Urban Myth Dissolution Center Review
Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a beautiful but tedious mystery.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Credit: Hakaba-Bunko, Shueisha Games
Hakaba-Bunko and Shueisha Games’ horror visual novel Urban Myth Dissolution Center features an incredible art style. The game’s supernatural story is illustrated with impeccably executed, richly animated pixel art. The game immediately caught my eye; it was one I simply had to play and was rabidly anticipating. As regular readers of my reviews might have noticed, I tend to be deeply fond of games that look like this.
The game opens with Azami, a young college student in Tokyo, going to the titular Urban Myth Dissolution Center for help with a problem: she can see ghostly apparitions and wants it to stop. The Center’s mysterious director, Ayumu Meguriya, helps her discover that these aren’t ghosts; Azami has a form of clairvoyance that lets her see shadows of the past. He ropes her into working part-time for the Center as an investigator.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Credit: Hakaba-Bunko, Shueisha Games
Throughout the game, Azami will use her special abilities to investigate cases involving urban myths—cursed relics, monsters, and anomalies—to determine whether they’re the real thing or just the product of overactive imaginations driven by wild rumors. Each of the cases more or less follows the same structure, alternating between social media searches and on-site interviews, as Azami gathers clues you’ll use to identify the urban myth in question and later reach a resolution.
Investigations quickly become tedious, largely thanks to a glut of sometimes repetitive or superfluous dialogue and a lack of challenge. The social media sections are the worst; Azami and her partner Jasmine have way too much to say when you examine each post. On-site investigation is a bit more interesting, thanks to Azami’s power of clairvoyance, but questioning people also gets a bit dull. The conversations aren’t very compelling, and I’d often be tempted to skip through them as quickly as possible.
As you gather clues, you come to conclusions by answering multiple choice answer questions or sometimes completing a multi-part fill-in-the-blank answer. These are never challenging, and there are no consequences for getting an answer wrong.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Credit: Hakaba-Bunko, Shueisha Games
The game’s color palette is stylishly limited between blues, greys, and red. Characters are expressively animated in cutscenes and conversations, and their simplified sprites in the on-site investigation sequences are still distinct despite lacking detail. Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a visual masterpiece with astonishing pixel art, which makes my disappointment with the game even greater.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Credit: Hakaba-Bunko, Shueisha Games
I really love the premise of the game—urban myth investigations—and the cases are interesting in principle. It’s just that the game’s writing is so dull and poorly paced that it dulls any edge the game might have had. In terms of horror, I think the game strikes the wrong tone. It comes off as Scooby Doo rather than actually creepy.
As much as I wanted to love Urban Myth Dissolution Center, the longer I played, the less interested I was. A game that’s so text-heavy needs to be better written, no matter how pretty it looks. There’s zero suspense or dramatic tension. I can’t recommend this game.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center is available now on PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 5/10
Played on: Steam Deck
