Thank god it doesn't have a grand explanation for why everything happens, a short VN but probably the best BL title I've read

I'll keep this one brief, it's gripping from start to end, the consequences are sinister and it's uncomfortable but unlike Euphoria where the suspension of belief is so astronomical that you can easily dissociate the VN from reality, the work here is pretty good in keeping that feel of discomfort where it feels like 2 genuine dudes don't want to see each other in this weird vulnerable scenario,

Each game they're forced to play to earn points to exit the scenario ramps up the discomfort factor and god, I can't stress enough how much of an intense read this is

Clockup did a really good job, even moreso than they ever achieved on Euphoria. It's grounded and it's unnerving. Solid. Personal Favorite.

I wish I could rate it lower, not because as a fighting game it's bad, it's just fine

But it has no personality, as a child I grew up playing Tekken 3 and since I had no memory card my daily occupation was unlocking all the characters (including Dr. Bosconovitch! ifykyk how long that takes), and the stories were just so fun,

And then you have Tekken 7, just nothing, this only exists as a sole entity for versus gameplay and nothing else, the Mishima plotline I've always fucking hated but it's like even more insufferable here

bad

I like the aspect of killing assassins, I love a "kill these bastards" plotline,

The NMH assassins you're supposed to kill are distinct in personality and they are pretty damn despicable sometimes, I like the fact that they are over the top and some of the fights have particular gimmicks attached to them that at least break up the monotony for what could be a straightforward kill

Everyone brings this up so I'll just reiterate, everything outside of killing assassins on your hitlist is bad, this game has actual CHORES, IT HAS CHORES you have to do, suda you are such a fucking idiot, why in the actual fuck did you put chores in this game

It's indefensible for a completely straightforward title, at least NMH2 takes the liberty of oversimplifying the chores and removed the shoddy ass bike in its entirety

What a joke. Stop making your games fucking miserable, don't let sudadrones convince you this is some bayeaux tapestry masterpiece

Never have I seen a game abuse its status as a video game this hard, it never even once tries to convince you you're playing anything BUT a video game, it's batshit crazy, weird and the entire game feels like you're sick

But where I find a lot of it creative, funny or disturbing, I think much of the game is absolutely atrocious, the combat is bad, the navigation is bad, I know all of these contribute to the weird "acid-trip" like feel of the game, but it's just completely half-baked in its entirety, sometimes I genuinely felt like the game was trying too hard to be weird when it should've been trying hard to be a functional game at the very least

With an otherwise interesting story, I think the game doesn't strike a balance between weird and plain convenience very well. I guess a game should leave you different than how it finds you, and this game can certainly give you a taste of that.

[From someone who actually likes Clockup titles even when they are bad]

Incredibly self-indulgent title that's just not fun to read, the 4 hour bad end was pretty bonkers but the novelty wears out really fast, we get it pimple dick docking clockup why are you acting brand new you KNOW what your audience is, give us something interesting plotwise

I don't care about the grand plot it's so fucking bad who the fuck is out there pretending like the plot for this VN is good, it isn't, you go get a damn job

Read it for the funnies I guess, or if you like chuuni content, funniest part of the game is if you read the staff credits one of the VA was revising the voicelines in his apartment and got the police called on him

If you want to skip to my overall thoughts with the game, I'll save you the trouble of scrolling and relay them here at the start,

I do not like RE VII,

First thing I should mention is that the game does reflect design choices from the original resident evil games, and even though you are free to explore additionally and uncover secrets, the progression is entirely linear, and the backtracking is always considerably short,

These are not negatives btw, even when I joke about the shadow puzzles etc, all the puzzles were doable and didn't require me to look up a guide or require an impractical or inconceivable alternative to solve them, they weren't particularly imaginative however, some requiring me to just match the orientation of picture frames on opposite walls to one another, while others requiring me to look at a clock, I wasn't too fond of them at the end of the day

========================𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗼𝘂𝘁=============================

If you're expecting me to sing praises for the house section of this game you are perhaps sorely mistaken, even though it has locked doors that can be opened by keys you get late game, and has areas that are interconnected, there is no need to conflate "interconnected design" with "good design", when anyone talks about the house being a good section I imagine them talking about the basement section which links some critical parts of the game, the rest of the house sections will be left thoroughly unexplored by you unless you're treasure hunting or something,

