cj_iwakura
Member
Also coming out for Vita and PC.
Metacritic
(70)
RPGFan
(80%)
I enjoyed my time with Mandatory Happiness, although I came away from it feeling a bit sullen. Licensed games rarely tend to add much to their individual franchises, but Psycho-Pass' creator, Urobuchi Gen, got his start writing visual novels for Nitro+, the studio that paired up with 5pb to develop critical darling Steins;Gate. Taking that into consideration, Psycho-Pass and 5pb seem like a match made in heaven, but the result of this pairing is ultimately, well, just another licensed game.
Though Mandatory Happiness is an above-average visual novel in its own right, it woefully underutilizes its setting and suffers from mediocre writing. A little more love could've made this one an essential visual novel, but as it stands, it's still a pretty good cyberpunk adventure.
Keengamer
(9.4/10)
Psycho-Pass Mandatory Happiness offers an amazing story, full of captivating moments, exciting plot twists, emotional cases, and a constant tempo that prevents it from ever feeling slow. The choices you'll make carry a great influence on the story, and you feel it every time you're asked how to proceed with a situation. Although reading subtitled texts will take up most of the time, the game presents the setting and characters in an intriguing way with the constant switching of them regardless of the conversation. The uniqueness found within every scene of talking, action, and investigating provids the depiction of a living world inside the story.
Twinfinite
(4/5)
For the most part, Mandatory Happiness is a Psycho-Pass game made specifically for Psycho-Pass fans. The story has no real bearing on the overall plot of the series, but it definitely adds a lot to the compelling universe, and even provides useful explanations for some lore points brought up in the TV show (hyper oats, anyone?). Mandatory Happiness is a great supplement to the already fantastic Psycho-Pass story.
Push Square
(7/10)
Even if you haven't seen the Psycho-Pass television series before, Mandatory Happiness does a good enough job of making it clear what's going on to be enjoyable. It tells an engaging and thought-provoking story that deals with some heavyweight and uncomfortable subjects, and one that poses plenty of ethical dilemmas along the way. If you can get past the borderline non-existent gameplay then the narrative will probably keep you entertained for a dozen hours or so, although it may leave you wondering if this story would have been better told over a few episodes of the anime instead.
Haven't seen any other major ones yet, I'll edit if anyone has any.