MyDearest have returned with Episode Two of Dyschronia: Chronos Alernate, carrying on Hal’s story after the investigation into Professor Rumford’s murder. The first episode left a very good impression on me with MyDearest again improving on the formula they have built over numerous visual novels in the VR space.
If you never played the first episode, I did a review of Episode One and I would recommend reading this first, as you will not find many changes around the gameplay or the presentation and the controls stay the same. If you played the first episode but need a refresher on what went down, you can get a quick recap at the start of the episode.
Story (includes spoilers)
Following on from your indictment of Systelia in the murder of Professor Rumford, you soon realise that you might have made a mistake in your judgement. The question is can you unravel the motions you may have put into place with your indictment? That is all I really want to say to not spoil too much.
Gameplay
As aforementioned there is not really much different gameplay-wise from episode one, but they do introduce a couple of new elements that weren’t in the first. Once you get into the gameplay, everything you learnt from the first episode will come flowing back, from navigating the city, picking up items, using your variant skills to re-call memories and when possible directly influencing memories to stop events happening.
They do introduce a stealth element into part of the game, which at first can seem tricky, but you will soon get used to the patterns. As with the first if you do die in this section or any other part of the episode you can rewind time upon death and return to where you left off.
The Augmented Dreaming (AD) element is still present in episode two, but there is not as many troubled residents this time to counsel as the first. The counselling in handled the same way with a game of ‘Simon Says’ following the pattern shown in the analyse phase. However, episode two brings in a new mini-game for a brief period that will see you placing you hands in set positions rather them memorising sequences. This is only for a limited segment in the episode but it does make a refreshing change to the counselling and adds something a little different.
Longevity
Episode two clocks in a little bit shorter than the first, with the episode lasting just over four-hours, but I did not complete all the counselling again – so this would have added more play time to episode. If you want to know all of the lore as a completionist, you will need to do all the counselling.
Reviewed using Meta Quest 2
For the purposes of transparency, this review was created using a review code provided by the company or their respective PR company. The use of a press code does not affect my judgement of the product.
Review Overview
Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate Episode Two, works great as a continuation of episode one and builds well on the storyline – and sets it up perfectly for the third releasing this year. It also brings in a couple of new gameplay elements that I would love to see used more in the next chapter and possibly expanded on; while introducing new mysteries to keep you entertained along the way. If you enjoyed the First Episode, you will not be disappointed with the mid-way offering from MyDearest and will be left anticipating the finale later in the year.