You can argue much of the same for the original REmake where many areas of the mansion are never revisited, and although I find that true, there are still many areas/hallways/stairways you DO frequent in REmake, and the more you risk traversing them the more you are led into remembering the game's exquisite layout, maneuvering through these in late game is not only fun, but can be the deciding factor between ammo wastage and conservation,
The same is not true for RE7, the main house floor has two black creatures that you can just skip by standing behind a table and picking the route they aren't coming from, and the rest of the creatures are in the basement, that's it, the layout doesn't require you to have a good memory, it's quite literally just a basement and 2 doors on the top floor that are relevant,

But Deiji? There's also the tunnel that connects the old house (with the insects) to the RV outside the main house, to which i will say
"Yeah, that exists",

Again it's not mindblowing design, am I supposed to marvel at the fact that you can open a gate behind the RV? I appreciate it but surely it isn't some bayeux tapestry masterpiece in level design

It might seem like I'm trying to say:
large police station with interconnected paths==good(RE2Remake)
large mansion with interconnected paths == good(REmake)
small house + small veranda with some interconnected paths == bad(RE7)

But in reality I don't think RE7's design is bad, it's just very very small in comparison,

========================𝗚𝘂𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆=============================

Capcom was completely out of it's element when making a fps and it shows, this gameplay is BAD, the only aspect I liked were the chem fluids, having to pick between making heal items or ammunition was such an interesting in-the-moment gameplay choice you had to make,

The gunplay is atrocious, and the fact that the backwalk speed is so slow makes NO sense, it felt cheap to do that when it makes no sense logically,

The knife was the only weapon that allowed me to have the most fun with enemies otherwise standing and shooting black tar was just fucking agonizing, absolutely horrendous gameplay, if I had the opportunity I would always speed past the enemies I just did NOT like fighting them LOL
That said the burner weapon is pretty fun in the insect level despite the fact that I know many people don't like that section lol

========================𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗲𝘀=============================

There are like 3 black tar enemy types, that's it, you already saw this complaint coming from miles away, I don't need to ramble on it more, and the gunplay having this congested FOV + slow walkspeed is also the reason why they couldn't go for much variety with not only the enemies, but the bosses,

I disagree with people, insect baker mom was quite literally the only technical and good boss fight, baker son was fucking cringe my god the same bullseye boss I've been fighting since RE4 please Capcom give me a break with this shit,

If there was a jumping option it would have allowed them to get some good broken maps to with bosses so navigating across patches of walkable platforms would have been interesting, as opposed to falling into the water and climbing back up like in the baker son fight, did I mention how much I hate it already?

===================𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭========================

Predictability is another key complain I have with RE7, much of this is just unfortunate design choices that give away interesting surprises, a very good example is when you fight the Baker dad and the room has just one snake door, I was fully aware that this door was going to open late game when I would have to go through the basement and get mobbed, which is exactly what ended up happening,

This is isn't "oohh haha big galaxy brain i am so smart i predicted what the devs would do" it's just how games are sometimes lol

Same turnout on the stupid boat section with Mia (I'll dedicate an entire paragraph to it later in the review don't worry) when you're on floor 3F and get mobbed by a giant black vomit tar guy while retrieving the wire piece for the elevator,

Once more when you're retrieving the hand for the serum in the long series of corridors,

Just because I can predict it doesn't make it bad, but I feel like the opposite is came much of a detriment, when I would expect something and the game would never push the envelope,

I like the gameshow type segment with the Baker son, and I liked how it made sense how you escape since you already see the Birthday cassette, but they didn't do anything much besides putting string bombs all over the level, and baiting with wooden boxes filled with bombs, again I need to mention how just the opportunity to jump could have helped them put some variety into these sections,

The first disappointment I had was with the bubbling water at the start of the game, I knew they wouldn't try to scare me at all so I went into the water again and again, and as you can imagine nothing happens, and perhaps that would have made it too predictable, but the lingering feeling from that point never escaped me, which is that Capcom was too afraid to actually scare the players,

This game is gross, disgusting sometimes, but never scary, all the panic inducing mob spams are predictable, but still never scary, for a game that had the perfect setting to scare the shit out of it's players,


