s)
Writer(s)
  • Chiyomaru Shikura
  • Naotaka Hayashi
  • Eiji Umehara
Composer(s)Takeshi Abo
SeriesScience Adventure
Platform(s)
Release
December 18, 2014
  • Xbox One
    • JP: December 18, 2014
    PlayStation 3
    • JP: June 25, 2015
    PS4, PS Vita
    • JP: June 25, 2015
    • EU: October 13, 2017
    • NA: October 17, 2017
    Microsoft Windows
    • JP: April 28, 2016
    • WW: January 22, 2019
    iOS
    • JP: January 31, 2017
    Android
    • JP: May 28, 2017
Genre(s)Visual novel
Mode(s)Single-player

Chaos;Child (stylized as ChäoS;Child) is a visual novel video game developed by 5pb. It is the fourth main entry in the Science Adventure series, and a thematic sequel to Chaos;Head (2008). It was released in Japan in 2014 for Xbox One, and later for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows, iOS, and Android. An English translation was released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita by PQube in 2017, and for Windows version by Spike Chunsoft in 2019.

The player takes the role of Takuru Miyashiro, the president of his school's newspaper club, who investigates the "Return of the New Generation Madness" serial murder case. He experiences delusions, and at multiple points throughout the story, the player gets the option to choose if Takuru should experience a positive or negative delusion, or neither: these choices affect the plot's direction, causing it to branch off from the main narrative into different routes.

The game was created to have "psycho-suspense" elements similar to Chaos;Head, while also adding a larger amount of horror elements. For the game's aesthetic, the developers aimed for it to be "unmoving", in contrast to the previous game in the series, Robotics;Notes (2012). The music was composed by Takeshi Abo based on notes of his impressions of the story and emotional flow, to ensure a good relationship to the game's worldview. The localization was handled by Adam Lensenmayer, whose experience with translating the Science Adventure game Steins;Gate 0 (2015) ensured a smoother process, with a lot of communication with the developers.

Chaos;Child was well received by critics, but underperformed commercially; this led to the development of Steins;???, a Chaos;Child-like take on the more popular Science Adventure game Steins;Gate. Other Chaos;Child media includes an anime series, two manga, an audio drama, and the video game Chaos;Child Love Chu Chu!!.

Gameplay

A screenshot of a first-person perspective scene inside a caravan trailer. In the center of the screen is a woman wearing a school uniform; in the bottom a box showing dialogue and narration; and to the left and right, the texts "POSITIVE" and "NEGATIVE" rotating in circles.
The player changes the direction of the plot by choosing to experience positive or negative delusions, or neither.

Chaos;Child is a visual novel, and is split into multiple different story routes. During a first playthrough of the game, the player can only play the main narrative; after finishing the game once, other routes that branch off of the main narrative at different points become available. Each route focuses on one of the game's characters, dealing with character motivations and secrets not revealed in the main narrative.[1]

At multiple points, the player gets the option to choose whether the player character should experience a positive delusion or a negative one; they can also choose neither and stay rooted in reality. These choices change the player character's world view, as well as who he trusts, and are what causes the story to branch into different endings.[1]

Synopsis

Setting and characters

A 2011 photograph of Miyashita Park
Takuru lives in a caravan trailer by Miyashita Park in Shibuya.

Chaos;Child is set in Shibuya in 2015, six years after the events of Chaos;Head, where an earthquake nearly leveled the area.[1][2] Shibuya has since been rebuilt, but a new series of odd killings begin to occur on the same days of the "New Generation" murders, dubbed the "Return of the New Generation Madness" murders and marked by stickers of a two-faced man called "Sumo Stickers" left at the crime scenes.[3] Several characters have awakened to psychic abilities in the wake of the earthquake, such as pyrokinesis or being able to spot lies with absolute certainty;[1][3] such individuals are referred to as Gigalomaniacs, and use their abilities by making delusions come true in the real world ("real-booting") through the manifestation of a Di-Sword, which connects them to the Dirac sea.[3]

