Lobotomy Corporation | Monster Management Simulation: Story appears 1.8 times more often
Japanese-language reviews mention story and difficulty far more often than they do for other games. This analysis covers 1,262 reviews written in Japanese between January 2017 and November 2026.
Own research by 648 News. Every figure in this article was counted by us from 1,262 Steam reviews written in Japanese, collected between 2017-01-17 and 2026-11-11.
92.3% of Japanese reviews recommend the game
Players writing reviews in Japanese recommend the game at a rate of 92.3%. This figure comes from the collection of 1,262 reviews. Steam lists the exact same 92.3% positive rating across its own historical total of 1,262 reviews. The confidence interval for the sample spans from 90.7% to 93.7%. The median playtime behind these reviews sits at 80.9 hours. Most reviewers wrote their feedback after investing over eighty hours into the facility. The collection classified 1,262 reviews. The model sorted 909 of these entries. The mean sentiment score reaches 75.2. The sample includes 1,165 positive reviews and 97 negative reviews. The first review dates to January 17, 2017. The last review was recorded on November 11, 2026.
The numbers
Story and difficulty dominate compared to other titles
Story, scenario, and writing appears in 19.7% of classified reviews. This share is 1.8 times the typical baseline of 10.8%. Players writing reviews in Japanese frequently discuss the dark narrative and its cryptic lore. They note that reading flavor text and character dialogue reveals the hidden truths of the corporation. Difficulty and balance shows up in 15.7% of reviews, which is 1.7 times the usual rate. Reviewers emphasize that the game demands extensive trial and error. They describe a steep learning curve where early mistakes force multiple resets. Performance, optimization, bugs, and crashes appears in only 6.7% of reviews. This is half the standard baseline of 14.5%. Fewer reviewers complain about crashes or frame drops compared to other titles. Characters, character design appears in 11.8% of reviews. This topic ranks fifth in frequency. Music, sound, and voice acting appears in 1.3% of reviews. Japanese localization and translation quality appears in 1.1%. Graphics, art direction appears in 5.2% of reviews.
Gameplay and performance divide opinions
Gameplay, combat, and core mechanics divides the audience sharply. It appears in 45.2% of recommending reviews but jumps to 67.0% among those that do not recommend the game. Non-recommending players highlight the punishing resource management and frequent staff casualties. Performance, optimization, bugs, and crashes splits opinions with a 16.1 percentage point gap. It appears in 5.5% of positive reviews but reaches 21.6% of negative ones. Players who do not recommend the game frequently mention that the software slows down as the facility expands. Story, scenario, and writing also dominates complaints. It appears in 23.7% of negative reviews, which is 2.6 times the baseline of 9.2%. Amount of content, length, and replayability appears in 32.0% of negative reviews, 1.4 times the usual rate. Dissatisfied players note that the game requires substantial time to unlock all entries and reach the true ending. UI, controls, key bindings, and controller support appears in 2.0% of reviews. It shows up in 11.3% of negative reviews, which is higher than in positive feedback. Price, value for money, and DLC pricing appears in 1.0% of reviews. It appears in 1.0% of positive reviews and 0.0% of negative reviews.
ゲーム序盤は軽く動作するのですがゲームが進行し扱うリソースが増えるにつれ、それに比例して動作が重くなります
The game runs smoothly at first, but as resources increase, it slows down proportionally.
このゲームにおける苦しみのすべては、最後の結末の為にある。
All the suffering in this game exists for the final ending.
Long players recommend at higher rates
Players with the least play time wrote their reviews after up to 23.3 hours. 81.3% of this group recommends the game. They talk most about gameplay, combat, and core mechanics at 44.4%. They also mention amount of content, length, and replayability at 22.2%. Story, scenario, and writing ranks third at 17.1%. Players with the most play time wrote reviews after 163.8 hours or more. 97.8% of this group recommends the game. They discuss gameplay, combat, and core mechanics most often at 50.5%. Story, scenario, and writing ranks second at 25.1%. The recommendation rate differs by 16.5 percentage points between the two groups. The difference carries a p-value of p < 0.001. The median playtime for the least played quarter reaches 23.3 hours. The median playtime for the most played quarter starts at 163.8 hours. Online play, multiplayer, and servers appears in 0.1% of reviews. Developer or publisher conduct and update policy appears in 0.1% of reviews.
Methodology and sources
Data
Steam user reviews, retrieved with Steam's public review listing between 2017-01-17 and 2026-11-11: 1,262 written in Japanese. Steam's own all-time totals for Lobotomy Corporation | Monster Management Simulation were read on 2026-11-12.
How the reviews were classified
Every review was read by a language model, which rated how positive it is, how much concrete detail it gives, and which of 15 fixed topics it talks about. The counts and percentages in this article were then computed from those labels in ordinary code, not by the model. Automatic classification makes mistakes, so single percentages should be read as approximate. Reviews of fewer than 15 characters were not sent to the model; they count as positive or negative from the reviewer's own recommendation and carry no topic.
Limits
People who write a Steam review in Japanese are not a representative sample of everyone who plays in Japan, and the language of a review does not establish where its author lives. Steam's default filter for off-topic review activity was left on, so periods Steam marked as review bombing are excluded from the counts in this article. Reviews that arrived after the retrieval date are not included.
Links
Data from Steam. Steam and the Steam logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation.