The Tokyo Debunker Localization Makes It Worthwhile

So there are times when a translation of a title can really hurt a game. Fortunately, the opposite is also true. Enter Tokyo Debunker, a Disney Twisted Wonderland type of mobile game. The constant social media ads from ZigZaGame convinced me to give it a chance. While it very heavily lifts from other stories for its concept and characters, the sheer effort put into its localization keep me plowing through and reading the story.

Like Disney Twisted Wonderland, Obey Me, and similar titles, Tokyo Debunker is an otome adjacent adventure with some RPG elements, a gacha, and lots of attractive, single young men in a school setting. In its alternate setting, ghouls, demons, and supernatural elements exist. The player character is a young woman who ends up cursed by such an anomaly. In the process, she encounters two ghouls from Darkwick Academy sent to dispatch it. Since her encounter and curse, which will also kill her in a year, mean the matches used to erase ordinary people’s memories no longer work on her, she’s forced to remain at the school. Moreover, further encounters leave her tied to a legendary artifact that allows her to boost the powers of any ghoul if she’s touching them. It also means she won’t be sorted into any of of Darkwick’s houses (Frostheim, Hotarubi, Jabberwock, Mortkranken, Obscuary, Sinostra, or Vagastrom) and instead gets her own living space. 

Oh, and many of the ghouls tend to have a bad boy or villainous nature.

And when you’re pulling from the gacha, you’re collecting cards of characters that act as fighters in auto-battle, turn-based fights or equipment. 

There are also fake calls and character stories.

Anyways. I’m not here to go, “If you like Disney Twisted Wonderland or Obey Me, you should look at Tokyo Debunker.” (You would, probably.) It’s more that even though this game does feel like it is cut from the same cloth and has so many similar characters, the writing is so strong that it feels fine.

For example, the first four ghoul characters we meet in Tokyo Debunker and the initial encounters with the anomalies are the main reason I kept playing. In the first, the story hooks you perfectly. The being that catches you off guard and curses you is horrifying, but also beautiful. When you meet Taiga, he’s so brutal, raw, and vicious, but also sort of hot as he figures he’ll solve the problem of you — an innocent human bystander — by throwing you off the train. Haku, the ghoul who basically steps in with a “please don’t” to keep that from happening is so level-headed and kind. It’s a wonderfully memorable way to pull someone in.

From there, I admit I was a bit flabbergasted to see Professor Not-Satoru-Gojo (Hyde) and Professor Not-Korosensei (Moby). I got concerned, given they’re so similar to anime characters, and you can sort of see that influence creeping in with other members of the cast.

But after I met Not-Zenitsu-Agatsuma (Kaito), Tokyo Debunker completely won me over with its charm and story despite feeling so familiar. The characterizations are hilarious and allow for such fun interactions between members of the casts. It also enhances the actual investigations of the various supernatural situations the ghouls cover. It’s so well written and the localization is handled so well, I’m was okay with it. Sure, the two orphan kids in trouble at the institute with Slenderman are named Sora and Riku. Of course they are. Let’s go save their lives. The only downside now is that sometimes my team of characters ends up being too under-leveled or underpowered to keep going through the story, but so far I haven’t seen myself too walled off.

Tokyo Debunker is just fun! Yes, a lot of the background feels very familiar. You can see Disney Twisted Wonderland and Obey Me in the Tokyo Debunker DNA. The thing is, it really builds on that to ensure the story and characters are entertaining.

Tokyo Debunker is available on mobile devices.