The story follows a group of high school students at Hekiho Academy who survived the earthquake:[1] the player takes the role of Takuru Miyashiro,[1][4] the president of Hekiho's newspaper club, whose family died in the earthquake. Other major characters include the newspaper club members – Takuru's childhood friend Serika Onoe, his foster sister Nono Kurusu, and Hana Kazuki and Shinji Itou – and Shuichi Wakui, the teacher overseeing the club, and the misanthrope Mio Kunosato who aids the police and works with detective Takeshi Shinjo. Takuru and Nono live with their foster siblings Yui and Yuto Tachibana and their foster father Wataru Sakuma at Aoba Dorm, a combined foster home and medical clinic, although Takuru also stays in a caravan trailer by Miyashita Park.[3]

Plot

Takuru is investigating the murders with the newspaper club, despite Nono's protests. Mio and Shinjo also investigate on behalf of the police and for Mio's own reasons. Hinae, a Hekiho student with lie-detection Gigalomania, helps both investigations.

Following a tip, Takuru, Serika and Itou infiltrate the AH Tokyo General Hospital to search for the Sumo Stickers' creator, and, joined by Mio, find a secret research facility under the hospital. Accessing the facility's data, they learn that AH is a front for the Committee of 300, concealing their experiments on Gigalomaniacs and investigations of an eleventh, Sumo Sticker-like Rorschach pattern that renders Gigalomaniacs defenseless, and of Senri Minamisawa, the original test subject. They leave with a test subject held there, Uki, who moves into Aoba. Mio thinks Takuru is a psychokinetic Gigalomaniac based on his apparent ability to open locked doors, so he practices psychokinesis.

Takuru and Hinae are attacked by a pyrokinetic Gigalomaniac suspected to be Senri and the killer, later identified as Riko Haida. Nono says she was childhood friends with Senri and knew of the experiments performed on her, and joins their investigation. The newspaper club avoids danger until Haida is found dead: They believe the murders are over until Itou, mind-controlled, kills Yui. Later, Serika battles and almost kills Nono with Di-Sword because of Nono's suspicion that she is the killer. Takuru becomes implicated in Nono's injury and the prime suspect for the murders, and Serika tells him that she is a delusion he created when his Gigalomania manifested, only existing to protect him. She also reveals that Sakuma is working for the Committee and responsible for the murders, having killed Gigalomaniacs to clean up the earthquake's aftermath.

Learning from Hinae that Serika was not entirely truthful about protecting him, Takuru goes to confront her, but instead meets Sakuma, who attacks using a delusion-generating device; Takuru kills Sakuma with his Di-Sword, then battles Serika and views her memories, learning that she exists to fulfill his desire to be a hero. To achieve this, she manipulated Sakuma into arranging murders for Takuru to solve. Realizing he caused everything, Takuru makes Serika a normal girl using his Gigalomania, and is taken into police custody. Serika goes missing, and later breaks him out from a prison hospital where he is examined for Chaos Child Syndrome (CCS).

After the main route, side routes are available:

  • In Hinae's route, it is revealed that she gained her ability after her brother told her that they are actually half-siblings, as she is the child of her mother's lover. Takuru dies protecting Hinae from her mother, who they learn is behind another murder case. Hinae disappears into a delusion where she lives happily with Takuru.
  • In Hana's route, she manifests a portal to save Takuru from Haida using her Gigalomaniac ability – uncontrollably real-booting phrases she utter. More monster-spawning portals appear, and Hana's friend Takumi – Chaos;Head's protagonist – reveals that Wakui works for the Committee. Wakui intends to capture Hana as a Gigalomaniac sample, but she manifests a Sumo Sticker-faced giant that kills him.
  • In Uki's route, she accidentally renders Takuru unconscious while trying to attack Itou after Yui's death. When he awakes, the murders have stopped and Yui is alive, but he receives visions where Serika and Nono say he is inside a happy delusion created by Uki. He escapes, but Uki remains in a coma, her mind still trapped.
  • In Nono's route, Takuru saves her from Serika, and Sakuma becomes the next victim. Nono is revealed to be Senri: Nono died in the earthquake, and Senri, wanting to be like Nono, gained a transformation ability and took on Nono's identity. Takuru is upset over being deceived and loses his will to live, and Serika arrives to fulfill that desire by killing him. Senri intervenes, and his desire changes to being with her, realizing that her love is real; Serika, having no purpose, kills herself, and Senri lives with Takuru as herself.

