Mysteries, Cults, and Lots of Lewdness
Pixel Town: Akanemachi Sideshow's short review
Developer: Sprite Hills (Published by Kagura Games)
Genre: Adventure
Store: Steam, Kagura Games store, DLSite (only in Japanese)
Reviewed version: 1.01
Censored: No, except for the DLSite version
Patch Needed: No, except for the Steam version
OS: Windows
Language: English, Chinese, Japanese
Pixel Town: Akanemachi Sideshow is an adventure game that takes place sometime after the events in the second game of the franchise and focuses again on Fuu as she takes a break from exorcising people and goes to a remote island to chill, just to lose her powers and get trapped within a magical barrier that covers the island, pushing her to infiltrate the local cult to find out what's going on and how to leave the island with her powers back.
The story follows the same formula as the prequel in that it doesn't feature any plot twists or anything that wows you, but it's good enough to keep you entertained. Unlike the previous games, however, the game focuses less on picking up clues and more on Fuu doing good deeds to get on the good side of the cult, deeds that more often than not lead to her getting into lewd situations. It also features multiple endings based on your progress, with one being a good ending and the rest bad endings.
Gameplay-wise, it isn't much different from the prequels aside from having to gather virtue from doing people a solid to progress. You still walk around looking for a highlighted NPC that gives you a quest or a spicy event in some cases. Its biggest difference is that the map is split into four smaller sections that you can fast-travel to by interacting with the map icons, making it easier to navigate the whole place without getting lost. Also, there's a tough but decent action sequence later in the game in which its difficulty is tied to how much virtue you have by the time you get there.
As for the visuals, they are a bit of a mixed bag because the hand-drawn character portraits aren't as good as the pixel art ones from the prequel, while the pixel art sex scenes are as great as ever. The scenes are also similar in tone in that most scenes are of the non-con variety, but the protagonist often rolls with it and tries to turn the situation in her favor when she's not outright enjoying it. That said, it still has a fair share of messed-up stuff—though there aren't any scenes with monsters this time—but you can easily skip them by pressing S if you're not up to watching them.
Verdict: Fun
Pixel Town: Akanemachi Sideshow is as enjoyable as the rest of the games from the franchise, so any fan of it shouldn't think twice and give it a shot. However, playing the previous two games before this one is a must since you'd feel a bit lost if you didn't.