Отзывы

• Anmity

  May 13, 2022

  It looks, sounds and feels like Psycho Pass with most of the cast from the first season well represented, but the story suffers from a very uninteresting main antagonist, and some "plot twists" that are so predictable that seeing the characters struggle and/or fail to figure them out in the different routes causes mental damage. The worst issue by far however is that there is a large amount of scenes that are 99% similar to other scenes that you cannot skip through without enabling the force skip option, causing you to risk missing the 1% that occasionally differs.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 8, 2022

  This game is not bad, but not great either. Unfortunately it tends to drag on a plot where things are already expected, basically many times you already have the hint of what's going on... I really like the franchise and was expecting something better from this game. Playable, but not that enjoayble!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 25, 2017

  The first half of the story sees the MWPSB investigating various crimes throughout Sado Marine City, while trying to uncover the identity of the mysterious Alpha. You're often given choices on how you'd like to approach each investigation; i.e., will you canvas the neighborhood to shake down potential witnesses, or will you stay at HQ and go over the collected data? You aren't actually doing any detective work, though; Mandatory Happiness is a traditional visual novel through and through, and one that only allows interactivity through set choices rather than play mechanics or puzzle solving. That's not to say it's not a satisfying experience; there are so many different and fascinating ways each scenario can play out that it's fun to go back and try a different approach, even (especially?) if you think things may take a disastrous turn. I enjoyed my time with Mandatory Happiness, although I came away from it feeling a bit sullen. Licensed games rarely tend to add much to their individual franchises, but Psycho-Pass' creator, Urobuchi Gen, got his start writing visual novels for Nitro+, the studio that paired up with 5pb to develop critical darling Steins;Gate. Taking that into consideration, Psycho-Pass and 5pb seem like a match made in heaven, but the result of this pairing is ultimately, well, just another licensed game. Though Mandatory Happiness is an above-average visual novel in its own right, it woefully underutilizes its setting and suffers from mediocre writing. A little more love could've made this one an essential visual novel, but as it stands, it's still a pretty good cyberpunk adventure. ___________________________________ I play this game on PS vita long long ago. This review is based on a free review copy provided to RPGFan by the developer. This relationship in no way influenced the reviewer's opinion of the game or its final score.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2017

  [h1][b]Verdict[/b][/h1] The VN is great on its own, well worth the price, [i]Review[/i] PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness is an Visual Novel but it lives and breathes the atmosphere of PSYCHO-PASS's high-tech world. Situated in Japan somewhere in the future, it portrays a country which has turned into itself when having established almost complete self-sufficiency. De-facto lead by an mysterious system called the Sybil System, the life path of people basically comes predetermined unless they stray from the predetermined path. An society which considers itself an utopia, it nonetheless has several critical flaws which most people do not know of, but which one day can fundamentally undermine the societal order... Mandatory Happiness takes place early anime season 1, with the addition of 2 new characters (either which you can play) - an female Inspector who at first glances seems to suffer from recent amnesia, and an male Enforcer, who strayed from his aligned path after he went searching for his lost life-long 'crush'. Together with the known cast of Division 1 of the Public Safety Bureau, responsible together with other Divisions for keeping order in Japan in name of the Sybil system, acting as its agents to support and help people where possible, and arrest those who are deemed dangerous according to 'Sybils Judgment', one of the ultimate tasks of the Sybil System, they undertake hazardous missions to attempt to keep the population of Japan safe and happy. As those who have seen one of both (or both) seasons of the series know, this doesn't come without a price - and it certainly isn't black or white. And beneath the chaos, danger lurks - dangers acknowledged by the Sybil System, and which are being hidden by those really in charge from everyone, even from the most loyal Inspectors of the Public Safety Bureau. As I mentioned earlier, the VN lives and breathes the feel of PSYCHO-PASS. The story is top-notch and co-written by Gen 'The Butcher' Urobuchi, the music (albeit it is sadly a minus point since I could not detected that much new music) uses for the larger part the top-notch instrumental music of the series, the graphics while not being the level of course of full-blown AAA productions are excellent in comparison for a visual novel (and once again, they really do the atmosphere justice), and as far as I can tell the game is as bug-free as it can be. For newcomers - once you get past a certain blockade (see below for the negative point), you can read up a bit on the world of Psycho-pass and its characters. It isn't that expansive (sadly), but it certainly gives you some impressions of the who's who and what's what. Besides that, the game itself also attempts to tell you more about it without being forceful about it or without annoying those who know of it. Are there negative points? Yes, sadly - and one which annoyed me no end till I figured it out. You do not get an overview anywhere of what key is what (except for play, skip and rewind which are shown during the game) unless you figure out on your own which key it is. Unlike what you'd expect, do not attempt to summon the menu with the Escape button - if you hit Confirm by accident, you'll have to do the whole bit all over again you've done that far unless you saved up. Just to be clear the menu can be summoned by using key 1. Yes, I know it's shit, and I still haven't figured out the why of that, but it's apparently the way it works.
• gamedeal user

