Most of us have grown up hearing about urban legends, like the man with a hook for a hand terrorizing teenagers trying to make out, or the Loch Ness Monster, or even Polybius, the famed ultra-rare video game that caused migraines and even heart attacks to those who played it. How many of us attempted to conjure Bloody Mary by saying her name three times in front of a mirror in a darkened room? I know I certainly have many times at sleepovers. But what do you do when an urban myth manifests itself before you? You call the Urban Myth Dissolution Center, of course!

Like those without doughnut shops?

Taking place in Japan, Urban Myth Dissolution Center centers around Azami Fukurai, a plucky young girl who unexpectedly finds herself employed at the agency by the Center Director, Ayumu Meguriya, who’s as unsettling as he is mysterious. Meguriya is a level S psychic (the highest class possible), and he senses some psychic abilities in Azami as well. This makes her an ideal fit for this group who specializes in cursed relics, twisted monsters, and anomalies found between dimensions. When things go bump in the night, the Urban Myth Dissolution Center are there to get to the bottom of things.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center is separated into six chapters, each focusing on a different case. One of the biggest strengths Urban Myth Dissolution Center has going for it is its intriguing stories. Each case starts off with some sort of chilling display to set the tone for the rest of the chapter. Truth be told, I was hoping for more obscure and lesser known urban myths, instead of the common place types like Bloody Mary, but the Scooby Doo styled mysteries were still enjoyable to work through.

However, not all cases are created equal, and several of them were extremely easy to figure out the culprit early on. This wouldn’t be an issue if you could make your deductions, or dissolutions, as soon as you worked it out, but that’s not how things work here.

I feel you there, Azami.

Instead, you’re forced to go through every single aspect of Urban Myth Dissolution Center‘s gameplay in excruciating detail. After seeing the introductory cutscene, Azami will have to walk back and forth across the environment, speaking to everyone she can, while exhausting every dialogue option possible. Then, she’ll have to put on her special glasses that helps her psychic powers see into other dimensions and perceive what happened in the past. Azami will then have to interact with everything in that dimension, remove her glasses, then talk to everyone in the normal realm about what she discovered.

Then, after finishing speaking to everyone, we get to the most tedious part of the game: searching the internet. Now, to be fair, there are some good ideas in here. Azami will have to check posts related to the case she’s currently working on in order to find any useful information. Whenever she comes across a key phrase of interest, it will wiggle on the screen, cuing Azami to use her glasses to see why the information is relevant and add it to her journal. It’s a fun idea, but it takes the challenge out of deciphering which information is useful, and which is regular online trolling and gossiping. However, it also helps cut down on the amount of tedious scrolling found within these sections, so I’ll give it some leniency. 

If you look closely, you can see the words “apartment rumor” looking out of place.

After gleaning all the useful information and suspects she can, it’s time to call Meguriya and solve the case. He’ll ask her specific questions about the case and what she found, with several options to select from in reply. Although, there’s no penalty for guessing the wrong response, and Meguriya will continue to guide Azami to the correct answer until it’s been chosen. The lack of challenge and consequences makes the experience feel shallow.

Now I will say that the art design in Urban Myth Dissolution Center  is wonderful. The pixel art is fantastic, especially in the cutscenes. There is a noticeable drop in quality and textures when investigating crime scenes, but thankfully the character sprites that pop up by their dialogue boxes are well detailed and animated. I just would have liked to have seen the other dimension in more detail to help better sell the spooky imagery.

Erm, it’s right behind me, isn’t it?

The sound design also fares well. Although there is no spoken dialogue, Urban Myth Dissolution Center‘s soundtrack is both eerie and catchy. I found some of tunes sticking with me long after I stopped playing the game. My only issue is that there are only a few tracks, so they start to sound repetitive after playing for a long time. That’s more of a minor nitpick, as the music was so good I just wanted more of it.

So it would seem. I’m curious to see more.

I know I might have come off as a bit harsh on Urban Myth Dissolution Center, but that’s only because I had such high hopes for it. There are some truly great and unique ideas in here, it’s just a shame that it’s bogged down by banal and laborious gameplay. Honestly, I really hope this game gets a sequel, because I think with some adjustments it could be a truly remarkable title. Including some actual puzzles, faster dialogue delivery, and featuring some of the more bizarre yokai lore would set this game far above many others. I’d love to see just how out of this world the Urban Myth Dissolution Center can venture.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on PC and Steam Deck.

A copy of Urban Myth Dissolution Center was provided by the publisher.