CHAOS;HEAD NOAH

Oh boy, I have an interesting history with this one. I originally intended to finish it for a review back when it released it, but the game was absolutely broken and janky, missed cutscenes, couldn’t trigger the true ending AND, on top of all that, the translation was absolutely abysmal and low-quality

This is where the nightmare begins: I’m fairly advanced into the game already, close to finishing the common route. However, I learnt of the Committee of Zero aiming to release a fan-translation of the game that’d solve all of these problems, brilliant! However, the patch was… full of impediments, and what originally seemed to be an October release, ended up delaying until February, which is when I’m finally being able to write this post

As you can imagine, now I have to replay the whole game, cause my memories of what I played are a bit shaky, but at the same time I remember enough to make me grow bored of replaying the initial segments. So… yeah, gotta fight against that to reach the point where I left it off, fuck. At least the new and better translation may make this a fresh experience, but it’s still a hassle

Story

Alright, as for the game itself, let’s start with the Common Route

I hate Nishijo, and I will kill him for his horny crimes. Overall, this game has a horny connotation that I absolutely despise, but I have to put up with it. Sadly, it’s common on the Sci;Adv series, so if I want to experience the plots they craft, I have to put up with this horny shit, uhg. But anyways, this game suffers from pretty much everything every other visual novel of this category suffers from as well

Now, as for my thoughts of what I had originally played before leaving to wait for the patch: I don’t know what to make yet of Takumi’s precognitive powers, NOZOMI, ‘Whose eyes are those eyes’, Di-Swords, NewGen Killings, Shogun and Rimi crossing worlds. I absolutely have no fucking idea what’s going on most of the time, but I’m just here to enjoy the ride

As for the beginning and set-up of characters and story, there’s not much I can say at the moment. There’s tons of foreshadowing I’m sure I don’t understand yet, and I’m highly uninterested in most clichés showed. Yua is really nice, and I like how they present her as a shy character that was there all along just to learn more about NewGen. As for the NewGen killings themselves, they are fucking creepy and uncomfy, and that’s a great horror setting. I feel like psychological horror that doesn’t rely on cheap tricks like jumpscares is where this game may truly shine

As for the Delusion system, it kinda stresses me out cause I can’t figure out which one to choose most of the time, and if they affect what I see in any degree. I noticed that, sometimes, there’s no animation of delusion, so it feels like there are correct choices that will lead me to a different path in the future, neat detail. Takumi’s mental state is overall truly interesting, and I’m not sure what to make of it yet, but the delusions, precognitions, ability to lie to himself, etc… It all could lead to an answer to these mysteries

From what I remember, one of the scenes I liked the most from what I had seen is when Rimi is cheering up Takumi in the school backyard after all the trauma he has been going through. He’s finally able to let go of that “demon girl” thing, and genuinely starting to rely on her, so it stuck with me as a heartwarming scene portraying that development after how much he closes himself off the basically everyone, specially after Yua

Anyways, time to take notes of scenes that might be relevant later

• Nozomi, the men in black suits measuring the gravity in different spots, the policemen catching onto that same theory, Nanami losing focus and almost getting ran over because of a beeping sound, the crazy people at night yelling “whose eyes are those eyes”, some guy with a video camera being the “center”, the people reunited to discuss biorhythm and Project Noah, the phone melody of the crosswalks, Gravitation Error rate
• The delusions, how sometimes it feels like there is a “correct” choice, precognition powers, bipolarity (or is Yua bipolar instead?), DID, Shogun, Takumi waking up at night to post in 4chan as Shogun, parallel worlds with Rimi, Sena and FES’ Di-Swords, Takumi having a “special” disease that alienated him from his classmates when young and made the same police men ask about him at elementary school, disappearance of people and encounter with Shogun, delusions becoming reality, the patents, Dr Takashina’s death
• Can the parallel worlds where Takumi’s memories remain from the previous one be related to Steins Gate’s timelines? Do they work the same way maybe? Does Takumi have the Reading Steiner? Can he see other people’s delusions, such as Sena’s white chain or FES’ multiple copies?

Also, one time they mention how Grimm’s friend from America was helping them once, is Grimm… Daru? I’ll kill a man if that’s the case, I hate this guy, but since this friend from America is called Shiho and uses he/him, I guess not. I mean, after all, Chaos;Head came out before Steins;Gate, but I keep looking for references and connections lol

And… it finally seems I managed to catch up with where I left the game in the past, right in the end of chapter 5. The strange number calls Takumi again, and entrances him into some weird shit. Last time this happened, a little later Rimi suddenly appeared in the timeline and several people went crazy (this time, we are seeing that through Yua’s POV). Is Rimi gonna disappear?

Now an earthquake, blinding white light and collective headaches? Is NOZOMI starting their plans of NOAH? Also, huh? Shougun? What’s with the different name? Different people acting as the same person with a subtle difference? Did he show Takumi a realistic delusion? This time, as many others, the typical cutscene for a delusion didn’t play, which I’m theorizing that usually is related to delusions which are being projected in reality

This game keeps fucking with me and make me go “what the hell is going on”, and this time Ayase chanting the lyrics from the mental hospital website while on the edge of the rooftop is another great example. And then she… fell to a flowerbed right after Takumi wished for something soft to break her fall

It seems NOZOMI did cause the earthquake, as expected, and their plans are related to brainwashing and controlling the population, huh? Not only that, but they finally namedropped the Committee of 300 and as a huge S;G fan… I know they are cooking up something interesting 😉 Though I thought NOZOMI and this Committee would be one and the same

Also, second generation? NOAH 2? Holy fuck please explain things to me cause I’m still confused as hell. Anyways, sometimes I wonder if Rimi is actually real or not. What if she is a delusion brought to reality by Takumi? After all, before any of this happened, she wasn’t even present in reality, and she’s awfully similar to Seira. It still wouldn’t explain how she appeared in the Cruc-affixion, but I’m guessing the root of the matter is way deeper