  May 5, 2017

  In my humble opinion Psycho-Pass series are valued for their coherent and elaborated plot (by the anime standards). Unfortunately, I can't say that this VN introduces anything new to the whole story or that it even succeeds in maintaining the quality of the anime. On the contrary, the scenario tramples over integrity of the narrative and wedges in characters' development. Although this game has some nice art and an awesome voice-over, I cannot bring myself to recommend it. It's hard to describe the shortcomings of a visual novel in a spoiler-free fashion, so... [spoiler]The game takes place somewhen in the middle of the first anime season: all characters are still alive but they are already acquainted with each other. This fact alone harms the original story because it cuts off all participants' previous experiences and does not lead to any of their following decisions. Both incarnations of the player, Akane, Inspector Ginoza, and the whole merry team of Enforcers accompanied by the sexy analyst are placed into some kind of narrative vacuum. Nothing they do matters anymore. While original anime played around with a multilayer idea of system/rejects conflict, going from the obvious statement “society that blindly dissmisses individuals is bounding itself to stagnation and leads the rejected ones to unbearable loneliness”, then quite naturally it moves to more complicated thesis that “a person not being acknowledged by society but still acting within its bounds constantly decreases legitimacy of society’s institutes”, and finally closes the cycle by stating that “this society, that by rejecting individuals is constantly failing at acknowledging its own flaws, is meant to rot and finally fall under its own weight being destroyed both by the governing top and the rejected bottom ”. Not much, but I guess it can be counted as a valid flow for a simple dystopia. And what do we meet in this VN? Automatic secretary AI is going to play Warhammer 40k at the streets of a provincial settlement, only because he was left by its creator “mother” and mother's friend “father”. [i][b]Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! A few more minutes mom, please![/b][/i] Well, ok, I guess I’ll pass (I like WH40k though ^-^)[/spoiler] Sorry for dat ugly language of mine, I guess I’ll be coming back to make a few edits here and there.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 27, 2017

  This story continues somewhere in the first season of the anime, and I think ti definitely requires some advance knowledge of the setting before playing, as I'm not sure if the in-game tips would be enough to explain it to a newcomer. I liked this game, although there were a few issues. Technically, the game holds up quite well. It has controller support, it's got good art (both characters with lip sync and CGs), it's got proper voice actors. The music is good. Plus, for some reason, you get a free copy of 2048 with the game. In the story - Overall, the story contains a plot which wouldn't be out of place on the anime itself, and this makes a good little side story separate from the main plot. It introduces two new characters which have interesting backgrounds. My main issues are A) Some of the sci-fi goes a bit off the deep end and B) I don't think the story goes as deep as it would have in the anime. The story seems to follow the plot and that's it, and I don't think there was as deep an exploration into the newly created characters as there could be. This being said, I havent explored all of the branching story paths yet, so I might be missing chunks of important story. Translation - The translations all make sense, but there are a few that are worded somewhat not-quite-right. As in, I can understand what is meant, but it seems odd to read. Not that big of an issue though. Big downer - none of the "voice extras" are translated. Overall, If you're a fan of the PP series, this will be a good game. Otherwise, you might not enjoy it as much.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 10, 2017

