Tokyo Chronos

Tokyo Chronos
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	MyDearest
Publisher	Sekai Project (outside Japan), MyDearest (PlayStation VR in Japan)
Platform	SteamVR, Oculus Rift (Platform), Meta Quest, PlayStation VR
Device	Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR
Operating System	Windows
Type	Game
Genre	Adventure, Visual Novel, Mystery
Input Device	Tracked Motion Controllers
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	20 March 2019 (SteamVR and Oculus Go)
Price	US$29.99 (Steam and PlayStation VR, list price)
App Store	Steam, Meta Horizon Store, PlayStation Store
Website	https://tokyochronos.com/en/

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Tokyo Chronos (stylized TOKYO CHRONOS; Japanese: 東京クロノス) is a virtual reality mystery visual novel developed by the Japanese studio MyDearest. It is set in a deserted, time-frozen version of Shibuya, Tokyo, where eight childhood friends try to work out which of them has died and who killed them. The game was funded through crowdfunding campaigns in Japan and on Kickstarter in 2018 and was produced by Kazuma Miki, a producer of the anime Sword Art Online.

Tokyo Chronos launched for PC VR headsets and Oculus Go in March 2019, followed by Oculus Quest in June 2019 and PlayStation VR in August 2019. MyDearest followed it with ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos (2020), set 300 years later in the same setting, and in 2024 the two games were released together for Nintendo Switch as non-VR ports.

Reviewed 7 October 2026. Developer, publishers, platforms and per-platform release dates and prices, story premise, staff and voice cast, crowdfunding figures, Switch port details, reception (UploadVR, Metacritic, Inside Games, Steam rating) and the ALTDEUS sequel facts against the cited sources. About review dates.

Story

The game's backstory begins with a fictional 1988 disappearance in Balashikha, Russia, in which a 13-year-old boy and his mother vanished. A year later a middle-aged man claiming to be the boy was found in woods near Balashikha; he said that he and his mother had been trapped for years in a world enclosed by a wall of mirrors, and a DNA test confirmed his identity. In the game's fiction a scientist links this "Balashikha Incident" to other historical disappearances and proposes that the victims had been taken to a parallel "Chronos World".

The main story takes place in spring 2018. The player character, Kyosuke Sakurai, wakes up in an empty Shibuya where the only other people are the seven other members of his former group of childhood friends. Inside Games describes him as a 16-year-old boy. When the group gathers at the scramble crossing, a large electronic billboard displays the message "I am dead. Who killed me?" If the world works like earlier Chronos Worlds, the only way out is to find the person causing the phenomenon and kill them.

Gameplay

Tokyo Chronos is a visual novel played in VR from the protagonist's first-person viewpoint; Inside Games noted that the player can see Kyosuke's reflection in mirrors and that the game has relatively few choices for an adventure game. The story has multiple-choice decision points and more than one ending. Road to VR reported that the game contains 5,000 lines of voice-acted dialogue in Japanese with English subtitles. The Steam version supports English and Japanese text, with full audio in Japanese only. According to MyDearest, the opening and ending music videos can be viewed in 360 degrees, and players interact with the heroines at very close range.

MyDearest's Steam description gives the total playing time as 15 hours, while its Meta Horizon Store listing gives around 10 to 15 hours to complete, with new paths unlocking on further playthroughs. In Inside Games' hands-on feature, the writer finished in about 10 hours and estimated about 20 hours for a player who listens to every line of dialogue. On Steam the game is listed as VR-only and as supporting tracked motion controllers; its minimum requirements are Windows 10, an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350, 8 GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 290.

Development

The game was developed by MyDearest Inc. with the following production team:

Role	Credit
Producer	Kazuma Miki, a producer of Sword Art Online
Director	Haruki Kashiwakura, previously 3D motion director on the anime film Expelled from Paradise
Scenario	Kou Segawa
Character design	LAM
Theme song	"UNLIMITED" by Eir Aoi

The Japanese voice cast is Yūto Uemura (Kyosuke Sakurai), Yui Ishikawa (Karen Nikaido), Ibuki Kido (Yu Momono), Shōko Yuzuki (Yuria Togoku), Romi Park (Sai Kimiya), Azu Sakura (Ai Morozumi), Keisuke Ueda (Sota Machikoji), Yūki Kaji (Tetsu Kageyama) and Ryōhei Kimura (Lowe).

Crowdfunding

In July 2018 MyDearest began a crowdfunding campaign in Japan on CAMPFIRE, which reached its target in 17 hours and collected more than 8 million yen in total. A separate Kickstarter campaign, with Sekai Project as publisher and Tokyo Otaku Mode as production partner, ran from 10 July to 21 August 2018 with a goal of US$75,000. At that stage the game was planned for Oculus headsets, HTC Vive via Steam and PlayStation VR, with Japanese, English and Chinese language support. The Kickstarter campaign finished with US$90,625. MyDearest's May 2019 announcement of the PlayStation VR release date, as published by Famitsu, put the combined crowdfunding total at more than 18 million yen from 1,662 backers in Japan and abroad.

Release

Platform	Release date	Notes
PC VR via Steam (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive) and Oculus Go	20 March 2019	Release date given by MyDearest; the Steam store lists 19 March 2019
Oculus Quest	20 June 2019
PlayStation VR (Japan)	22 August 2019	Package and download editions, 4,980 yen including tax; published by MyDearest
PlayStation VR (United States)	26 August 2019	Download, US$29.99
Nintendo Switch	1 August 2024	Non-VR port in TOKYO CHRONOS & ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos TWIN PACK, developed by IzanagiGames and MyDearest and published by IzanagiGames

The Japanese PlayStation VR release was rated CERO C. Sekai Project was the overseas publisher; on Steam the game lists Sekai Project as publisher and a list price of US$29.99; the Meta Horizon Store lists the Quest version at US$39.99.

The Nintendo Switch Twin Pack was announced in November 2023 and released on 1 August 2024, with the digital version sold through the Nintendo eShop. According to IzanagiGames' announcement, reported by Denfaminicogamer, IzanagiGames developed the port jointly with MyDearest; the presentation, camera work and interface were optimized for Switch, with controller and touch controls. In Japan the standard package edition cost 7,480 yen and a deluxe edition 11,880 yen, both including tax, and Tokyo Chronos keeps Japanese-only voice audio in this release.

Reception

In his review for UploadVR, Jamie Feltham praised the game's atmosphere, style and character designs and some uses of proximity in VR, but called the result disappointing: he found that the large amount of on-screen text pulled attention away from the environment and the characters, and argued that visual novels are at odds with the nature of VR. Metacritic lists one critic review, from IGN Japan, with a score of 86; the site has no Metascore for the game. The Inside Games writer concluded that the game did need to be in VR, and described the small number of locations and characters as a challenge for VR adventure games in general, arguing that Tokyo Chronos had set a benchmark for story-driven VR games with limited material.

In its announcement of the PlayStation VR release date, MyDearest stated that the game had ranked first worldwide in Steam's VR sales ranking. As of 7 October 2026, Steam shows a "Very Positive" user rating from 339 reviews.

Sequels

ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos takes place 300 years after Tokyo Chronos in a post-apocalyptic Shibuya, with the player as a genetically enhanced soldier piloting a giant mech against creatures called Meteora. Kashiwakura returned as director and LAM as character designer. It launched on Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift in December 2020, on SteamVR in February 2021 and on PlayStation VR in April 2021. Anime News Network describes DYSCHRONIA: Chronos Alternate as another MyDearest title in the "Chronos Universe".