Shuten Order

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Shuten Order is a Visual Novel released in 2025 on PC, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. This game follows the story of a young woman with no memory who awakens in a lavish room and is visited by two people claiming to be angels who inform her that she was killed and resurrected into a temporary body so she can uncover her killer, likely one of the five ministers heading up this country’s government, themselves the leaders of an apocalyptic cult (the titular Shuten Order) that forms the basis of the country’s religion. To assist you in “God’s Trial” of uncovering your killer, you are given the “Power of God”, which sometimes works like a Jedi mind trick, sometimes lets you resurrect your temporary body, and sometimes makes peoples’ heads explode.

So… yeah, this game’s story is… a lot. And if you think that playing the game will add context to make it all make sense… not really. I found it difficult to engage with pretty much anything this game presented me with. The protagonist is an amnesiac blank slate. The ministers you’re investigating are all different flavors of raving lunatic, the “angels” act like a petulant child and her patronizing big brother, and it’s hard to see how anyone in this game cares about anything like a murder when the world is due to end in a matter of days, for reasons that aren’t clear.

The game’s anime-style artwork is at least interesting, although it’s often just as bonkers as its story and characters, with some occasional moments of 3D (with terrible aliasing) as you move around in some areas. This is joined by exaggerated Japanese-language voice acting for the characters, and backed by a synthesized soundtrack. It’s all fine, but none of this compensates for the off-putting characters and story.

Speaking of the story, after an initial epilogue setting up the premise, this game is split into five story paths, with each one having you investigating a different one of the suspects. Each path was designed to imitate a different sort of Visual Novel style or genre, such as romance or detective, with some mechanics influenced by that style of game. All of this is interesting, I suppose, but it doesn’t make the game as a whole any less nonsensical or more appealing.

In the end, that was my impression of Shuten Order: a bonkers premise with an expressive presentation that just couldn’t provide me with a plot or characters I could get behind or engage with in a way I found enjoyable. I suppose some players may find this game’s oddities worth checking out based on pure novelty alone, but for most players I suggest finding a different game in the genre.

tl;dr – Shuten Order is a Visual Novel that has players trying to investigate their own murder in a bonkers plot with bonkers characters, in a nation run by an apocalyptic cult looking forward to the end of the world. There’s not much in the way of likeable characters or coherent plot here. And while this game has some interesting ideas and a creative presentation, I can’t really recommend it.

Grade: C-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Shuten Order – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Does a Visual Novel even really need a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition? Well, Shuten Order got one in any case, so let’s check it out and see if it’s worth the $2.50 it costs to upgrade from the Nintendo Switch version of the game to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.

Nintendo’s eShop page for the game lists two upgrades in this version:

“Higher frame rate (variable frame rate of 60-120 in both TV and handheld modes). Mouse control (compatible with all situations where mouse operation is accessible)”

I can say now, if this version has higher framerates, I do not detect it. While some of the different story routes do have you moving a character around in an environment, overall this simply isn’t a game where framerates are going to make much of a difference, so improving those here just doesn’t seem to matter.

The addition of dynamic Mouse Mode, on the other hand, is very welcome, with some parts of the game having you select things in the environment, it’s nice to be able to place down your Joy-Con 2 controller at any time to get a mouse cursor on-screen to interact with things.

There’s also another improvement that isn’t advertised: better loading times. Or at least the initial loading time to get to the title screen, which goes from 33 seconds on Nintendo Switch to 26 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2. I tested other loading times too, but the difference was negligible – loading a game save, for example, took 4 seconds in both versions.

Beyond this, there weren’t any other improvements I could find – the 3D visuals, when they show up, still have horrible aliasing, and I couldn’t see any difference in the visuals or anything like that.

Is this upgrade worth $2.50? Well, I suppose if you’re a fan of Shuten Order and you want shorter loading times and Mouse Mode controls, it’s probably worth it. But since I’m not very thrilled with the game to begin with, I’d tend to recommend just skipping the game entirely.

tl;dr – Shuten Order is a Visual Novel that has players trying to investigate their own murder in a bonkers plot with bonkers characters, in a nation run by an apocalyptic cult looking forward to the end of the world. There’s not much in the way of likeable characters or coherent plot here. And while this game has some interesting ideas and a creative presentation, I can’t really recommend it.

Grade: C-

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