This could be me misjudging the intentions of the developers, but then I wish it was really fucking cheesy horror done in the most corny way possible, but it's just nothing,
Well, the Baker Dad was pretty funny anyway

======================𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝗕𝐨𝐚𝐭=====================

The boat section with Mia is probably universally hated, let's talk about it,

-It has 2 saves, one on 1F and one on 3F, and the rest of the navigation requires traversal with very little ammo, so you have to strategize when it comes to managing saves in this section, which I kinda liked

-It's extra frustrating because all the weapon management with ethan is thrown in the bin for this particular section, so you're stuck with a pistol and (later after you get the cabin key) the machine gun, this makes this entire level VERY stressful to play, but then they gave me a knife and the level was pretty much over and done with from that point lol

-This is where all the important storytelling is done, and the story is utter garbage, literally the worst tropes ever, I would have rather there was no story at all, little biological abomination with a mommy seeking imprint UGH, it's not that the level is entirely bad, it's just that having to do all this shit with such a terrible incentive makes it much harder, also makes this level extra shitty to go through especially since you've been fighting these black tars the entire game......doing it now without all the weapons you've accumulated lol

-The corrosive key item was a fine inclusion but it was just an excuse to hoard even more unnecessary items,

-The child itself ruins the game and knocks it down by like 6-7 points that's how bad this abomination is

======================𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝗦𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲=======================

RE stories have never been good is something I've always said and I maintain that sentiment, but RE7 doesn't fall under the same conditions of storytelling with the same Umbrella corporation again and again and again, and yet it still decided to not tell a compelling story(ends up being the same Umbrella schpiel with Mia's backstory reveal but eh), disappointing but not unexpected

The entire ending was just abhorrent I would like to forget it immediately, literally stockpiling all that ammo meant nothing by the end, didn't use the grenade launcher properly in the game even once LOL

=====================𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬======================

Cringe.

I liked the old woman on the wheelchair I thought her appearing in the different sections of the game was cool but they ruined her too with that stupid end reveal, just ugh
Ethan is deadpan, I like him but that's BECAUSE he's so lousily written, I can't tell if they were going for mentally unhinged, like James Sunderland from SH2 where he doesn't show much of a reaction to anything

Love him for wrong reasons, at least I didn't have to bear with him being traumatized by stupid shit but like, at least show a reaction to killing your wife in the start of the game my god

Hate the bakers except the Dad and Zoe but I don't LOVE them either lol

=====================𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟====================

-Hated the cassette segments, at least there are like 4 of them, they are pretty stupid storywise too, im in a dilapidated boat time to watch a cassette so i can recover my memory! I'm being chased by the Baker mom let just tape this for my husband real quick! So stupid

-Unskippable obnoxious cutscenes,
-Long irritating intro making replays hell
-The blocking feature is redundant I literally forgot it existed until they forced me to do it at the end lol

=======================𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥============================

I didn't like it, it has some really ambitious ideas but it's so far from reaching it's potential, whenever I'd thing it would get good the game just decided to let me down again and again

AI: The Somnium Files

This game is very tonedeaf, it oscillates between comedic and dramatic moments almost feeling as if the game is having an identity crisis, it can't DECIDE whether it wants to be over the top goofy or tell a compelling sci-fi murder mystery, or rather the game wants to be over the top goofy all the time but has a murder crime that's so sinister in nature that it doesn't fit well

(Except for Iris's route) the Psyncs are the highlight of this game, and they are also the only time the goofy-over-the-top nature blends well with the dreamlike logic, sometimes it's frustrating when you perform a meaningless action and get a time penalty but the factor of "Timies" makes it very interesting,

Also branching routes by how you engage within a Psync is a very solid idea, Aibo herself is a pretty damn likable character so it's fun to play as her in these segments

Where the Psyncs perhaps fail is that it's entirely trial and error sometimes, which given it's a dream I can't complain much about, but even something such as performing the same action twice (for example to a hole in a tree then in a different hole in a tree) you could trigger wildly different outcomes for progression, but as aforementioned the Timies reduce this frustration because they allow you to cutdown on the time for the main thing you're supposed to do in the Psync

Also to be fair there's only ever so much you can do in a Psync and you usually end up getting it right before it gets frustrating

