
"Dichotomy Illusion" is a Shin Honkaku mystery visual novel that combines real-world entertainment elements with physical locations, utilizing ACGN (Anime, Comics, Games, Novels) subculture knowledge to solve criminal cases and uncover the truth.
Revenue comes from in-game items and microtransactions, which our price-based model doesn't estimate. Copies below reflect the player base, not paid sales.
Media

About
The bisected corpse
split precisely along its central axis and gruesomely suspended from a dilapidated ceiling fan - belonged to a former underground idol and cosplayer who had gained local fame in the commercial district. The bisection occurred during production of a live-action promotional video for an unreleased sequel to a Chinese indie horror game...

Shortly after the bisection incident... severed limbs of a woman began surfacing in niche culture stores across the Commercial District, each bearing bizarre yet distinctly coded terminology comprehensible only to hardcore ACGN enthusiasts...

The cases may seem like closed chapters, all present efforts appearing as futile gestures. Yet when you launch the game and immerse yourself with genuine curiosity, you might seize the hidden truths of these twin tragedies, bearing witness to their ultimate reckoning through digital resurrection.
Character Introduction:
Armchair Detective / Curator

Investigation Aide / Citrus Sugar (IRL Handle: Cheng Zicheng)
Quizmaster, Primary POV / Solaris Custard

Chronicle-Bound Cast:
The bisected cosplayer, a socially challenged indie dev, a reassuring game editor veteran, an opportunistic photographer boyfriend trailing his cosplayer girlfriend for impromptu shoots, and proto-otaku twins whose crude promotional video operations resembled cavemen discovering fire...
Their stories laced with cryptic agendas (a subjective yet imprecise descriptor) during the incident will gradually crystallize through digital ephemera.
Yet this is merely the prologue, nothing but an overture.

Supporting Cast of Chaos:
Elementary schoolers obsessively pinning otome game husbandos on their itabags? The gyaru merch boutique clerk at "Spring Valley" compulsively collecting PokeCough Mon catalogs? A plus-sized staffer in band tees sneaking fancams of indie idols from livehouse control booths? A four-member girl band resembling chromatic warriors from some yuri rock manga (with their cerulean bassist currently AWOL in legendary fashion)...
These gloriously unhinged denizens of the ACGN underworld shall aid the investigation through chaotic means, for critical clues might lurk within their meme-laden otaku-speed diatribes – postmodern hieroglyphs demanding cultural literacy to decode.

Scene Recon Log
In their investigation of the limb abandonment case, Solaris Custard and Citrus Sugar shall conduct "fieldwork" (or more accurately, fish-flopping) at these locations. Beyond the macabre biological evidence, the crime scenes themselves might spark morbid fascination among otaku-crossover socialites – each site functioning as geek pilgrimage grounds where murder-mystery tourism collides with ACGN subcultural ecospheres.
Merch Mausoleum: A resurrected deadmall where ACGN shops wage merchandise warfare amidst peeling posters of last season's waifus
PS5 Purgatory: A luxury plaza's white elephant - that overpriced PlayStation experience zone bleeding yen through its marble floors
Idol Crucible: A sweatbox dungeon vibrating with hardcore wota chants, where dreams of "next Cinderella" dissolve into body odor fog
Venue Vanitas: Livehouse boasting instagrammable neon façade but delivering sonic disappointment worthy of bargain-bin earphones
Collecting merch, grinding co-op achievements, snapping cheki with minor idols, enduring ear-bleeding band covers... Surely these ACGN detours during criminal investigations deserve absolution .
(Unless you claim to despise hanging with bro-coded gloom maidens - though that tsundere protest sounds sus coming from an itabag-toting legend like yourself.)

Core Case Matrix
(Visual evidence redacted per narrative constraints)
Chinese indie horror titles, rhythm games featuring idol project crossovers, that notorious domestic indie publisher, grotesque merch from a 90s mecha IP rife with faction wars and Oedipal mech-pilots, an onion-wielding digital diva, psychotic battle royale mascots reduced to environmental decor, and of course the retro cringe of girl band tropes - all deliberately stitched into the game's fabric like inside jokes carved in radioactive neon.
Should these culturally-coded Easter eggs trigger your neural pathways into involuntary mirth, congratulations on your otaku baptism. Discern the real-world IP correlations, and you might just outpace our protagonists in unraveling this bloodstained tapestry of references.
Genres
Stats
Languages: Simplified Chinese
Engagement
Reviews
Themes across 47 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
最大的亮点是完全现实的故事背景,用了非常多的近几年的、现实的游戏梗、动画梗、网络烂梗,作为一个玩过不少游戏、对游戏圈子算是有点熟悉的玩家,的确能产生一种可以真实发生在这个世界的幻觉。同时作者也没说错,不能算本格推理游戏,cg基本不能提供信息,文笔打磨不够、提供的信息不精准,也没有记录线索的功能,更像是悬疑小故事。整个故事的很多逻辑不是正常人能理解的,但戏剧性倒是足够了,逻辑让步于戏剧性是没问题的。对于熟悉网络梗、熟悉游戏圈(特别是熟悉pjsk)、了解一些亚文化的玩家,玩着会有更好的体验;不熟悉这些玩意的就不太推荐了
很不错的互动小说游戏,可能一开始玩的时候代入较慢,越到后面就会感觉很诡异,再到后面还加了很多梗,不懂梗的玩家可能会不感兴趣,反正我基本都能get到,像台湾恐游devotion,13层公寓异常管理员双人成行的夫妻扯大象,少女乐队等等都是比较令我感兴趣的话题,一开始以为杀害coser只有一个凶手,没想到还有其他帮凶{毕竟看小说比较少}这样的剧情我确实没想到,特别是揭开真相主角杀害女生的猎奇血腥剧情我自认为拉高了我对这部作品的评价{毕竟我个人很喜欢猎奇血腥的剧情},所以我的评价是质量很高的恐怖小说游戏。
非常好的缝
Related
Related
Trends
Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Hours played at review time, across 47 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
真是个有趣的故事啊,简直就是我对闹钟二次元群体的刻板印象(不是)
剧情写的不错,画风很惊艳,突然一堆梗笑死我了
作为免费游戏已经很不错了,美术风格很棒,整体营造除了那种有点血腥怪诞的风格,能感受到作者讨论的亚文化群体、当代年轻人的迷惘以及思考。另外期待作者的其他作品 [spoiler] 另外虽然非常地狱,但是男主描述切开女主身体的文字描述配合声效的效果真的很棒,很涩不过真的蛮恶心的(称赞) [/spoiler]
大卫城,二七,大上海,棉纺路,南阳路,是好熟悉的地方。但更熟悉的地方是澄空学园,泉此方和宇宙第一公主殿下阿。 我承认原本是冲着猎奇来的,但最后的店长的独白,真的有点触动。谢谢你让我想起了2008年前后的快乐时光。
我喜欢这个画风
特别好玩啊啊啊
老师太神了。非常喜欢这部作品
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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