Buy Shiki: The Four Seasons PC key

Shiki: The Four Seasons is a story-focused game about four characters’ experiences during the same week of campus life. Each character has a separate route associated with one season: spring, summer, autumn or winter. You must play the routes in seasonal order to unlock the other characters. Because the stories share a timeline, some content and events repeat. Completing all four routes unlocks the Four Seasons route, which brings the story to its climax and ending.

Story and campus life

The game follows four characters with different personalities, and the seasons are reflected in their traits and experiences. You see parts of campus life and learn about the characters through the events they face and some descriptions of their inner thoughts. Students appear as NPCs and have a different line of dialogue each day reflecting their personalities, experiences and worries, but they do not offer side stories or tasks.

The game has more text than a typical game, but it is not a visual novel or a campus-life adventure focused on everyday routines. Its campus areas are relatively sparse, and the story is accompanied by a variety of light gameplay segments.

Gameplay across the routes

Each character’s route has its own main activities, with different mechanics appearing as the story progresses:

• Spring: play a piano mini-game that appears alongside the story.
• Summer: solve puzzles in several stages; this is the shortest route because of its story.
• Autumn: investigate clues and play a bullet-hell deduction mini-game, with turn-based battles appearing where the story calls for them.
• Winter: take on action combat across three major stages, each with various puzzles. This is the longest route because of its stages, and its combat can be challenging.
• Four Seasons: encounter a mix of the game’s different activities as the story advances.

The overall experience combines mini-games, puzzles, turn-based combat and action stages, with gameplay serving the story rather than being its main focus.

Length

The game takes about 10 hours to complete, though the time varies if you get stuck and because the routes differ in length. Summer is expected to be the shortest route, while Winter is the longest.