In a dystopian future, your life’s direction is decided for you. No longer do humans need to worry about things like their career, every person’s aptitude for different tasks benefiting society is decided by a central computer. This computer is constantly scanning and reassessing people, determining their likelihood to benefit society, or to worsen it. As a computer, it has limited means with which to physically affect the world though, and this is where we take on a role as an inspector or enforcer. Enacting the system’s will for the betterment of society.
Set in the same universe as the popular anime series, Mandatory Happiness joins the visual novel genre, one of niche popularity alongside games like Danganronpa, Zero Escape and Phoenix Wright. Mandatory Happiness sticks much closer to the traditional visual novel formula than those aforementioned series however. There are no logic puzzles, no trials, no action elements whatsoever. Instead, Mandatory Happiness plays much more like a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ novel. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but something worth knowing before going in.
The game does throw a lot of terminology at players and to a degree assumes some familiarity with the world. It’s not obtuse enough that you won’t be able to make sense of things, but for people entering this world for the first time, a detailed reference is kept in the pause menu which will clarify any topics or entities mentioned during story scenes to make sure you’re not left in the dark.
The bulk of your time will be spent reading, characters interact through sparsely animated dialogue sections and inner monologue. Occasionally during chapters you will be faced with a choice which could possibly have an effect on your story’s direction entirely, or affect how favourable another character will behave towards your character. The game doesn’t force you to make split second decisions like The Walking Dead, but the kinds of decisions you will make feel similarly morally ambiguous. The decisions can lead to an early end though so make sure to save regularly, there are no checkpoints or auto-saves.
There’s a lot of story here for those looking to delve further into the Psycho Pass world. Two characters give two different points of view from which to follow the storyline, and there are a bunch of endings and story directions that can be taken depending on the choices made along the way. I suspect Mandatory Happiness might be more appreciated by someone already immersed in the franchise, who has been eagerly awaiting more perspectives into the authoritarian dystopia of 2112, but as someone only tangentially familiar with the show I found that the story made promises of exploring the social impact of a world dictated by an all knowing computer only to instead focus on an uninspired side story. If you’re interested in the setting the Psycho Pass anime is definitely a better place to start, and for someone looking to play a visual novel style game there are many out there more enjoyable than this. Mandatory Happiness is one for the fans only.
The PlayStation Vita version of this game was primarily used for the purpose of this review.
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