Huh, an email by Shougun and Nanami being kidnapped… I guess shit’s starting to hit the fan, huh? …Holy. Fucking shit. They infiltrated in Takumi’s house, and left a package with… Nanami’s cut off hand. The scene where Takumi opens it while multiple terrifying delusions race through his mind and Nanami’s ringtone is creepily getting louder made me shiver in fear too, I wasn’t expecting them to actually go through this path. Maybe it’s a fake hand…??? I don’t know, it’s a very shocking scene and I’m happy the story is getting out of _hand_ at last. It’s the perfect amount of horror I was looking forward to

Also, I wonder if when scenes change and instead of the usual transition screen, we also see the “delusion” transition that mimics a TV turning off, it means something, hm… Maybe a sign that delusions are becoming reality in the scene we witness?

Anyways, we get more information on NOAH II and how they plan to mess up with the brain electrical signals to show mass hallucinations that hold presence to the population. And huh, the otakus with backpacks that carry ports from NOAH 2 that induce mind control are underlings of NOZOMI as we knew, whose objective is being able to “select” individuals to brainwash

This time, “Shougun” is disguising his voice unlike before, which slightly confirms that this is not the same person. This Shougun knows of Takumi’s “powers”, and he… forced him to a window to greet Shibuya? And apparently everyone, including the media, was there for him to debut as an Esper celebrity??? All these people were brainwashed already? Chanting whose eyes are those eyes? AND HE HAS TO FIND HIS DI-SWORD IN THIS STAGE? And I… get the choice on whether I see the sword or not. Holy fuck. And if I answer incorrectly, I just… die and get a bad ending

And he… found it. A part of the scenery, that with a bit of out of the box thought, resembled a sword. And he can cut it free now. Has that been in the background scenery of the 107 all along? If yes, that’s mindblowing. And god, the track for this part has a bit of rock and it’s so good. I’m loving this path the game is taking. In the end, however, it seems he wasn’t able to get that DI-sword, so I’m guessing they are leaving that for another route, damn. And Shougun was, as expected, not even a real person there

Huh… Ban is reviewing some tape of Sena destroying one of those NOZOMI underling backpacks, and… he can see the sword? How? All these concepts I thought were going to stay metaphorical are becoming real? Anyways, Takumi is in a hospital bed and Nanami is alive, so all this build-up has really been for nothing, god damn

So, in the end, that Esper Boy event turned out to be real and it’s eating away at Takumi. He’s getting backlash from everywhere, including the @chan forums he so much loved. I guess he’s receiving a bit of his own medicine, huh? Though, it’s so strange everyone, including Rimi and Nanami, haven’t been contacting him. And when he went to class and almost went crazy, who was the voice in his head? The exchange student, right?

Back to Ban and Suwa, which, by the way, I’m really liking their scenes since they are unveil so much light into some of the mysteries, now realised the Group Dive video might have been recorded years ago and that the GE rate is being manipulated by people, specially on weekends

…Huh…………… Shogun is actually fucking real, and Rimi knows him. She suggests in a sad tone to end it and erase Takumi since he’s dangerous. Their conversation is so interesting and at the same time brings up so many questions. Dreams? Takumi killing Shogun? Shogun wanting to see “this dream” through, even if it costs him his life?

Anyways, it seems that Orihara of all people saved Takumi while he was getting beat up by “Shougun”‘s underlings? As expected too, the voice in his head came from Orihara. Alright… now this is just ridiculous but I’ll play along with it. She has a DI-sword too, as expected. I like the focus on her at last, she really needed some screentime. And huh, they brought back the pareidolia matter of seeing shapes in mundane scenery, and instead of wishing for the sword, they have to wish for bloodthirst?

As for Kozue’s backstory, she… met a homeless man who knew of DI-swords, is apologetic for “starting” this and warns everyone of the end of the world? And also said the most special person with these special powers was the one who birthed the ‘whose eyes are those eyes’….

Anyways, Sena appears and… is this the first fucking time we get two girls on the same situation in almost 20 hours of game? I don’t even know what to say lol, and we get a term for those who can see DI-swords too, Gigalomaniacs. OH……. So realbooting is what makes DI-sword visible to other people, turning errors into mutual recognition that turns delusions into reality. What a strange but cool concept. The photo they took together is cute though, I wonder if Takumi finally found some friends?

Sena also tells us a bit about Kozue’s backstory and how all Gigalomaniacs had their minds broken at some point, but I kinda wish they had actually told us Kozue’s backstory in a better format. It’s cool to see the parallels of ‘who are you?’ and the mirrors to Takumi’s situation though

Rimi is.. back, huh? I wonder what this whole absence’s meaning is. And Misumi is talking to him again, damn, I could actually cry, but I don’t think this will end up being any kind of “heartwarming” reunion

The NOZOMI guy is called Norose Gen’ichi and it seems he’s looking for gigalomanics to complete Project NOAH’s software. Is he talking to Nanami? Is Nanami a gigalomaniac? And she has a wound where she got her hand cut, huh?