After all other routes, the true ending continues the main route: Serika awakes without memories of the events, but recognizes Hekiho Academy. Mio tells her that the students all have CCS, which developed when they became Gigalomaniacs, for which she seeks a cure. CCS patients age rapidly, and are trapped in a collective delusion separating them from the outside world; Takuru is the first CCS patient to escape the delusion. They infiltrate a secret laboratory within Hekiho, and scan Takuru's brain for a cure. Wakui allows the spread of it since he is interested in the data and will achieve his goal in eliminating the Gigalomaniacs. Serika parts ways with Mio and Takuru, and apparently begins regaining memories. The epilogue shows Takuru's friends cured, and the police taking him away for his role in the murders. While escorted, he comes across Serika, who denies knowing him. Takuru silently agrees that he no longer knows Serika either.

Development

The game was developed by 5pb.,[2] based on an original plan by Chiyomaru Shikura, the head of the company.[5] It was produced by Tatsuya Matsubara and directed by Kanji Wakabayashi, and was written by Eiji Umehara, Masashi Takimoto and Tōru Yasumoto under supervision by Naotaka Hayashi. Several artists worked on the game: Mutsumi Sasaki designed the main characters, Yukihiro Matsuo designed minor characters and uniforms, and Choco designed the characters' Di-Swords. The game made use of "psycho-suspense" elements similar to those in Chaos;Head, but with an increased amount of horror elements. For the game's look, the developers were aiming for an "unmoving aesthetic" as opposed to the "moving adventure" style of the previous Science Adventure game, Robotics;Notes.[2] To create subtle differences in the game's atmosphere, four different graphics shaders were implemented.[6] For the Xbox One version of the game, the developers made use of the console's controller to play the in-game phone calls; this and some other features had to be changed when the game was ported to other platforms.[7]

The music was composed by Takeshi Abo, who used the same technique as for his previous works in the Science Adventure series: he started by reading the game's story, to understand the setting and characters as fully as possible, and wrote down his first impressions of the events in the plot, as well as of the plot's emotional flow. He considered these first impressions to be very important, and used them to create a musical worldview. According to Abo, this method takes longer than just designating songs to various areas in the game, but allows him to create higher quality music with a better relationship to the game's worldview. The "image" used for the composition was different than for previous games in the series: while he described Chaos;Head as rainy, Steins;Gate as cloudy, and Robotics;Notes as clear weather, he called Chaos;Child "stormy", and contrasted its "black-and-white" image with Robotics;Notes's "colorful and emotional hues". Because he found the game's story compelling, he enjoyed composing the music and wanted to create even more for it by the end of the project.[8]

Localization

Chaos;Child was localized by Adam Lensenmayer, who previously worked on the localizations of Steins;Gate 0 and of the anime adaptation of Steins;Gate. He was the only translator working on the localization; this was done as he and the developers wanted to ensure consistency in the way each character speaks and in the feeling of the game, as having multiple translators work on a single project can lead to differing interpretations of the story and of characters' personalities. He had not played the game prior to the start of localization, so after finishing his first translation pass of the script, he went through it in full a second time to correct things he had originally misunderstood due to not knowing how the story plays out.[9]

While Lensenmayer described the translation itself as straightforward, due to the Japanese dialogue being easily understandable, he found the game exhausting to work on, giving quality control of the game's opening sequence as an example: he had to keep watching the opening to check text that is only displayed briefly on-screen, and thus had to see a character choking to death many times. The localization was additionally a large project with a script 30–40% larger than Steins;Gate 0's, taking most of the remainder of 2016 to finish following the completion of the Steins;Gate 0 localization. Due to the experience of having worked together with the developers on the localization of Steins;Gate 0, the process was however smoother, with a lot of communication back and forth on how to localize various things. The localization took fan feedback into account: after Lensenmayer had submitted the localized script, he worked on the translation of the Chaos;Child anime adaptation, and read comments about how some translation choices in the anime were inconsistent with their use in Chaos;Head, such as the rendering of a phrase as "Those eyes! Whose eyes?" rather than "Whose eyes are those eyes?!". Contacting the developers, he was able to get most such instances changed in the game script.[9] A fan-made patch containing further consistency fixes with other games in the series, along with translations of some previously untranslated graphics, was released for the Windows version in 2019.[10]

Release

Two presenters in front of a display for the games Chaos;Child and Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness.
Promotion of the mobile version at the 2017 Taipei Game Show