Uchikoshi's biggest weakness has always been characters and even though there are some truly despicable garbage ones here, I enjoyed that he stepped out of his comfort zone on more than one occasion, besides Iris and Ota (or Mizuki when she's acting up) the cast is actually not subpar, there's some unique interactions you can have by clicking around the environment that got a smile out of me every now and then, but those moments can be counted on one hand
3/5 routes are utter nonsense garbage, but the final 2 routes are actually pretty cool, I enjoyed the final murderer reveal (and the Psync to get to him was also decently challenging albeit the factory itself was not that pleasing to look at)
The infodump is there, but it's broken up into small doses so you're ever only bored occasionally (and it's very easy to speed through these)

Extras:

-I liked the Mayumi final Psync in Ota's route, it's not much of anything and it's easy to find it melodramatic but seeing a mother struggle in a world that confuses her and trying the best for her family is surprisingly good to me, also the OST that plays in that segment ++

-OSTs in general are fine

-Dialogues options are bloated, sometimes you have to click the same option multiple times to continue the same thought for the character which seemed pointless, at one point I would look for the story relevant dialogue option so I could trigger the conversation ending option and didn't have to talk to the character anymore

-Presentation is good, but it's unpolished in many areas, still I can't be ungrateful atleast it doesnt look like VLR

-Despite the fact that both me and Fahim guessed the twist pretty early, the reveal was still fresh, solid and creatively executed with a compelling antagonist

-Sometimes there are cutscenes that play in their entirety, like everytime you go somewhere you have to sit through this shitty car cutscene which I just ctrl'd on instinct, other times Ota will be fed omelette rice and you have to watch the whole thing like, thrice in the entire game, there's also this cutscene where {a person gets killed near the warehouse in the past} and they show the entire video of the stabbing again and again,

These happen rarely but you really can't give the ctrl button a break in this game for a sensible experience

-The Yakuza were cringe

Do I recommend it? I can't say really, the first route is bad to the point where I expected nothing but a letdown, Iris is a horrible character and brings the quality of the experience WAAAAAAY down, but if you can stick with it and burn through the first 3 routes then I can say the reveal feels like all the effort you put in was worth it,

What you're getting is a lighthearted mystery VN so walk in with manageable expectations and you won't be extra disappointed, also for a Uchikoshi VN it's actually surprisingly small in it's scope and ends before it drags

A review on steam captures in a few sentences what the fundamental drawback of the game is:
"In the middle of incredibly climactic and dramatic moments, the tension will be dissolved immediately by bizzare antics, often with played-out "power of friendship" moments."

I know 3 people myself included who got confused by the start of the game so I'll lay it out for anyone that's interested,

The game has a very linear way of clearing its content despite how you have the ability to sometimes switch the order around a bit for variety, one of the game's charms.

The start of the game is a bit confusing, and it feels weird and over the place, Forgotten Crossroads misrepresents the game and misrepresents the journey you'll have ahead, I say the best way to clear content in this game is to have the aim of clearing all bosses which gives you the perfect road map, and once you're fought the Mantis Lords you're good to go,

The OST, the visuals, and above all what fantastic lore the game has. It's charming it's adventurous it has personality, the developers claimed that they designed the areas first and kind of found the story around it and it's pretty wild how well and cohesive most of turned out (minus the hive, what's up with the hive? TF is that place? Take it out)

I have yet to do the Pantheon but would love to embark on that adventure one day. Also great pricing on the game.

This one gets this high of a rating simply because its dungeon puzzles are genuinely one of a kind, everytime I worked through a solution it felt like an amazing accomplishment, very in-depth mechanics, I do think it's self-indulgent and by the end I got burnt OUT! The game is too damn big its daunting, it's too demanding and has a straight up skyscraper skill curve towards the end, got completely filtered out

Story is decent too! Just excuse the beginning of the game, it's rough, just wait for the first official dungeon

I have fond memories of playing Devil May Cry 3 on the PlayStation 2. I remember it being really fun, and I was really into the flashy action and style of the franchise back then.

It's 2022 now, and the action is just as flashy, but the game as a whole is a little disappointing. I expected more.