Chapter 8… This common route is getting way longer than I thought. They drop on us out of nowhere that Yua’s sister was a victim of the Group Dive, huh? How did she have any compassion for Takumi if that’s the case, taking on account she fully thought Shogun was Takumi’s other personality? And apparently, Yua’s family acted as if Mia had never existed after her passing, and Mia was incredibly good to Yua and sacrificed a lot of her life for her

7th New Gen case, the three guys who beat up Takumi a little while ago. Back to Takumi, he finds his old WEATE essay and… IR2? The same mathematical formula from the first chat with Shogun? I don’t know what to make of this. And… Gero Froggy is apparently related to the GE rate increase of weekends? HUH

Uh oh… Rimi and Ayase had a heated-up discussion, plus Sena found out about the IR2 drawing and now wants to kill Takumi. AND NOW… RIMI REVEALED HER DI-SWORD? Oh girl, you’ve got a mountain of things to explain. AND NOW THAT ONE GUY FROM KOZUE’S BACKSTORY APPEARED AND IT’S SENA’S ENEMY? He sacrificed her mother for an experiment, huh?? And he attacked her with a delusion, and he’s probably her father?? OH WAIT, just a delusion from Rimi? Fuck they manage to confuse me so much

How did the chaos in Shibuya begin from that fun^10 x int^40 = ir2 formula? Why does Takumi know nothing of it? It’s implemented in the Noah Project so, how did NOZOMI get its hands on Takumi’s drawing? And they’re planning to use the Gigalomaniacs for this project, as well as causing another earthquake even fiercer

Huh, so Einteins’ equation on this world made nuclear weapons happen, and in ir2’s cases, the Silent Weapons, which would be mind reading, visual projection and control of the five senses

Now, we get a little backstory on… someone I assume to be Sena’s mother? And her sister Mana? But the way it ends… is it an experiment to force someone’s mind to break and turn into a Gigalomaniac? And, as expected, yep, the husband was experimenting this on his own wife, giving her up for the sake of Project Noah. And yep, this is where Sena’s backstory stems from. Holy fuck, this is both the most interesting and most twisted backstory so far, to the point Sena’s mother ended up killing herself once the experiment was stopped and realised her child was a corpse

Even more cryptic stuff from Rimi and company and… Takumi’s house is gone, nowhere to be found. And then we get hit with the fact that in this world Takumi has nowhere to go to? We go back to Shogun now, and no one can see him, except for that crazy man who was shouting Ami earlier. “Shogun” is this ghost, and… the name plate on his hospital room says “Takumi Nishijou”

Back to Ban and Yua, it becomes more and more apparent that, subconsciously, everyone is saying Ban’s name in a subliminal manner to fuck with him. I’m guessing NOZOMI’s experiments are part of it, and they’re aware Ban is on their tracks. Plus, as expected, Gero Froggy and Nozomi are connected

Back to Takumi’s insane part, Rimi tells him his memories were fabricated and he should have never existed?!?!?! His existence is a delusion created by another Gigalomaniac a year and half ago, I’m assuming Shogun??? (This one’s wild because all this time one of my theories was that Rimi was actually someone’s delusion) The Cruc-affixion was a merge of four delusions, Takumi, Rimi, the New Gen’s culprit and someone else’s, and Takumi’s delusions chip the life away from the original. All this, laid on Takumi out of nowhere, is so fucking raw and destroys him so much. I can’t believe I ended up feeling so much pity for this guy, he’s genuinely so interesting as a character. Connecting this with Rimi’s reunion with Shogun before, makes more than clear that this Shogun is the original Takumi and they’re both in cahoots to keep an eye on the delusional Takumi

They reveal more information about the mental hospital under Nozomi’s charge, where Sena’s mother and sister died, FES lost her sanity and, apparently, Takumi’s doctor worked as well so it’s assumed either Takumi or Shogun were experimented on as well. Also, Kozue’s father works at Nozomi. All Gigalomaniacs have connections to Nozomi at some degree. And holy fuck, not only Nanami, but also Suwa has been kidnapped now

I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE THIS, SUWA SHOT BAN?!!?!!!?? SUWA HAS BEEN A TRAITOR ALL ALONG??? GOD FUCKIGN DAMNIT, AND I EVEN LIKED THEIR DYNAMIC SO MUCHHHHHH. And since the Darth helmet is there, are we right to assume he was Shougun too? But there’s probably more to it than that, right?

And Nanami went to visit Takumi…? And her right arm is fine…? I don’t know man, I don’t even know what’s going on anymore. And when going back to Yua, she caught a glimpse of Yua? Okay, fuck this, all of these situations are just delusions provoked on them, right? Nanami, Suwa and Mia all had to be delusions, or else I can’t make any sense of this. But, huh, are they implying Yua is Mia, or that they’re the same person? That all her life is a delusion she imposed on herself because of multiple personalities? That would be fucking raw, I hope they explore that path as an origin for her as Gigalomaniac. OH WAIT NEVERMIND, SHE FUCKING AWOKE AS A GIGALOMANIAC RIGHT HERE. Though, then where’s her backstory of her breaking down? And all that build up and foreshadowing of her being both Mia and Yua? And well, as expected, “Mia” was just a delusion provoked by one of Nozomi’s underlings

Now on Rimi’s POV… We finally see NOAH 2, that one blond bastard and what appears to be the real Nanami crucified and missing one hand. Though, this Nana’s memories seem to fit her time with Takumi, including the bangle. From this, I’m guessing this blond bitch is Shougun, sent Takumi the hand of Nanami (who is being showed countless delusions) and tried to force him to awaken as a Gigalomaniac on purpose to use him for his plans? That would make sense, and we’d also have to take into account that then Suwa is still kidnapped and the one we saw is also a delusion. And fuck, Nanami is a Gigalomaniac too as expected since she’s being used by the blond bitch, and the shape of her sword being a cross… holy fuck that symbolism

Now we get a bit of Rimi’s backstory and… was she a delusion as I predicted then? Was she tortured by Nozomi to be turned into a Gigalomaniac ever since her “birth”? And as for Takumi, he somehow ended up on the Scramble Crossing????? And the media started beating him up thinking he’s the NewGen killer????? AND WHY CAN SHOGUN COMMUNICATE TELEPHATICALLY WITH TAKUMI???? AND HE WAS THE GOD GAZE ALL ALONG?? HOW CAN HE DO THAT, NOT ONLY TO TAKUMI, BUT EVERYONE ELSE WHO SENSED A GAZE?