Chaos;Child was originally planned to be released on November 27, 2014 in Japan for the Xbox One, but was delayed,[11] and was released on December 18, 2014.[1] It was later ported to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, and released on June 25, 2015;[12] additionally, a Microsoft Windows version was released on April 28, 2016,[13] an iOS version on January 31, 2017,[14] and an Android version on May 28, 2017.[15] The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions were published by PQube in Europe on October 13, 2017, and digitally in North America on October 17, with a physical North American release following on October 24;[16][17] the Windows version was published internationally by Spike Chunsoft on January 22, 2019.[18]

A limited edition of the Japanese PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita versions was made available, which includes a drama CD and a "present box" paper craft.[12] The Western console release was also made available in a "Gigalomaniac Edition", which includes an artbook, a soundtrack and a set of pin badges.[19]

A manga adaption drawn by Relucy is published by Kadokawa in Dengeki G's Magazine;[20] there is also a spin-off manga, Chaos;Child: Children's Collapse, which is drawn by Futsū Onshin and written by the Chaos;Child game's writer Eiji Umehara. It was published in Kodansha's magazine Monthly Shōnen Sirius starting in August 2016, and moved to Kodansha and Niconico's web magazine Suiyōbi no Sirius on September 27, 2017.[21] An anime television adaptation of the game was produced by Silver Link,[7] and began airing in January 2017.[22] A spin-off game, Chaos;Child Love Chu Chu!!, was released in 2017.[23] Additionally, Shikura said in 2016 that he wanted to make an erotic game based on Chaos;Child and Chaos;Head, targeted at adult players.[5]

Reception

Chaos;Child was generally well received by critics, according to the review aggregator Metacritic.[24] Richard Eisenbeis at Kotaku called the game excellent, and a good addition to the series. He enjoyed the story, calling the mystery "thrilling", and saying that the "disturbing and intriguing" murders were one of the best aspects of it. He also enjoyed the game's characters, calling them deep and layered, and said that watching them try to outwit others' powers and using their own to the fullest was another highlight. He liked how the developers had gone "all in" when making the branch routes; the thing he liked the most about them was the consistency of the characters and their motivations between different routes. He found the game to be very long, however, taking him over 70 hours to play through, which he said could be a potential flaw.[1]

Sales

The Xbox One and PlayStation 3 versions of the game were unable to reach the Japanese weekly sales charts upon launch;[26][27] the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 versions did, however, selling 10,325 and 4,860 copies, respectively, with the PlayStation Vita version being the ninth best selling game of the week.[28] On the following week, the PlayStation 4 version had dropped off the chart, while the PlayStation Vita version dropped to seventeenth place with 2,556 additional copies sold.[29] In the United Kingdom, Chaos;Child was the best selling PlayStation Vita game during its European debut week in October 2017,[30] and charted until the end of May 2018;[a][34][35] the PlayStation 4 version did however not appear at all in the weekly top-twenty PlayStation 4 game sales chart for the region.[36]

By October 2020, the game had only sold approximately 10% the amount of copies as Steins;Gate; this led to the development of Steins;???, a thematic sequel to Steins;Gate that relates to it similarly to how Chaos;Child relates to Chaos;Head.[37]

