Chaos;Head Noah Review

Chaos;Head Noah is a science fiction visual novel developed by MAGES and Nitroplus that was released on the 7th of October 2022 for the Nintendo Switch, which is where I played it. The game follows Takumi Nishijo, a second-year high school student on the verge of becoming a shut-in as he has no interest in 3D girls. He lives surrounded by his anime figurines in his messy and dimly lit room in Shibuya, Japan, where there has been a series of bizarre serial murders known as “New Generation Madness” (aka NewGen).

The culprit has yet to be caught and has been causing unrest on the internet and television. One day, a gruesome image that predicted the subsequent NewGen killing was sent by a mysterious figure called “Shogun.” A day later, on his way home from school, Takumi encounters a horrific crime, precisely as predicted, and before him is the corpse of a blood-soaked Rimi Sakihata. This event sets up the rest of the game, but it’s more of a book, as it’s a visual novel. So while I would’ve rather seen some more interesting gameplay mechanics in this title, I can at least admit that it does an adequate job of providing an exciting plot and interesting characters, which makes up for the lack of interactivity.

The only thing you’re doing in Chaos;Head is pressing the A button and proceeding through text with occasional yes and no questions spliced in there. No, really. Of course, it isn’t a big issue, and videogames can be so much more than platformers and come in many different forms, but the developers didn’t take advantage of the medium. But I’m not here to debate any of that; if you’re into visual novels, you might be into this one. So let’s evaluate the aspects that actually matter, such as accessibility. Unfortunately, the developers didn’t consider the point of a tutorial. After all, I only discovered the option to see the previous dialogue by accident because I was taking a sip of some water and accidentally pressed a different button than usual. I wish the team had told me about this feature because I think it could be detrimental to many people’s enjoyment of this time. If a simple short sentence or heads-up display popped up before you entered the main part of the game, then I think it would’ve made this issue less of a problem.

Chaos;Head Noah’s animation and sound effects are very good, though. Right from the title screen, I was greeted with several different smooth animations that set the scene for what was to come. I love it when games get this kind of treatment, so it was definitely a treat to see it, especially considering the likeness of it being a smaller team behind it all. In terms of voice acting, it’s all in Japanese with English subtitles below the foreign text. There was a lot of stereotypical anime grunting, which I wasn’t really a fan of, but the pretty animations and art style more than made up for it. The only other thing I would complain about here is there wasn’t much in terms of music. I would’ve liked to see some more in that department. Kudos to whoever did the title screen animation; I greatly enjoyed it.

At least the story is good, though! It’s not the most ambitious out there, but I was definitely more engaged than I thought I would be before I loaded it up. The concept of a college student who alienates himself in his room with a fear of the outside world while having to come out of that is something many people can relate to, including me, in some ways. The ending is also great; it might not have been that surprising, but it left me scratching my head and thinking long and hard about what had transpired. I won’t spoil it here, though, as it’s best left to discover on your own.

The player can also make choices that don’t affect the story using Delusional Triggers. After the first playthrough, players can access unlockable character routes and a common bad ending by using the green and red triggers found in the screen's bottom right-hand corner. I found this confusing because I only discovered what the triggers did after the fact, and now I’m forced to replay a 15–20 hour game again to get a different ending that I barely even have any effect on. I think it would’ve been better if the developers had explained them more thoroughly, and this is another point where I have to ask why was there not a tutorial at the beginning? I know this game barely has any interactivity, but if you’re going to put some effort in, then at least make sure the player is aware to prevent them from being forced to look it up online. However, I should also say that Delusional Triggers are available from the start, but they only start to impact the story on subsequent playthroughs. It’s also worth mentioning there is a handy skip function that will go past the 15-20 hours for any repeat playthroughs. I still wish the developers had been more upfront about these details. Adding a controls section to the setting would help, as that always helps me when I don’t know what I can do in a game.

However, I don't think that will happen, though there have been several sequels to this title that may have changed for the better. It also didn’t negatively affect my enjoyment of this game, as I still had a good time experiencing the story and all its twists and turns. So if the development team wanted to ensure each player felt enticed to do multiple playthroughs, then I’m okay with that. But I wish there had been more effort put into letting the player know what’s at stake instead of disappointing them. The story is the saving grace of this title, and it’s a good one. So that’s a major positive.