Sound Novel: Machi (1998)

Developer: Chunsoft
Platforms: Sega Saturn
Genres: Puzzle, Adventure, Visual Novel
Where to get it: Website

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A rich visual novel weaving eight interconnected lives in Shibuya across five days, told through live-action photographs and branching choices.

story-drivenbranchingdramaticmysteryslice-of-lifethoughtfulcinematic

About

Machi is a story of 8 unrelated protagonists, all with their own problems and objectives, all living in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan. The story spans 5 in-game days and is told through a huge number of live-action still photographs. Each of the protagonists lead a completely different story that even defies genres. The player must play all of the stories in parallel, jumping across different protagonists, and backtracking to re-select branches which not only affect the active protagonist, but also other protagonists through often bizarre twists of causality.

Screenshots

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More by Chunsoft

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.