ScrambledPawn
I mean obviously I'm gonna rate this on a curve as I played it almost solely for retro achievements; honestly as far as preschool learning software goes you can do much worse. There's a lot of unnecessary focus on single letters in multiple exercises and some teething issues in particluar with it translation into English from Japanese but there's enough here to encourage its target audience to put together some basic sentences in the long run.
Playstation 5 version crashes consistently when selecting the start of Greece from the map and PS4 version doesn't allow for cross-saves and wanted me to start the entire game again; pretty cool.
Said to be one of the more original entries in the Simple 2000 Series Budget range (to the point where to my knowledge it's the only one on PS2 fan translated into English), there's a lot to like about this but also a lot of find frustrating; for the most part, the gameplay is suprisingly decent, playing like a limited Devil May Cry or other hack and slash/third person shooter hybrids of the era. Unfortunately, the ranking system of these games is also present in limited form and it is not very pleasant.
For a game that relies almost entirely on its gameplay and customisation elements, the way in which these elements are rewarded to the player are baffling, with consecutive weapons only accessible through A/S ranks on certain levels instead of as a matter of progression. Usually this wouldn't be much of an issue on its own, but the pre-requisites to achieve these ranks negates any of the intended enjoyment of the game. Instead of enjoying looking for ways to utilise the perfect combination of ranged and melee combat, in order to achieve an S rank you are expected to not use the gun at all and spend the main brunt of your time using "maid style", which is a glorified way of saying "taunt every single enemy and leave yourself open to attack".
Not only this, but while customisation options do exist, they're reliant on a ridiculous amount of experience points in order to unlock; the cheapest upgrade on the base gun costs 100,000 and, if you choose to enjoy the game rather than chase the S rank methods detailed above, you're likely to not be able to afford even this marginal upgrade before the lategame.
Otherwise, The Maid Clothes and Machine Gun is about as enjoyable a budget experience as you can expect, albeit a very easy one minus a couple select boss fights, and even attempts to change up the gameplay in a couple of its levels to present a little variety. It's just a shame it rewards meticulous monotony over adventurous gameplay.
For a game that relies almost entirely on its gameplay and customisation elements, the way in which these elements are rewarded to the player are baffling, with consecutive weapons only accessible through A/S ranks on certain levels instead of as a matter of progression. Usually this wouldn't be much of an issue on its own, but the pre-requisites to achieve these ranks negates any of the intended enjoyment of the game. Instead of enjoying looking for ways to utilise the perfect combination of ranged and melee combat, in order to achieve an S rank you are expected to not use the gun at all and spend the main brunt of your time using "maid style", which is a glorified way of saying "taunt every single enemy and leave yourself open to attack".
Not only this, but while customisation options do exist, they're reliant on a ridiculous amount of experience points in order to unlock; the cheapest upgrade on the base gun costs 100,000 and, if you choose to enjoy the game rather than chase the S rank methods detailed above, you're likely to not be able to afford even this marginal upgrade before the lategame.
Otherwise, The Maid Clothes and Machine Gun is about as enjoyable a budget experience as you can expect, albeit a very easy one minus a couple select boss fights, and even attempts to change up the gameplay in a couple of its levels to present a little variety. It's just a shame it rewards meticulous monotony over adventurous gameplay.
2004
Grave's inital playthrough is enjoyable, albeit janky in the late game; once you unlock the final two characters expected in the endgame for replay value it's the most obscene mixed bag. Billy is by far the most enjoyable playthrough while Juji is entirely a slog and honestly painful to sit through in order to access the game's extra content.
Just play through it with Grave and then enjoy the smooth second playthrough with Billy; it's not worth the pain of the third playthrough for nothing but horde extras and minimaxing the gameplay for anything worth following through for the postgame goodies.
Just play through it with Grave and then enjoy the smooth second playthrough with Billy; it's not worth the pain of the third playthrough for nothing but horde extras and minimaxing the gameplay for anything worth following through for the postgame goodies.