Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness

Play as one of two protagonists introduced into the Psycho-Pass story for the first time. They work together for the Criminal Investigation Department, one an enforcer, and one an inspector. They met on the job, but do they have more in common than they initially thought? You're choices as a CID member will ultimately shape the story around you and the ending you recieve. Everything you need to know about the game can be found right here!

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness tells a gripping and immersive story that any fan of the series would enjoy. The liberties that the creators give the player when making decisions are appreciated and enjoyable to view as the path chosen is revealed. I had some trouble figuring out the various hub prompts that showed up from time to time, but that didn’t affect my overall experience. One thing is for sure, I’m not positive that I would pass Sibyl’s screening after some of the emotional and intense missions this game put me through.

The game is only subtitled and it takes place during the beginning of the first season of the anime. As stated above, it is a visual novel, so you're really just along for the ride. Still, the story is pretty good, and if you are a fan of Psycho-Pass and want a little bit more from that series, you should give it a go.

Still, it’s a worth the effort, as the story you’re rewarded with is amazing. Urobuchi does a great job of exploring the world of Psycho Pass and the Sibyl System in new ways and from perspectives that we never got in the anime. It outshines the 2nd season in many ways. Existing characters get nice moments of characterization, but our new characters get mountains of it. Following Tsurugi and Nadeshiko through their journeys and seeing what they go through makes them shine as some of the most interesting characters in the entire series.

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness is a great visual novel that is slightly diminished by its lackluster antagonist. The iteration on the rich world developed by the original anime is solid and well-paced. A fine addition to the genre on both home consoles and handhelds.

This mild sense of disappointment at Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness‘ production values can’t obscure the fact that its most important component, its writing, succeeds, and largely captures what made the anime feel special. It may not exceed or even meet its source material’s heights, but it does it justice, which is, considering Psycho-Pass‘ world, more than can be said for most cases.

Notable developer 5pb and NIS America have partnered up to release a new visual novel in North America, gracing more platforms that just its original Japanese release on the Xbox One. Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness is now available for the PlayStation 4 and Vita handheld, with a PC (Steam) release planned for 2017. As a title marketed towards veterans of the Psycho Pass anime, much of the enjoyment comes from being a supplemental game rather than first encounter with the CID.

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness somehow manages to be an easy and hard recommendation at the same time. The story, characters and theme that worked so well in the first season of the anime return and are in top form. The antagonist might very well be the best in the entire franchise. Any fan of the series will find a lot to love here. Unfortunately, as a video game, or as a visual novel, it fails to really impress. If you’re unfamiliar with the anime, I doubt there’s much here worth investing in.

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness takes place in the same universe as the popular anime show, Psycho-Pass. Set in the year 2112, an always online system named Sybil is constantly monitoring the mental state of the entire population, and pointing out individuals who are psychologically likely to commit a crime in the future. As a consequence, crime rates have dropped to near zero, but undesirables are often tried and convicted without ever actually committing any crime.

Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness is the graphic novel adaptation of the highly successful Psycho-Pass anime. A dystopia disguised in a euphoric veil, the world of Tokyo in 2022 is controlled by the Sibyl System, an intelligent AI that determines almost every element to your life; where you will go to school, what sort of job you will have, how you will raise your children and even how to live your life in order to achieve happiness. In Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness you will learn the sinis...

There’s a lot of story here for those looking to delve further into the Psycho Pass world. Two characters give two different points of view from which to follow the storyline, and there are a bunch of endings and story directions that can be taken depending on the choices made along the way. I suspect Mandatory Happiness might be more appreciated by someone already immersed in the franchise, who has been eagerly awaiting more perspectives into the authoritarian dystopia of 2112, but as someone only tangentially familiar with the show I found that the story made promises of exploring the social...