What happened in Chaos;Head?

Okay, Chaos;Child is getting a worldwide release. Which is great! More games are always awesome. But, there is an issue with this title. The problem is, while it happens to be part of the Science Adventure series, it is a sequel to Chaos;Head, a game never released outside of Japan. Though such adventures are self-contained, this is a situation where having prior knowledge of the previous game could really help. So, let’s go through the story of Chaos;Head. Plenty of spoilers lie ahead!

First, a bit of background. Chaos;Head is the first game in the Science Adventure series, followed by Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, Chaos;Child and Steins;Gate 0. It was released first on PCs in 2008 in Japan. Since then, an updated version of it, called Chaos;Head Noah, has appeared on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation Portable, iOS devices, Android devices, the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita. It is an atypical visual novel, as the choices you make do not involve picking and choosing the correct responses in different situations. Instead, you choose whether or not to view delusions. In certain situations, it is possible to see a positive delusion, negative delusion or ignore both options and see thing as they really are. This determine which route you end up on, a mechanic that returns in Chaos;Child. While the Chaos;Head games were never localized, the anime series was released by Funimation in North America and Manga Entertainment in Europe.

Okay! So let’s get started. Chaos;Head takes place in Shibuya. Things “seem” normal, except a serial killer is going around committing New Generation Madness murders throughout the area. But our hero, Takumi Nishijou, doesn’t really care too much about that. He is an otaku and shut-in who has worked out a plan to avoid being in public as much as possible. While he does go to school when he has to, to ensure he graduates, he is best known as the top Empire Sweeper Online player. Unfortunately, this doesn’t keep him from getting pulled in. Someone with the name “Shogun” shows him an image of a murder before it happens, Takumi sees it happen, then discovers the girl is supposedly his classmate and friend.

Now, Chaos;Head is notorious for being confusing. I’m going to simplify it by going over the main plot points. There are people in its world called gigalomaniacs. They have special powers that essentially allow them to make their delusions real. In addition to these supernatural abilities, they can general Di-Swords to use as weapons. Takumi is one of them, which explains the delusions that he has that can alter the story. Rimi, the girl Takumi sees at the murder scene, is another, as are classmates Sena Aoi, Kozue Orihara and Yue Kusunoki.

In this Science Adventure series is a group called the Committee of 300. Think of them as a shadow organization that has fingers in all sorts of pots as they attempt to reduce the population of the world and rule over the survivors. In Chaos;Head, this involves the New Generation Madness murders, mind control and exploitation of gigalomaniac powers. It is accomplishing this via The Nozomi Group and a Noah II machine that uses the power of these people’s delusions to control people. Rimi was tortured by them as part of their experiments and Yue’s sister died during the first New Generation Madness incident as part of the creation and preparation of the Noah II machine that could help the Committee of 300 achieve their goal

Onto a big twist! Takumi is actually a clone. The real Takumi is the old man in a wheelchair known as “Shogun” that is aware of The Nozomi Group, Noah II and the Committee of 300. He’s been trying to stop them, which led to his powers leaving him prematurely aged and near death, and created the Takumi players are following in Chaos;Head to finish his goals. It also led to The Nozomi Group and its president, Genichi Norose, kidnapping Nanami Nishijou, his sister, to use as part of the Noah II research and as a hostage. This also results in Rimi being taken when she attempts to save Nanami.

All of this means a big showdown at the end. Once Takumi completely awakens to his abilities, he is responsible for the destruction of Noah II, defeat of Norose and exposure of the New Generation Madness killer. (It turns out to be a nurse named Hazuki Shino, a woman who Takumi has been talking to throughout the game online using the name “Grim.”) This major fight causes a huge earthquake in Shibuya, which is mentioned in Chaos;Child as a catalyst for the events of that game. After the earthquake is over, Shogun dies. Depending on your decisions, Takumi may be alive. In the canon ending, Takumi and Rimi survive and end up together. And now, you should be ready for Chaos;Child!