JOEZCafe
2021
[Played on Game Pass] Unpacking is a simply delightful puzzle game with both calming gameplay and an emotional ludonarrative. What you see is what you get, and you don't wanna miss it.
Classic, Vanilla Tetris but with just that extra bit of emotional charm by its visuals and soundtrack, absolutely one of the best games in the franchise, especially with the Multiplayer expansion.
To ask if SB is good ignores just how funny this game is. It's by all accounts not very well designed and a technical mess, but by god is it entertaining when the odd frustration, bug or exploit gets thrown in.
2018
[Played on Game Pass] Donut County is a cute, Katamari inspired puzzle game about being a tool of oppression and using direct action to overthrow a tyrant with those tools. It's truly wonderful.
F1st's only sins are the lack of the improvements made in its successor, especially dynamic hitsounds for each note type, but it's still an expansive and joyful rhythm game to play with an ENTIRELY unique setlist of zero returning songs, making it a wonderful standalone rhythm game that doesn't feel the need to wallow in reincorporation.
If you can only get one DIVA game, I would recommend F2nd, but this one is well worth playing beforehand as a worthy introduction to the series.
If you can only get one DIVA game, I would recommend F2nd, but this one is well worth playing beforehand as a worthy introduction to the series.
The greatest vocalsynth game, let alone Hatsune Miku game ever made, with a stellar song library, filled to the brim with stuff to do and cathartic mechanics and feedback, absolutely up there as one of the highlights of the rhythm game genre.
X is the black sheep of the DIVA series with polarising RPG mechanics and a small song library, but it more than makes up for it with an engaging progression system and some of the best songs and charts DIVA has to offer.
It's good, actually.
It's good, actually.
Future Tone is really weird to explain, as a home console port of the arcade game, it's the most comprehensive Project DIVA experience, containing 220+ songs from the previous games and the hardest charts and mechanics in the series, and that's it's problem.
In truth, all of the Arcade DIVA games are the weakest in the series with boring charts, game design that prioritises difficulty and score chasing over musical catharsis and very little extra material beyond spamming charts.
It's the rhythm purist's Project DIVA, with nothing more for genre fanatics who desire that little bit more.
In truth, all of the Arcade DIVA games are the weakest in the series with boring charts, game design that prioritises difficulty and score chasing over musical catharsis and very little extra material beyond spamming charts.
It's the rhythm purist's Project DIVA, with nothing more for genre fanatics who desire that little bit more.
SEKAI is a concoction of everything I love about the rhythm game genre but still executed extremely poorly, with dull charts and mechanics and a plot that's relegated off to the side to make the game's holistic ludonarrative practically nonexistant.
Add in the game being a senseless live service that adds meaningless content that hardly improves the experience and SEKAI makes its gacha mechanics the least offensive aspect of its design.
Add in the game being a senseless live service that adds meaningless content that hardly improves the experience and SEKAI makes its gacha mechanics the least offensive aspect of its design.
Mega Mix was an interesting strat by SEGA to capitalise on the DIVA franchise after a multi-year hiatus and it shows, less songs, worse visuals and more egregious DLC to make a rendition of the weakest DIVA but just that little bit worse.
Did you know the last truly new Project DIVA game was in 2016 with Diva X and since then we've been receiving a rerelease of the arcade game once every two years?
Despite it's name, Mega Mix + is actually closer to being a PC release of Future Tone and contains the largest song library in DIVA if you include the DLC.
Critiques of the other two releases still stand, but it's not a poor deal, just be careful with the odd port issue like frame dips and crashing.
Despite it's name, Mega Mix + is actually closer to being a PC release of Future Tone and contains the largest song library in DIVA if you include the DLC.
Critiques of the other two releases still stand, but it's not a poor deal, just be careful with the odd port issue like frame dips and crashing.
It feels cruel to rate Mirai so low because it has a lot going for it with its song choices and side modes, but I couldn't bring myself to finish it due to the underwhelming and tedious way Mirai adapts the rhythm game for less experienced players.
Compared to the freeform system of the DIVA games, the rail system in Mirai is lamer, slower, cheaper, undercharted and makes everything a boring slog, especially with the lack of an Extreme difficulty across all charts and songs being needlessly left at their full length.
Compared to the freeform system of the DIVA games, the rail system in Mirai is lamer, slower, cheaper, undercharted and makes everything a boring slog, especially with the lack of an Extreme difficulty across all charts and songs being needlessly left at their full length.
Asking if Ultra Deluxe is worth the time and money is the wrong question. It's a quaint extension to the original, with a lot of purpose, and it doesn't make TSP any less fantastic.
I’d say the only real downside is it’s more linear execution of the Ultra Deluxe content makes it a bit less surreal and more “visibly structured” than the original, so it should be absolutely taken as a Mini-Episode on top of an already brilliant original game.
When the game asks you if you've played the original before, answer truthfully for the best experience.
I’d say the only real downside is it’s more linear execution of the Ultra Deluxe content makes it a bit less surreal and more “visibly structured” than the original, so it should be absolutely taken as a Mini-Episode on top of an already brilliant original game.
When the game asks you if you've played the original before, answer truthfully for the best experience.
2013
TSP will not change your existing view on Walking Sims, but it's surreal to the point of both hilarious and terrifying as you start questioning what's a bug and what's a feature of the experience.
Its very thesis statement pertains to interactivity in games, and in turn pulls off a narrative with peaks and valleys all through what happens in the game structurally, and it’s unlike anything else.
Its very thesis statement pertains to interactivity in games, and in turn pulls off a narrative with peaks and valleys all through what happens in the game structurally, and it’s unlike anything else.
With no multiplayer on the main mode, downgraded story cutscenes and dodgy physics, Banana Mania is straight up inferior to emulating the original MB games on Dolphin.