Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos
Skip · RPG · 2013
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 40, under the fair line, at $4.99.
- Length
- 2h 3.2h to 100%
- Value
- $2.50/hr
- Reviews
- 75% of 786 positive
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Buy now or wait
Discounted in 4 of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last cut ended 11 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
About the game
From Dischan Media, creators of the highly acclaimed Juniper's Knot, comes Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos.Dysfunctional Systems is a visual novel series featuring Winter Harrison, a student mediator from a utopian world. Learning to Manage Chaos is the first entry in the series.What is a mediator?
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 1 GB of memory, Integrated Graphics, 502 MB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
The value story
Across all 22 discounts in the 13 years tracked, the median cut is 50 percent, about 24 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended 11 days ago.
On value it sits in the top 31 percent of its genre. It is cheaper than 67 percent of its genre. Among the games that feel like it, Tacoma ($19.99, scores 49) beats it on value, while it beats The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day ($9.99, scores 38).
More about Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos
Inside the two-hour refund window, 56 percent of the 148 reviews written there were positive, against 75 percent overall, and those are 23 percent of everything written about it.
The drop-off
42% start to 16% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
What players say
TL;DR: Since the developer has abandoned the project and the remaining episodes will not be made/released in the foreseeable future I wouldn't spend your money on this. Its story is incomplete and will probably never be completed. In the end by paying $5 for this you'll have 1.5 hours of prologue that is, in itself, not nearly enough to leave you satisfied. Update: As of July 14th, 2015 Dischan Media has officially...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
I come back to this game from time to time to listen to the music. It was great and the premise was refreshing. What killed it? The developers incompetence. Various financial issues hit them. They were overpaying for artists and apparently at one point they paid an artist and coder in advance and they ghosted the developer. This could have been a very successful series if the developer had hired competent staff and...
This game is so engaging if you like to be challenged on moral decisions. The political dilemmas and agendas and the issues that plague humanity are experienced from the innocent point of view of a child. Playing as a young girl on what was supposed to be a simple 'shadow' lesson of following an experienced mediator, suddenly having "xxx <spoiler> xxx" thrust upon you, and being forced to make choices with little...
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos scores 40/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 19, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/248800/dysfunctional-systems-learning-to-manage-chaosReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 28, price as of Oct 18. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.