  First of all... I am a HUGE Psycho-Pass Fan, especially of the 1st season and the movie, so I was really longing for that game. And I have to say: I am not disappointed. The voice acting is just great, with the same voice actors as the season... just wow. I am a fan so I defenitly loved seeing my favorite characters again - reading them and hearing them, getting a new adventure with them. The adventure itself? It was stunning, fitting the world of Psycho Pass and so exciting, that I played the first round in one all-nighter. But even if you are not familiar with the world, the game explains enough so you understand - so if somebody stumbles over the game first... hopefully that person becomes a big fan like me :)
• gamedeal user

  Nov 24, 2017

  Took some deductive reasoning skills to piece together the story since I have not watched the series. Overall I would still say the story is well written, with plenty of diverging plot lines for you to follow. Some of the foreshadowing was a little heavy handed, but I am looking forward to getting all the endings to see any and all possible outcomes for these plot lines.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 14, 2017

  I bought this visual novel on a discount. I did not have high expectation given it is based off a popular (original) anime, a series which I very much love. After reaching two True Ends from both protagonists’ routes, I’m more than glad that I was wrong. Mandatory Happiness is a must play (or rather, a must read) for those who like the Psycho-Pass series. It is meant to compliment the 1st season of the anime, especially its characters and world view, with a whole new story and two protagonists original to the vn. The story plays out from the perspective of two protagonists, Inspector Kugatachi, and Enforcer Tsurugi. The central plot line follows a chain of events only has minor differences between the two perspectives. Even the game doesn’t mechanically force players to read through both perspectives, it is strongly recommended because only by doing so, one can fully understand the entire picture. It is true for all visual novels that the quality of its story is paramount to the product. Mandatory Happiness earns a high score in this area. However, the game as a whole is far from perfect. The game doesn’t bother to explain how to use keyboard and mouse to play, and expects you to wield a controller (which is what I did). Main characters have good looking sprites and animated lips to top off, but I found the total number of CG is lacking, and virtually non-existence of minor characters (and their sprites) are visible signs of corners being cut, most likely due to a limited budget. There’s also issues with English translation… the script contains no grammatical or spelling errors, but it is very bland and lack of the artistic and literary flavor of the original lines (which I could detect in some of the spoken lines where I could almost bet on myself creating a better translation even with my limited knowledge of the Japanese language). Another shortcoming of the game is that for a true multiple ending plot line with numerous Bad Ends, the game lacks any kind of “branching diagram” that guides player through many choices need to be made in a play through, for the purpose of collecting all the endings and CG. Features like these were found in visual novels a decade ago, and it’s a shame that no such system was implemented in a modern game that really needs it. The first ending I hit was Kugatachi’s True End. It is, in my opinion, the ending with the best writing, and definitely feels more canon than Tsurugi’s True End. Maybe that’s because I just love her always-logical state of mind, coupled with her VA’s superb voice acting that well reflects this personality… or maybe I’m just happy to see the Sybil System, representing the central philosophy of this fictional dystopian world of Urobochi’s creation, is given more ink and screen time. A 3rd of the Psycho-Pass anime with this plot, would surely surpass the disappointing feeling the 2nd season anime has left me with. Final verdict: Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness is a spectacular visual novel to fans of the series, precisely because its plot stands on its own to tell an interesting and intricate story. It is worthy of the $40 price tag now, and perhaps even 5 years into the future, given it is unlikely to see another Psycho-Pass that stays true to Urobuchi’s original vision of his dystopia.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 21, 2018

  Well, I'll try to keep the review short. It was my first visual novel, but as a fan of the Psycho-Pass series, especially the characters from first season, Masaoka, Kagari... It was very pleasant to live another great story with these guys. Gonna do a second run sometime. It's an amazing experience. And you're better off playing this VN than watching season 2 anyways