Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town review

Two incongruous settings are the true stars of Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town. Sure, the game’s spotlight is usually focused on five-year-old Shinnosuke Nohara. Nicknamed “Shin chan”, by his family, he’s playful and precocious, and has a habit of dispensing mild innuendo. Given these qualities, it’s not surprising that both children and adults have adored the character ever since his 1990 manga debut.

As such, Shinnosuke needs little introduction, allowing Shiro and the Coal Town to bypass any rambling prologue. Instead, the game begins with Shin chan and his family having completed a temporary move to the Akita prefecture to live with Shinnosuke’s grandparents, Ginnosuke and Tsuru. As producer Akira Nagashima noted, their house is adorned with an engawa (a traditional Japanese veranda), providing a place for Shin chan and his grandfather to connect. In many ways, Shiro and the Coal Town functions similarly, with the game celebrating the potency of social connection.

A One-Way Ticket, Please

Undoubtedly, Coal Town’s early moments reflect the sense of wonder of relocating to a rural, agrarian village. Much like 2022’s Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation The Endless Seven-Day Journey, the beauty of nature abounds. From footpaths that crisscross verdant rice fields to a bountiful array of vibrant flora, the game’s hand drawn artwork is persistently gorgeous.

Best of all, it’s bath in different amounts of light as each in-game day passes, providing a golden sundown as well as the radiance of moonlight at night. Time moves slowly but progressively in Akita, marketed by details like the familiar chime of a protective rail gate and the sound of a passing train every afternoon. Spent a few hours with Shin chan’s extended family and you’ll probably consider relocating, too.

Next Stop: Coal Town

Once Shiro, the family dog, comes back covered in soot, Shin chan traces the peculiarity back to a transit station. In Ghilbi-like fashion, he’s whisked away to the game’s eponymous and town, which stands in sharp contrast to the rural tranquility found in Akita. Here, natural beauty is juxtaposed against human effort, revealing a bustling city right out of the Showa era.

Unlike the minimalism of the village, Coal Town is a dense patchwork of disjointed structures. Interiors are misshapen and crooked, conveying a sense of uneasiness. Soon you’ll learn about its economic and environmental hardships, as well as the resiliency of the town’s populace. There’s also a morally ambiguous character who wants to clean up the town, injecting just a bit of tension into an otherwise laidback experience.

Narrative Nattiness

When it comes to exposition, I appreciated Coal Town’s tendency to let context to do much of the storytelling. Largely, you won’t have to wade through long conversations. Instead, it’s bonding over a suggestive joke with your grandfather or the communal warmth of an extended family coming together for dinner. With its slice-of-life moments, Shiro and the Coal Town catalogs the mundane moments of life that go on to form nostalgia.

Coal Town’s play which is split between the autonomous chronicling of bugs and fish and completing errands for others. Since there’s no in-game calendar, you can just unwind, uncovering the nuances of each world, which channels the carefree days of being a kid. But if you desire more structure, it’s rooted in the interactions you’ll have with community members of both worlds.

What’s on the Menu?

It’s in these connections, that Shiro and the Coal Town habitually shines. One example: you’ll meet a woman named Yosio in Coal Town who’s trying to boost patronage at her family restaurant. With your help, new food supplies expand the menu, inviting an influx of new customers. Their food choices spark conversations that reveal amusing idiosyncrasies. But more importantly, it feels like your efforts are making a difference in helping Yosio realize her ambitions. While most games are content with quantifying progress with stat increases and rising fortunes, Coal Town’s rewards feel organic and memorable.

Additional gratification emerges after you help repair an elevator in Coal Town, providing access to trolly racing. Here, you’ll build a custom cart to participate in contests where winning is more involved than just being the first person to cross the finish line. Instead, safety is stressed, since you’ll lose points for crashing into your rival, obstacles, or losing control in a tight turn. Although upgrades are costly, you’ll be able to secure equipment like stabilizers and drill lasers to get an edge on opponents.

Conclusion

Coal Town’s only real misstep is a late-game economy where resources are devalued. For most of the game, gathering resources rarely is a chore, since most NPCs are thankful and provide some kind of compensation. But before the journey ends, you’ll be asked to accumulate triple-digital quantities of collectables, which undoubtedly feels like playtime padding.

Thankfully, this solitary blunder doesn’t completely tarnish Shin chan. Instead, more salient memories will probably be made from the less Sisyphean moments in Akita and Coal Town. Whether it’s your family struggling to say nice things about your dad’s dreadful television appearance or the slightest crush you have on a nerdy older girl, Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town reminds us of the beauty found in everyday things.

Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.