
"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 48 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
Reviews
风格比较独特,很有意思的作品
老师太神了。非常喜欢这部作品
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]
Related
Related
Trends
Concurrent players on Steam, sampled daily since tracking started.
Hours played at review time, across 48 reviews with recorded playtime.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
剧情很不错,唯一的小缺点就是表达的不是非常清晰但是完全不影响体验,总的来说是个很不错的游戏,融合了很多梗和亚文化元素,而且感受的出来是埋了很多伏笔并且精心设计的小细节,喜欢这种画风的赶紧冲,毕竟免费的
太他妈牛逼的游戏了我靠店长好妹妹好男主好可爱小偶像好烤批创造力如此伟大
我喜欢这个画风
剧情写的不错,画风很惊艳,突然一堆梗笑死我了
非常好的缝
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.