I would rate DI2 higher if it wasn't called "Dead Island", good visual, atmosphere, dismemberment, in principle, everything works, there is only one nuance, this is one of the most boring games, about which there is nothing to say, 1-button combat, no "development of ideas",why i can`t fight with any objects, for example, and not just sticks, cutscenes are a overlong trash B movie, but it`s good done and with a couple of micro-fun moments. It's a pity, we could get a competitor to "Dying Light 2".

Check my 2023 top: https://www.backloggd.com/u/grihajedy/list/2023/

I was interested in playing this after hearing that it was better than expected and a really early example of a dating sim. The one thing that stood out to me was how the women you can date felt closer to actual characters with lives that don't exclusively revolve around a) being utterly obsessed with the protagonist or b) being porny archetypes. That's not to say those things aren't ever an issue, or that it doesn't sometimes fall into gross tropes, but at the very least I found the writing funny and more interesting than I expected it to be. Cool as a piece of gaming history (sort of?) but not really my thing.

Yep, that sure was an Uchikoshi game all right. Weird tone problems, scifi concepts and conspiracy theories, too much innuendo, working backwards from making up twists to then working out how to write a story around them and schlock, lots of anime schlock.

I honestly don't really know how to review this game, other than to say that the problems with the first one werent particularly fixed, and I think it lacks some of the dumber things about the first one that made me laugh (like a main plot point being a twitch streamer having a brain tumour) but its also maybe a bit more consistent (though its first half is notably tighter than the second half.

Overall though, I am an Uchikoshi head, he has me hostage and for all my complaints I made it through to the end and will play whatever it is he's involved in next. So it doesn't really matter what I think about this as a piece in his larger ludography.

A 20 minute game about browsing the internet while moving at lightspeed. In a single half hour, years have passed for your friends.

More than anything, its a game about a Feeling. Almost instantly after you've left the planet, technology starts advancing at a rapid pace. Implants, synthetic rights, police crackdowns, all these factors become everyday issues for your online friends. As they get into their facebook arguments and debates, it immediately creates that sensation of feeling lost. You can try to keep in contact as best you can, but the only prompts you can send to people just expose your ignorance about the world. It can be frustrating to have such limited responses, but it conveys just how lost you are as your friends drift on through life.

Its not a particularly elaborate game and its not trying to be. There seems to be some minor changes to posts depending on your actions, but its hard to pinpoint the exact cause. That ambiguity helps the game's thesis. What impact are you leaving on these people's lives? Over a decade has passed and you've only posted a few comments. Do they even remember you?

On your final page refresh, no one's on the website anymore. The company providing your flight didn't add any other website options, so you're stuck looking at bots while all your friends have moved on. Its the culmination of that feeling of quiet isolation. Even when you get off your flight, what's waiting for you? Lightyears away from friends, rebuilding your life, trying to reconnect long-distance with people who have barely heard from you in the decades. Its messy. Its complicated. Its an uncomfortable feeling to sit in but its the reality of things. Now you have to live with it.

A perfectly pleasant little cozy game.

Root Letter, its predecessor game, is pretty bad. The main character is bizarrely cruel, and the answers to the mysteries vary wildly depending on player actions. Its just a mean, inconsistent game.

By comparison, Root Film is just kind of a cozy time. The mysteries aren't particularly complex and the mechanics are equally simple. Your main task is just hopping from place to place, trying to activate dialogue. The confrontation sections are really simple with the evidence you have and there's not a lot of concern to be had over failing. Its just simple little mystery time.

The core film gimmick is also kind of delightful. The two alternating leads, Yagumo and Riho, fill different roles of the film industry. Yagumo is an aspiring director trying to catch his big break. Riho is a model who's traveling as part of a media personality gig she's hoping to nab. You would think that mean they'd encounter the same kinds of characters, but not really. Riho's public visibility and charm gets her invited into fancy parties or happily welcomed into private succession conflicts. She can mingle among the rich, even when she's just scrounging for jobs. Her mysteries all focus on her easing her way into these superficially pleasant social spheres and poking holes into the facades.

By comparison, Yagumo's down-on-his-luck status in life forces him into an underdog position. I kind of wish the game leaned into Yagumo as a dipshit more, even if it was a quality I hated in the Root Letter protagonist. Riho solves mysteries out of the goodness of her heart. Yagumo, for much of the game, seems to be solving mysteries because these murders are getting in the way of his location scouting. He really, REALLY needs this job, so he'll dig through the dirtiest corners to solve a crime and get back on the path of getting paid. Even if I preferred Riho's cases to Yagumo's, its a fun distinction.

The final case is sort of a shrug for me. The game pulls out its Twists to reveal how Riho's story and Yagumo's story connects, but it doesn't fit together for me. It means a lot of pretty grim endings for Riho's charming cast, endings that don't line up with the characterizations that I thought were established.

But its hard to complain too much. I didn't go in expecting a masterpiece, just a distraction for my lunch breaks. It filled that purpose with a solid Good Enough.