Shogun deluded Takumi… to stop the ir2 he accidentally deluded? And he was a patient in the same hospital as Rimi, where they were both experimented on. And it’s confirmed, Rimi and Takumi are both born from delusions. AND WOOOOOOOOOOOO TAKUMI FINALLY GOT HIS DI-SWORD THIS TIME, WHILE ONE OF THE OPENING THEMES PLAYS. And so… every time that a character felt a gaze, Takumi could unconsciously see it? Was this information just revealed to him or had he known all along?

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GRIMM WAS THE NURSE??????? AND SHE’S A PORTER?????? THIS PLOT TWIST IS SO STUPID THAT I CANNOT EVEN TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. BUT, on a more important note, apparently Shogun showed Takumi the Cruc-affixion before it happened as a wake up call, but Grimm’s delusion interfered. BUT WAIT, SHE’S THE NEWGEN KILLER? NOW YOU’RE JUST FUCKING WITH ME LMAO WHAT DID THEY SMOKE. AND THE MURDERED PREGNANT MAN WAS KOZUE’S FATHER???????? AND THE BABY WAS *HERS*????????? SHE FUCKING TORE OPEN HER STOMACH AND PUT IT IN THERE??????????? And as expected, she ALSO killed Takumi’s old doctor

BUT WAIT, THOSE MEMORIES OF HER KILLINGS ARE SHOWN IN THE BILLBOARD AND TAKUMI CAN READ THEM??? WHAT IS THIS DEUS EX MACHINA SHIT??? We know of the patents to make this a reality through actual science fiction, so why are they not implementing those in this narrative? AND SHE JUST KILLS HERSELF OUT OF NOWHERE, ALRIGHT LMAO. And then, after the media started revering him as a hero… another earthquake began

As for Shogun, it seems that using his delusion powers repeatedly as a kid made the gap between him and reality too wide, and manifested that illness on him that is withering away his lifeforce. We also learn that ir2 helped artificially generate Gigalomaniacs, and that Shogun went after Takumi to forcefully awaken him

Back to the earthquake, Shibuya is completely destroyed and there are countless victims. But the worst of all is… The gray sky reminded me of a scene, the first scene of the entire game, where Rimi erases Takumi. That’s what is coming for us in the ending, huh? That’s so fucking sad

God, Takumi and Nanami finally reunited, and Nanami remembered the truth about his brothers. As for Sena, she finally found her father and he died in the most tragic way, while protecting her from a bullet, from… Suwa? Or a delusion porter? I’m starting to think it must be Suwa, and it makes me SO tremendously sad that he turned out to be a weak villain and Ban died like that. I ended up warming up a lot to the both of them, and the way they ended up being handled makes me a bit sad because, as much as this outcome could be a great source of angst and a great plot twist, it was handled very weirdly. Plus, turns out he’s the one responsible for the Cruc-affixion?

Takumi ends him in the same fashion of the Cruc-affixion through a delusion that allowed them to swap bodies. But next moment… he gets beat up almost to death by a delusion of a thousand Seiras, lol. I mean… I suppose he didn’t have trouble with Suwa due to having other witnesses to make his delusions reality, but if he could muster up a delusion against the Seiras too, then… why was it THEN that he got severely hurt?!?!??

Now, for the confrontation against Norose. This guy is a Megalomaniac too, and his sword is the one used to crucify Rimi and Nanami. How the hell is even Takumi still holding on, this man is a walking corpse against an hydrogen bomb. Also, fuck, Noah II’s the one that produces the You May Pass song. And when Takumi is about to fucking die, he just starts assaulting Rimi? Why the fuck are they bringing up rape now? Okay man, I’m done, I hate this game. Is this a fucking delusion? Why is a stake now perforating Takumi in a torture sense for 3 days? The scene is fucking painful, and it’s all just… a delusion that equaled one second in reality. Then he proceeds to experience multiple gruesome deaths? Like, actually fucking horrifying

After everyone prays and Shogun sacrifices the last of his power, Takumi overpowers the delusions and gets healed out of nowhere cause of course we are in a shonen anime. I’ll forgive this just because KANAKO ITOU IS SINGING A BANGER DURING THIS SCENE. And then he awoke… a power out of antimatter? Then throws Norose towards Noah II as he’s the only one who can approach it and during that… as feared, we go back to the opening scene of the game. And.. with that… credits roll, huh.

Honestly? I’m not sure what to think at the moment. As far as I’m aware, the character routes were added for the Noah re-release in order to expand the game’s story and flesh out the characters, as well as giving more context for many scenes. However, I’m not entirely sure if the other “main” routes were in the base game. Putting that apart, I was expecting a branching narrative similar to “Zero Escape” that would put me through different routes and branches in order to paint a whole big narrative. However, it’s pretty likely that this route I just witnessed is the entirety of the truth of the game, in a very similar manner to Steins;Gate, and the most significant thing yet to see would be the true ending.

Who knows, but having said that, I liked the common route of the game. It’s good, it has its lows and highs, though the lows are waaay lower than how high are the highs, which is not much. For me, it honestly peaked during chapter 6 I think, where we witness the absolutely fucked Nanami’s hand scene and “Shougun” forces Takumi to find his DI-sword and hell breaks loose from that point onwards. Sadly, the narrative started going a bit downhill after that, but overall it’s been a very enjoyable experience that has made me theorize and put my gears to work a whole fucking lot. Like, I couldn’t stop theorizing about the delusions, the characters, the situations they found themselves in, etc. I was actually expecting a more “grounded” explanation for delusions though, in a Umineko-manner, that would be explained through science fiction as this series tends to do, since I’m not entirely fond of the concept of DI-Swords. Narrative is not incredible, but it’s pretty good, and knows how to nail that sensation of pure terror at times. I’d even say that psychological horror is what this game does best

