This visual novel about hunting supernatural oddities in urban environments will definitely be one for the Persona crowd
The intriguingly-named Urban Myth Dissolution Center has that style of animation and use of color and typography that makes me immediately pay attention because, well: Not every developer does this, do they? That, and the occult investigation theme, make me immediatley curious at what this one's bringing to the table when modern fantasy juggernauts like Persona dominate the landscape.
"Join forces with the psychic Director of the Urban Myth Dissolution Center and solve a variety of cases involving cursed relics, rental properties with shady histories, and dimensional anomalies. Monstrous oddities and otherworldly planes abound in this occult mystery adventure game!," says the official summary.
In Urban Myth Dissolution Center you'll be new investigator Azami Fukurai checking out cases of supernatural import across several episodic mysteries focused around urban myths that roam the internet: Your slendermans and the like. Azami is in charge of the detective grunt stuff like collecting evidence and trawling social media posts all in the service of figuring out and solving, or dissolving, the mystery of the myth in question. Azami's skill in the job? Her glasses let her "see others' intentions and residual thoughts."
For many, including myself, the attraction is all about that psychedelic pixel art they've got going on. The stuttering animation and the very carefully chosen palette of limited colors indicates an artistic skill somewhere on the development team that's above and beyond what we normally find in videogames.
Urban Myth Dissolution center is made by Hakaba-Bunko, a game team based in Japan who previously won a development award at the 2021 Google Play Indie Games Festival. They specialize in adventure games and innovative forms of pixel art.
You can find Urban Myth Dissolution Center on Steam, where it has a demo, and where it will launch on February 12, 2025.