D-topia is a logic puzzle adventure game where you take on the role of technician Shiro. Your role is to keep up the maintenance of the facility you live on, but as you carry out your job, you meet fellow residents that you will get to know and end up playing a pivotal role in their lives. D-topia is as casual and relaxed as they come, which is not only set around building relationships with these residents but also learning more about this future-based society that’s overseen by a powerful A.I that might be shielding something more sinister than it’s letting on.
The game is the brainchild of two former Level-5 employees, Akira Mitsuhashi and Hiroco Shino, who set up Marumittu Games back in 2017. Up until now they have one other published game, 2022’s Captain Starone, an auto-battler game that seemed to not pick up much traction, as, at the time of writing, it has only 10 reviews on Steam.
The name of the game, D-topia, refers to the area you reside in. You’ll learn there’s a G-topia and a dreaded Z-topia, and it paints a picture of many different districts held under the umbrella of the Utopia Project. The game’s writing does a great job of setting the scene for what happened for humans to end up in this perfect futuristic utopia. Humans are well looked after by robots with fresh food and utilities supplied every day, but people still have their own personal issues to deal with that relate to problems we face in the here and now.
You’ll meet a bunch of different characters as you play through Shiro’s first week on D-topia, from a large, shy person who is struggling with an emotion chip to an introvert who hides herself away to not be noticed. As you interact with these people, you have dialogue choices to make that will affect your friendship with each one. The more positive the experience with a person is, the higher the affinity gauge will rise and the stronger your bond with them will become, but you could instead play it in the opposite direction if you so choose.
As you get to know these people, real issues start to surface as they unload their burdens onto you. Each is dealing with a life-altering situation, and it always ends up on your shoulders to decide what should happen to them. Once you have all the facts, a “brain meeting” kicks in that will help you to decide that particular individual’s fate. This is represented like a flowchart, with yes-or-no questions asked, which will help you to go down the particular road you want to. This leads to multiple branching pathways for each character that can have various outcomes for you to explore and boost the replayability of the game.
It’s a fun way to attack this type of narrative, and what I found was that although every conversation I had felt breezy, I really got to know each individual’s personality strengths and weaknesses with ease. The writing once again shines bright by making it easy to get to know every person that you interact with in what seems like an effortless way. It was also a joy to see certain people open up more as the friendship grew, which was always dealt with in a tactful and endearing way.
Not everything can be solved in the normal way, though, and sometimes Shiro has to enter ‘Block Side’. To enter this alternative plane, Shiro scans a special terminal, freezing real life (people are frozen but still visible), and only Shiro can move about freely. This layer exposes problems that you wouldn’t normally be able to see and gives Shiro the opportunity to fix them. It’s always clearly spelt out to you when you need to enter Block Side, so there are never any frustrating clueless moments.
The game spans the first week of Shiro arriving in D-topia, with each day split between morning/afternoon and evening. Afternoons and evenings are when all your socialising happens, but the morning is when you have to go to work. Shiro’s work consists of having to solve different types of simple logic puzzles, all set around numbers. I’ll be honest: I was slightly worried about this particular element of the game, as I am not the best at these types of puzzles. BUT what I found were truly simple puzzles that I mostly breezed past. There were a couple that stumped me for a while, but even I managed to figure it out in the end.
Thanks to this laid-back, cosy approach the game takes, I eventually found I was quite looking forward to the puzzle sections, as each variant comfortably stood at my level of understanding. But even so, if you find that you simply cannot do a puzzle, then there’s always a skip option available. Using a skip will instantly lower your grade on that puzzle to an E, causing you to miss out on some bonus money, but there are otherwise no punishments for utilising them.
Though even that doesn’t feel too harsh because, depending on your performance, the game felt quite generous with the cash you earned. But what can you do with your hard-earned cash? Well, it can be used to purchase snacks because Shiro will get hungry and will need to eat during the day to fulfil his energy levels. Besides that, you can also grab yourself a plethora of different decorations for your apartment; from all the latest game consoles to a very small collection of anime figures, there are many different items to choose from.
And it did become a bit of a joy to end the day, go back home and open up all the packages that were waiting for you and see how they all fit into the spaces available. You will also receive presents from your friends which get delivered the same way, serving up extra serotonin as you come home to find even more packages waiting for you. The only downside is that you can’t interact with anything, and it all has a predetermined space, which is a shame. I would have loved to have been able to pick up the figures, play with the gym equipment or use a pair of trainers from my new collection or at least be able to decide where I would like to have kept them.
Visually, the game was impeccable. It nails the cutesy, minimalist art style that it aims for, which blends well with its futuristic setting. D-topia is shown as a clean, smooth-edged, white-walled and floored area with a neon blue streak through it. Sliding doors and other such small touches made it feel like a space age, high-tech vision of the future that the game’s graphics really highlighted. Sound design was believable with expected and soothing effects that paired well with the game’s soundtrack, which consisted mainly of playful instrumental tracks that blended well with the futuristic setting.
D-topia has come at a time where we are living through the beginnings of our own journey with A.I and it explores a future where some elements of its narrative could be a possibility. This is not the only real-life subject the game touches upon, though, with many life-changing and sensitive subjects coming through the narrative. From tackling someone’s insecurities on their appearance to the complexities of organ donation, it has a wide range of different subjects for you to tackle. In most cases the narrative has a way to shield what it’s actually implying, but those messages still shine through; it’s a stark contrast to the rest of the game but a worthy addition nonetheless.