Crying Sky

Anyways, time for common route B? From Silent Sky to Crying Sky. It seems that the prompts for this route is finding a big amount of the delusions involving a “Whose Eyes are Those Eyes”, so I’m extremely interested in finally learning where that sentence comes from, and what’s its meaning or symbolism throughout the game. Apart from that added Shogun scene from chapter 1, that scene in chapter 6 where Suwa and Hazuki talk… holy shit, they were just pretending in front of God’s gaze so Shogun or Takumi could not suspect a thing, I love that. It seems that Suwa is Shougun, as expected, and tried to forcefully make him awaken in front of O-FRONT. Also, what made Hazuki wear glasses? She never wore them in the previous route and I’m not sure if it’s related to my delusion choices

As for changes, it seems they begin appearing right during Sena and his father’s scene, where now Norose is also present. Sena tries to kill Norose, but she is deluded into killing her father. And from here, we also learn that… the NewGen killings were brought to happen as a way to instill horror on Takumi in order to bring about the completion of Project Noah, what the fuck. The guy from Nozomi that leads that Divine Light cult ordered so to Suwa and Hazuki. He even ordered to have their child be offered to these killings, holy fuck

Finally, we get insight on the Group Dive. The perpetrator was “Shougun”, so we can assume it’s Suwa. Mia is in there as well. And… fuck, that has given me more questions than answers. A horde of “zombies” cornering them? The building that doesn’t exist? A delusionary staircase?

It seems Takumi is invading the consciousness of some of the NewGen victims? Huh? Now it’s the Manchild case, and it’s weird given that we do know how this one happened when we cornered Hazuki. But holy fuck, the descriptions and sounds here are just… so grotesque. It seems Suwa also appeared here.

As for the Cruc-affixion, it seems that that one guy who was arrested did kill the man, but he wasn’t related to the cross display. The guy he was trying to kill constantly managed to get up, like a zombie. What’s up with this zombie phenomenon now? Just give me answers instead of more questions ffs. So was Komaeda the one who crucified the guy in the end? What about those four delusions that collided?

Now we moved to the jelly guy, and once again, it was Hazuki and Suwa who committed the crime, on an hospital once again. Next, it’s Takashina’s death, the Numbskull case. Then, the Food Fingers case, which actually incorporates actual delusions into it, so I’m guessing the point of view we saw of the others must have had a degree of delusions in them as well. Finally, we have the case of the three men hired by Suwa to beat up Takumi. They also experience a delusion of a giant monster, right after unveiling that Suwa was under the Darth Vader mask

Finally, we go back to the present, where Suwa is carrying a port that made Takumi experience all these consciousnesses. Also, apparently, the MewTube video was uploaded using Suwa’s memories (they could explain that patent a little more, tbh), and that explains the missing building. I would have LOVED the path of a real-life explanation though, since this feels a bit cheap, but the hints were there.

And… Kozue and Takumi are used to get the remaining CODE sample, Takumi awakens and… is able to hit Noah II? Really? We are NOT supposed to be able to do that, aren’t we? AND OUT OF NOWHERE TWO MONTHS PASS, this is just a massive delusion, isn’t it? Aaaaand, yep, delusion time baby, of course those happy times wouldn’t happen. To end things, we get Rimi’s point of view of the rainy ending scene. Takumi’s body dissolves into particles, and Rimi asks herself where their sky could have gone. The end. Aaaaaaaaaaaand, this ending hasn’t really solved anything for me, but at least confirmed and gave more context to the NewGen killings. It’s weird, but I didn’t dislike it. I just don’t feel it was worth putting all that in a separate route

As for the killing themselves, I’m not really happy with the lack of motive and the way they handled such an important character that appeared all throughout the game such as Grimm, which had no reason to kill except for being insane and belonging to that cult. Pretty weak motives and explanations, sadly, and I wish they had expanded way more upon Grimm and Suwa

Nanami’s Route

Welp, time for the character routes. First of all is… Nanami. Oh god. Oh fucking hell. Please don’t make it weird. Please don’t make the siblings even fucking weirder. I swear to fucking god- THE FUCKING TRIGGER OF THE ROUTE IS ALREADY THE WEIRDEST SHIT ON EXISTENCE I HATE THIS GAME, LET IT BURN.

Anyways, Nanami finds Rimi accidentally, way before she appears in Takumi’s life. She also has gaps in her memory, not knowing how she met Rimi. Btw I realised just now that Sena’s dad appears in the background of the place where the police start looking for Takumi, that’s a neat detail. Huh, but this time… there’s no cut-off hand. Just her phone. Not even the bangle is in the package. And with that, our new branch starts: Daydream. WHY THE FUCK IS SHE NAKED ON THE ROOFTOP????????? The delusion shaky screen keeps happening during these scenes, so I don’t know what to make of what I see. This is just a delusion porter, right? Nanami must be still kidnapped

And… huh, the 6th NewGen murder has changed this time. Plus, they used Nanami’s uniform to suffocate the guy. UHGGGGGGGGGGGGG THE BED SCENE, I HATE YOU ALL SO MUCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. And after this, several days pass with Takumi passed out? And the 6th NewGen killing went back to being Finger Food? And the tortured Nanami shows up in his door with her DI-sword? And now we have two Nanamis? Lol

……Oh boy the truth is much fucking harsher. Rimi reveals that Takumi saw Nanami’s severed right hand in the package and went crazy in his own delusion world, imagining a delusionary Nanami from her hand alone. Alright, I wasn’t expecting this twist, this one goes hard since it ties with Shogun’s experience creating Takumi, even including the coma he suffered after deluding a human being into existence. And ugh, the Third Melt happens and the delusion fucking… goes… the romance route…………….. I’m gonna puke. The “dream” fades away for a second, showing the earthquake’s aftermath and what is possibly Nanami’s corpse and… yeah. This ending is so fucked up in so many levels. It was both good and terrible.