Notes

  1. ^ It temporarily dropped from the top-ten chart for one week each in February, March and May 2018.[31][32][33]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Eisenbeis, Richard (2016-01-29). "Chaos;Child is a Murder Mystery with Delusions and Superpowers". Kotaku. Gizmodo Media Group. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  2. ^ a b c "Chaos;Child Science-Adventure Game's Xbox One Trailer Streamed". Anime News Network. 2014-05-27. Archived from the original on 2015-10-05. Retrieved 2016-09-02.
  3. ^ a b c d 5pb. (2017-10-13). Chaos;Child (PlayStation Vita). PQube.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Spencer (2014-08-11). "Chaos;Child Will Be Ready Shortly After Xbox One Launches In Japan". Siliconera. Curse, Inc. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  5. ^ a b Sherman, Jennifer (2016-06-19). "5pb. Head Wants to Make Erotic Chaos;Head, Chaos;Child Game". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on 2016-06-20. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  6. ^ Spencer (2015-05-26). "Mages Supporting Xbox One With Chaos;Child". Siliconera. Curse, Inc. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  7. ^ Jia, Oliver; Greening, Chris (2015-09-15). "Takeshi Abo Interview: Behind the Science Adventures". VGMO. Archived from the original on 2015-09-26. Retrieved 2016-06-09.
  8. ^ a b "Behind the CHAOS;CHILD localisation". Rice Digital. 2017-08-04. Archived from the original on 2017-08-04. Retrieved 2017-08-04.
  9. ^ https://www.siliconera.com/2019/02/04/fan-made-chaoschild-pc-patch-offers-more-fixes-subtitles-and-translated-cgs
  10. ^ Romano, Sal (2014-09-24). "Chaos;Child delayed to December in Japan". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  11. ^ a b Romano, Sal (2015-03-28). "Chaos;Child PlayStation versions and anime confirmed". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  12. ^ Romano, Sal (2016-01-29). "Chaos;Child for PC launches April 28 in Japan". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  13. ^ "CHAOS;CHILD". 5pb. Archived from the original on 2017-01-31. Retrieved 2017-01-31 – via iTunes.
  14. ^ "『シュタインズ・ゲート』と『ロボティクス・ノーツ』の新作などが発表――ライブイベント"チヨスタライブ"での発表内容をお届け！". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. 2017-05-28. Archived from the original on 2017-05-28. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  15. ^ "Chaos;Child PS4/PS Vita Game Ships in October in N. America, Europe". Anime News Network. 2017-09-18. Archived from the original on 2017-09-18. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  16. ^ "ChaosChild on PS Vita". PQube. Archived from the original on 2017-10-20. Retrieved 2017-10-20 – via PlayStation Store.
  17. ^ Romano, Sal (2019-01-15). "Chaos;Child for PC coming west on January 22". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2019-01-15. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
  18. ^ Romano, Sal (2017-08-03). "Chaos;Child 'Gigalomaniac Edition' announced". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2017-08-03.
  19. ^ "Chaos;Child Game Gets Manga Adaptation". Anime News Network. 2015-04-27. Archived from the original on 2016-03-23. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
  20. ^ "Chaos;Child ~Children's Collapse~ Manga Moves Online". Anime News Network. 2017-07-27. Archived from the original on 2017-07-28. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  21. ^ "Chaos;Child Anime Premieres as TV Anime in January". Anime News Network. 2016-08-01. Archived from the original on 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  22. ^ "Chaos;Child Visual Novel Gets Love chu-chu!! Spinoff Next Spring". Anime News Network. 2016-09-07. Archived from the original on 2016-09-07. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
  23. ^ a b "Chaos;Child for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 2018-05-27. Retrieved 2017-10-26.
  24. ^ Romano, Sal (2014-12-09). "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1358". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  25. ^ Halestorm, Bradly (2014-12-28). "Why Psycho-Pass Localization Could Make Xbox One the Underdog Otaku Console". Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  26. ^ Ishaan (2014-12-24). "This Week In Sales: Final Fantasy Explorers Explores Japan". Siliconera. Curse, Inc. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  27. ^ Ishaan (2015-07-01). "This Week In Sales: Fire Emblem Fates Begins Its Conquest". Siliconera. Curse, Inc. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  28. ^ Romano, Sal (2015-07-08). "Media Create Sales: 6/29/15 – 7/5/15". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  29. ^ "TOP 20 SONY PLAYSTATION VITA, WEEK ENDING 14 October 2017". Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  30. ^ "TOP 10 SONY PLAYSTATION VITA, WEEK ENDING 24 February 2018". Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  31. ^ "TOP 10 SONY PLAYSTATION VITA, WEEK ENDING 10 March 2018". Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  32. ^ "TOP 10 SONY PLAYSTATION VITA, WEEK ENDING 12 May 2018". Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 14 May 2018. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  33. ^ "TOP 10 SONY PLAYSTATION VITA, WEEK ENDING 19 May 2018". Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 21 May 2018. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  34. ^ "TOP 10 SONY PLAYSTATION VITA, WEEK ENDING 26 May 2018". Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 6 June 2018. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  35. ^ "TOP 20 SONY PLAYSTATION 4, WEEK ENDING 14 October 2017". Chart-Track. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  36. ^ Sato (2020-10-25). "New Science Adventure Series Steins; Project Announced by MAGES". Siliconera. Curse, Inc. Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
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