At a 30 minute run-time, there’s honestly not much to say about Prelude -- like the name suggests, it’s a prequel to the mainline Ghostwire: Tokyo game, acting as a set-up for its predecessor’s events ... .at least theoretically. The reality is a bit different, with Prelude being more akin to a small story that happens to take place before things than a genuine build-up or spiritual antecedent.

Like most VNs, it’s got a gorgeous, anime-esque artstyle chock-full of static characters composited against moving eyes and innumerable poses. Unfortunately, you’ll be hardpressed to enjoy any of them courtesy of the bewildering decision to enlarge the dialogue box to 1/3 the size of the screen (and no, not a single speech from any of the NPCs occupies even half its length). If that weren’t bad enough, the coders didn’t bother inputting color flips or directional swaps to indicate a change in speaker, meaning you’ll often get mixed-up on who’s talking during a dialogue.

Music and SFX are surprisingly diverse, though they don’t quite leave an impression due to the short playtime.

The story is fine, with the game doing a decent job individualizing each persona to the point where I was actually able to distinguish them apart.

Gameplay, as you may expect, is 90% clicking through conversations. There are a couple of moments where Prelude throws in some wrench borrowed from other titles, like a Pokemon-esque battle and Ace Attorney-type response tree, but it’s not a focus and should not be anticipated as one.

In the end, Prelude is an okay diversion, but given its shaky connection to Ghostwire, it ultimately lacks a must-buy impetus.