Yua’s route

Anyways… Time for Yua route. I’m hating having to go through the same delusions all the time though every time I wanna start a new route. This… could definitely had been handled better.

Why’s Mia’s diary full of WEATE…? Oh come on, please explain this shit to me already. BUT, HUH, THEY NEVER EXPLAINED THAT TAKUMI’S ESSAY WAS ONLINE. Is that then how the ir2 formula got out? Oh lord. Suwa also interacts with Yua, and being able to see through him now is so interesting

Also, they seem to be implying that Yua was, indeed, Mia after all, and the delusion we see in the common route is not far from the truth. She most likely is the one who developed DID and tried incorporating Yua in her personality after her death. Aaaand, after a few days of Yua having kidnapped Takumi, Mia’s diary is revealed and… Yeah, guess whose name was on it? Yua’s. Yep, she has PSTD from her sister’s death and developed DID. And oops, the Third Melt conveniently happened during this exchange

Mia and her four friends were to meet up offline, but Mia had second thoughts and asked Yua to switch places with her. Then, the Group Dive happened and broke Mia completely. When Mia finally realises this, asks Takumi to accompany her to Cornelius Tower to jump, even though the tragic state Shibuya is in, with countless corpses around already. And welp, Mia lives a delusion of falling off the building, comes back and realises she wants to live, so we get our “”happy”” ending and credits. Eh, that ending sucked but the plot twist of Yua’s identity was pretty good and hinted throughout the whole game until now

Ayase’s route

Okay, I gotta be honest, I’m getting tired of the character routes but I may as well see this through to the end. And while I really like Ayase, I just can’t stand all the chuuni nonsense. AND, HUH, AYASE COVERED IN BLOOD WHILE RIMI’S AND NANAMI’S DI-SWORDS ARE ON HER ROOM. This all feels like a delusion, why’s she trying to collect all seven swords? All this talk about Gladioul and the blank book makes my head hurt, and I hate that it’s all actually interesting symbolism for what goes on accross the story

They find the aftermatch of Ban’s death and when Yua awakens her DI-sword, which they end up taking. Hm, this is strange, and did the Third Melt (which Ayase calls Gladioul) happen so soon in the other routes? And what’s with these vermillion delusions Takumi is seeing? And why are Sena and Kozue already broken by the delusions? I can’t understand what’s going on in this route that changed events so little and so much at the same time. Are those vermillion delusions what Ayase sees? That’s fucked up, but I don’t get this sudden ass pull on how some delusions sync or how they warp Ayase’s entire world-building, if they are even delusions to begin with

Though, at the very least, now I can understand a lot more what goes through Ayase’s mind and why her suicide attempt happened to begin with. But then… Takumi manifested a DI-sword out of Ayase’s wicked heart? Okay I’ve had enough of this bullshit, please go back to science fiction. And Ayase’s songs were accidentally a way for Ayase to share her delusions with Shibuya and make mutual recognition? Alright, maybe that kinda fits in the established delusion lore I suppose. Then on a shonen note, Ayase pierces the vermillion sky after Takumi realises her song isn’t foretelling the Cruc-affixion case, but rather how to destroy Gladioul

Uhhhhhhh…… yeah, this was a weird route, but at the same time it shed light on a few matters and I liked the different worldviews thing even if they appeared out of nowhere. There was a lot of symbolism and things that were not going to be explained on detailed, but rather the viewer has to understand the context. FES songs carried this route though

Kozue’s route

Huh, so a white car is following her with mirrors to provoke her PSTD. Anyways, Kozue is probably my favourite character alongside Rimi so far, she’s dumb but also completely unhinged. Huh, what’s up with the photos this time around? Is the guy behind the whole white car thing harassing Takumi too?

Oh shit, Takumi got doxxed, rip bozo. Uhg, Kozue is getting bullied by the bunch of girls led by Misumi’s gf, I wish Misumi actually took responsibility for his acts. And then they get controlled by something or someone to pull mirrors on her, so… who’s behind all of this? AND HOLY SHIT KOZUE IS ACTUALLY SLASHING MISUMI’S GF, YOU GO GIRL, GIVE US DEATH, GIVE US DRAMA

Between Misumi looking for her gf now, and Rimi appearing again out of nowhere just to erase Takumi, this is shaping up to be a good route tbh. AND KOZUE APPEARED TO KILL RIMI TOO, YEAH THIS IS THE ANGST I WANT IN A SIDE ROUTE. Oh wait no, come on, don’t tell me it’s just going to be a delusion, I want a bloody annihilation route. But hey, at least we are getting the annihilation of the entire school. AND HEY, FINALLY MISUMI BEING RELEVANT TO THE PLOT AND GETTING NEW SPRITES. And oh boy, they are provoking Takumi using Nanami, even mentioning Shougun and her missing hand… This is going to get fucking crazy AND I HOPE THEY DON’T LET ME DOWN CAUSE THIS IS SHAPING UP TO BE THE MOST INTERESTING ROUTE SO FAR, EVEN MISUMI DIED

Hi Suwa, you provoking all these delusions huh? You being here better not fuck up this route. And huh, we learn out of nowhere that this school was founded by Nozomi and the cult as a testing grounds, how does this tie into the common route? Anyways, Sena finally appears to put order and warn them of how they fell for Suwa’s trap, but will they actually listen? They did but, Kozue can’t control her body for some reason and attacks Sena, and the reason they give is that she got possessed by the negative delusions… oh boy, another base for delusions that we’ve never heard about before until now. Anyways, this angst for Sena and Kozue is great, they are making all my wishes for Sena x Kozue so real right now, I love girlfriends. And holy shit, Kozue’s body impaled Sena while breaking her own arm, this is going fucking crazy. She fucking killed Sena while Kozue’s mind was crying out to be saved and Sena’s last words were of feeling regretful she couldn’t help her, this is such good angst oh my god

