Trivia / Machi

• Acclaimed Flop: Chunsoft spent a lot of money on the game (the budget supposedly ran upward of 2 million dollars, a massive amount for a visual novel at the time). But ultimately it sold far less than Kamaitachi no Yoru and was deemed a commercial failure. It was successful with critics though and garnered a devoted fanbase, enough to eventually convince the studio to make a spiritual sequel 428: Shibuya Scramble ten years later.
• Genre-Killer: The game really wanted to be a Genre Turning Point. Compared to other visual novels of its era, it did do a whole lot of new things. Multiple protagonists, routes advancing simultaneously and affecting each other, usage of live actors and still shots instead of the usual drawn busts, a mix of different genres. The game doesn't let the player input their own name, since the characters are not supposed to be the player and have their own backstories and personalities. The tagline in the box even says "sounds, storytelling, interactiveness: innovation of sound novel". Unfortunately, its commercial failure convinced Chunsoft that sound novels weren't worth the financial risk anymore, aside from Kamaitachi no Yoru sequels. It would be another nine years before they released Imabikiso and 428: Shibuya Scramble, and their performance wasn't good enough either, marking the end of the genre for good.
• No Export for You: The games never saw a release outside Japan.
• What Could Have Been: If not for this game’s commercial failure, its direct sequel would have been made instead of repurposed into Toumei Shoujo Ea as a Divorced Installment.