Tokyo Dark


Tokyo Dark is a point-and-click adventure game developed by the indie developer Cherrymochi and published by Square Enix for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It follows the story of Detective Itō Ayami, who is searching for her partner, Detective Kazuki Tanaka, who went missing during a case. The player’s choices directly affect Ayami’s mental state and thought processes, which later results in one of the game’s multiple endings.

Plot

The player takes control of Detective Itō Ayami, who is looking for her partner, Detective Kazuki Tanaka, that went missing during an investigation. As she investigates her partner's disappearance, Ayami obtains a mask that reveals a sinister, dark truth behind the case. The story follows her as she desperately tries to find Tanaka while also fighting her own sanity. Based on the player's choices the story will follow one of 11 endings.

Gameplay

The game is a point-and-click adventure game. The game's store page on Steam describes the gameplay as "the exploration, discovery and puzzle solving found in Point and Click Adventures married with narrative depth and intrigue of visual novels."

Development

The game was funded via Kickstarter. The goal of the campaign was 40,000 CAD and was surpassed with a total of 225.000 CAD. The game features an original soundtrack by Reign of Fury front man Matt 'Bison' Steed. The animated sequences were produced by Graphinica, while the Japanese novelist Ureshino Kimi was responsible for the Japanese localization.
A port of the game to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in Japan was announced in August 2018 by Unties. The port will be developed by mebius.

Reception

Tokyo Dark received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Matthias Glanznig from Adventure Gamers said that "Although falling short of its full potential, Tokyo Dark tells an intriguing mystery story and nicely integrates elements of both western and eastern cultures, combining point-and-click adventure-style exploration and simple puzzles with visual novel-length conversations and multiple endings, some more satisfying than others."
TheBlondeBass of Destructoid said that the game is "Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun."
Colm Ahern's of VideoGamer.com stated that "Tokyo Dark is an enjoyable supernatural mystery that holds your attention up until the end, which makes the disappointing execution of the SPIN system a real shame."

Awards and nominations