Okay, yeah, this route is being the fucking best so far. Suwa now appears too, and shoots the both of them to get their CODE sample after setting up all of this, but he gets slashed by Kozue too. And then, both Kozue and Takumi lie on the flowerbed breathing their last words before the Third Melt which, after all those gunshots, would probably kill them. Huh, this route has been fucking peak, thank goodness

Sena’s route

This one is, sadly, more on the romance side than anything. Pretty meh overall. It all starts with Sena and Takumi infiltrating Nozomi and falling for a trap where they are enclosed in the three-monitor room. Third Melt happens too, and they get trapped under the debris as well, until Sena’s dad appears out of nowhere to save them. Plus, the two other guys working with Norose were shot mid-call

Oh, the Committee of 300 is making contact with Takumi? Finally something interesting, I’m really intrigued by these guys. It seems they possess some kind of God’s gaze as well, scary, and they keep saying how they are not even from this world and gods of another layer of being. Huh, alright, more chuuni shit

They ask Takumi to eliminate Noah II, as they cannot interfere. Huh… they even proposing to revive Sena’s mother and sister. As Sena’s dad says, however, this has to be a load of bullshit. The Worldwide Human Domestication Project… There’s so much interesting lore thrown in here that escapes me for now. It seems the three of them are also in danger of being eliminated after fulfilling their roles too. Oh…….. Sena’s dad has already died by the hands of someone who destroyed the Nozomi building, I thought he would remain relevant until the end of the route

Inside the locker, where their cheat code should be, they found… a baby? But they were told they had to destroy it, so, what the fuck. OKAY WHAT THE FUCK, DID SUWA REALLY KILL THE BABY, and now he’s killing Takumi. Oh, hi there Rimi, saving the day? OH THEY’RE FINALLY USING SHOGUN’S THEME SOMEWHERE ELSE THAT ISN’T CHAPTER 6, THANK GOD, I LOVE THIS THEME

So… Takumi finds his DI-sword, and while him and Sena are being shot multiple times, they put together enough power to take down the planetarium where Noah II is located… and that’s it. Huh. Weird route tbh, but learning finally a bit more about the Committee of 300 is very interesting, even if it brought more questions than answers

Takumi and Sena died short after, but wait. HOLY FUCK. SO MOMOSE IS A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE OF 300??????? EXCUSE ME???? WHY IS SHE THE ONE REPORTING THAT THERE WERE NO “ERRORS”???? Given how she was the one to point Ban and the rest on the right direction with the GE rate, it actually makes a ton of sense but it’s so unexpected. And why did she call Rimi a Divine Light’s follower? Is there more about her we don’t know yet? And the baby ended up living?

Rimi’s route

And finally, the very best for last, best girl’s route. Huh, I never stopped to think about it but Rimi then does live at Shogun’s hospital room. Oh well well, would you look at that, we are finally learning a bit more about the Crux-affixion, and how the true events of it are slightly different from what we know. Rimi ended up tangled up in someone’s delusion, and because of Takumi, it became reality

Huh, so Hazuki could access the logs of when Shogun and Takumi talked, and the timestamps suddenly changed out of nowhere. Did Shogun cause this delusion to hide his existence? It seems so, since they even notice God’s gaze

One interesting thing when Rimi comes to class and achieves mutual recognition into making everyone think she belonged in that class all along is the fact that Misumi and Takumi’s friendship wasn’t an act of hers, apparently. I thought it was Shogun or her all along, so it’s quite weird. We also get to see the scene of Rimi retrieving Nanami’s hand because Shogun asked her for it

Also, we only learn of it on the character routes, but it seems black miasma from a Gigalomaniac represents negative delusions, and they can be shared with another Gigalomanic. It’s not until Rimi confronts Sena that we get a good explanation on it. Though, in the original timeline, I don’t remember Kozue trying to kill Rimi and Takumi too. God, she’s so fucking unhinged, I LOVE her, she might even become my favourite over Rimi at this rate. Plus, she’s acting like that to help Sena, so… more fuel to my ship?

OH HOLY FUCK, THIS TIME SENA ACTUALLY FELL FROM THE BUILDING AND DIED, WHAT THE FUCK. AND RIMI HAD TO KILL KOZUE????? AS IF HER DI-SWORD HAD LIFE OF ITS OWN??? Okay, maybe this route is going to end up being pure cinema, And huh, their corpses disappeared after a while too, was it Shogun?

And why… did Rimi lose her memories? Huh??? Is she suffering from DID after the shock? Age regression? What a weird set-up for this route, but let’s see what they cook. And yep, it seems Shogun is aware of what’s going on, but all he did is… send an email to Taku telling him to awaken with no context and sending his voice to his mind and… Yup, Third Melt

In a dreamlike state, we find Rimi’s blue sky dream and Takumi sinks until finding all of the previous dead Rimis, alongside their memories. So… these memories start six years ago, with a car accident where her parents died. And immediately after, she’s scouted as a guinea pig by Norose under the suspicion of her being a Gigalomaniac, continuously torturing her. Between all these memories, she keeps introducing each one saying her memories are not continuous, and that she killed her own self afterwards, maybe referring to the delusionary existences of Rimi. At the end of it, Takumi wished so hard for Rimi to come back that he basically spawned her back out of his delusions, huh?

She puts Takumi to sleep, and goes face Noah II alone as in many other routes. However, this time Norose pierces her with his DI-sword faster than ever. However, Shogun grants Rimi his last delusion, knowing she plans to sacrifice herself. After saving Nanami using her DI-sword as wings, she pulls the final attack on Norose using… Whose Eyes Are Those Eyes? After that, she takes her final breath 😦 However, the route ends on a hopeful note, Takumi full of confidence he will find Rimi. Huh, I suppose it’s because the true ending is coming next?