The main draw here is obviously the combat, which is great in parts, but the game design doesn't allow it to shine. Players are given so many weapons and skills, but absolutely no incentive to use them. I had this same problem with Ratchet and Clank (2021), where the game gives you a lot of weapons, but does not incentivize you to use any of them aside from the "cool factor". Why should I try out new arms for Nero when the first one is serving me just fine (and the chapters aren't even long enough for me to give the others a fair shot)? Why should I try new weapons for Dante when I've barely had enough time with his regular sword? And why switch anything up when it doesn't matter to the enemies anyway?

I have a problem with games that give you options, but at the end of the day, enemies can be defeated with your most basic arsenal. Why aren't certain enemies resistant to certain weapons and vice versa? Why don't some areas require me to use specific weapons to get through them? These are such simple ways to incentivize creativity with the weapons and tools. And it's not even like this is a revolutionary idea; games have been doing it for a while now, a notable example being God of War (2018).

Another thing that felt like a poor choice was the fact that there are 3 protagonists in this game. What a terrible idea, especially since one of the protagonists (V, obviously) has gameplay that doesn't belong in an action game. God, chapters which required you to play as V were some of the worst moments in gaming in recent history. Absolutely terrible.

But even with Dante and Nero, both of which have great combat mechanics and gameplay, switching between them hurt the overall experience. Every time I'd get comfortable with Nero's controls and skillsets, I'd have to switch to a different character and have to relearn things. In Dantes case, this was made worse by the fact that his kit changes twice during the game and needs to be partly relearned. This, coupled with the chapters being short, means you never really get fully immersed in the gameplay for a character before its taken away from you. I wish I got to play as Nero or Dante for the entirety of the game. I would've enjoyed the game much more that way.

I know the target audience of this game is people who enjoy replaying this at higher difficulties so they can spend more time with the arsenal and find ways to get that SSS rating. I'm definitely not the target. I just wanted a good action game for a single playthrough.

I don't have anything good to say about the story. Not that DMC is known for its storytelling, but this one was so mundane and predictable. Hell, I predicted what was going to happen at the end before I even finished the first chapter. It's ridiculous. Video game writers don't need to be writing games like The Last Of Us every time, but geez they gotta do better than this.

On top of that, I hate how Trish and Lady were treated. Not only did we not see them in action, but their only purpose was to be appear nude for a few scenes. How are devs still getting away with this in 2022?

--

Despite these issues, I don't want to say the game was terrible. It was just disappointing. There's potential here.

It felt good to be back in the Devil May Cry universe though, and see all these characters in next gen graphics. It's been a while.

And now, time for my most controversial opinion: I think DmC (2013) is a great game and was hated on because DMC purists didn't like the redesign for their favorite characters. I will even go as far as to say DmC is the best Devil May Cry game.

The combat for that game is maybe some of the best combat I've seen in a video game. Players were clearly incentivized to make use of their full arsenal, and enemies were really well designed. The environments were so well done too. I love that between the action we got to do some platforming and interact with some really creatively designed levels.

On top of that, the world and theme of that game was so much more compelling than just "demons from the underworld are killing people". Oh and the soundtrack! Such a great OST, I still listen to it sometimes.

Please bring back DmC!!!

aside from the visually stunning graphics the other aspects of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered remain to be mediocre at best. The map is big but empty, it felt like the developers just created a big sandbox and just dumped html rng generated sidequests in it which made the open world feel very dead. The story mode is cliche you just run around the empty city beating up edgy villains, the boss fights are horrible and the tedious MJ/Miles stealth missions don’t make the experience any better. The only notable good thing i can point out is the excellent voice acting, the characters felt real and some cutscenes really vivid because of it. To conclude i don’t reccomend this game to non spiderman fans because you’ll be bored of it pretty quick way before the story ends though die hard spiderman fans feel free to try it.

beautiful.. but not very intinuitive. i understand the isolation & setting of not wanting to hold your hand but.. a small, miniscule amount of direction would be nice. the "set" was gorgeous & the art is stunning, but everything blends too much together. if the parts you did simply disappeared or changed a little afterwards, it'd help a lot more than accidentally walking back to something you already did & getting confused. i don't want to use a walkthrough for the entire thing, but i don't want to slowly jog at a brisk pace around the same parts areas for hours. :(