Blue Sky

After doing all routes, this last one appears directly on the title screen as a choice. I’m very interested to see how they’ll wrap up the entire game. It starts right on the praying scene, where every girl wishes for the safety of Takumi, and we go through a series of prompts to confirm our existence, even pulling some events from the other routes, I am REALLY liking this. Takumi’s struggle of existence is such a good layer of his character, and I’m glad they explore it this well

WOOOOOOOOOO LET’S GO, ‘FIND THE BLUE’ IS PLAYING, every DI-sword converges into one. The final confrontation proceeds like in the common route, with Takumi casting aside his human form to regenerate from attacks. Or… I wonder if I chose wrong earlier? It’s all the same… until the part where Rimi should erase Taku, where she finds herself unable to do it. Huh, this is hitting hard after all. And poor Shogun… has already passed away. Rimi and Takumi being finally together after all that happened, the two delusionary existences that were denied their existence… finally under their desired blue sky

(…how did Nanami recover her hand? And I wish it had been ‘Desire Blue Sky’ as ending theme, but ‘A WILL’ is also really good) And oh my god. The title screen changing after SO LONG to a happy blue sky, instead of the gloomy spooky screen is such a neat detail.

It seems that the Committee of Zero version also includes a prelude. Here, it confirms how Takumi wasn’t able to attend the field trip due to his worsening condition, and his delusions of envy ended up provoking the accident where his teacher died. It also seems like Norose tried approaching him, and to avoid this, he erased traces of his own existence, becoming Shogun later on and trapping himself in the hospital room we know. He retells how he brought Takumi into existence, and… fuck, it hurts

As for the ‘Whose Eyes are Those Eyes’, as I never felt like we got proper confirmation of its origin and Shogun’s explanation contradicts the gaze he felt when younger, I explored a bit online and it seems the origin or meaning is vague on purpose. It could be a gigalomaniac power that Shogun conjured from that essay/delusion he had as a child, and then used it to watch over others. Who knows. Can’t say I’m the biggest fan of how they handled delusions in the end as I said before, because too many possibilities are open for theorizing without enough established bases, unlike, for example, time-travelling in S;G

Characters

I’ve pretty much said all relevant info about characters on the previous text about each ramble, but let’s recollect my thoughts on them

Most girls in C;H are sadly pretty bland and bidimensional, and the fact that most of the character routes feel like a short extra doesn’t really help, sadly. Rimi and Kozue stood up the most for me to be honest, they have a lot more depth than expected and I ended up liking them a lot. Sena sadly is too generic, from design to personality, and it makes me sad because otherwise she’d probably one of my faves. FES is amazing, I love her legacy in Sci;Adv and her design is great, but I can’t understand any of her chuuni stuff… As for Yua, I’d say she’s my least liked sadly, but she fills a good role in the story and her twist with her sister is great (if she had Mia’s personality instead of Yua’s, she could have definitely skyrocketed in my ranking)

As for the devil himself, Takumi, I must admit he undergoes a very good arc across the common route. As I said, psychological horror is this game’s best point, and they portray it magnificently accross Takumi throughout the game. He’s pathetic, a loser, a good-for-nothing and I absolute thought I’d 100% hate him, but by the end of the game there are many more layers to him that helped me appreciate him as a protagonist. His design sucks ass though

The villains? Sadly very weak. I wish they had done a LOT more with Grimm, and while I liked the bit of focus on Suwa during Crying Sky, I wish we would have learned more. And as I said before, the reasons for the NewGen are… bad, non-existent pretty much. Norose is a bit of a weird case too, he’s alright but as a main villain he leaves much to be desired

Oh and Kozue and Sena are girlfriends, I am hearing anyone else’s opinion on the matter. The only Gigalomaniac girls who are friends and they pretty much are ALWAYS together afterwards? Yeah, they come in a pack

Music

You know who one of my favourite singers ever is? Kanako Itou, and I knew for a fact I’d absolutely LOVE all of her songs on this game, and I wasn’t wrong. I did not expect to get this attached to the overall soundtrack, but it just feels so fitting for so many of its scenes and, while it’s quite small, the vocal songs more than make up for it.

Of course, one of the biggest phenomenon in Sci;Adv is FES, and this is where she starts. It’s real cool to have started with S;G, knowing she was a character I would meet later on in the franchise, and finally getting to know her and listen to more of her incredible songs

God, I already knew of this because of S;G, but I ABSOLUTELY love the fact that many Sci;Adv entries have many different openings with different songs depending on the platform they released. For example, Chaos;Head has five different openings, between re-releases on platforms and Noah, and all of the songs are absolute bangers. As for the ending songs, it’s quite incredible that they managed to put out a different song for EACH route, and many of them are really really good. Now imagine if they still continued this trend and they gave us a new opening for the Switch/Steam release… some things sure change for the worse over time, huh?

Conclusion

I… I’m gonna be honest, I did not even expect this entry to have different sections or even a conclusion at all. At first, I was just planning to write down a few of my theories and what was going on, but in the end I ended up pretty much making a summary of the game lol. Not the best approach, and after a few games of doing the same I know it’ll end up getting tiring, but I wanted to make sure I wrote as much as possible to be able to establish rules, lore and solutions to the mysteries and concepts of the game, although in the end they barely helped…

I spent so much more time than intended going through this game that I ended up getting inevitably attached to it, and it should have definitely not have taken me so many hours to finish it. However, the entire Committee of Zero situation + how long it took me to re-read the initial chapters again negatively contributed to that playtime

Chaos;Head Noah, overall, is a pretty good game and I’m glad to have finally experienced the first entry of the Science;Adventure series after so long. I have stated my opinion on this game a lot of time throughout the entire post, and while it has a lot of downsides that cannot be ignored, it’s an enjoyable experience. In the end, my favourite routes ended up being Kozue’s, Rimi’s and most of the common route, with Blue Sky being a good true ending to wrap up the story

Whose eyes are those eyes?