Sencha
A cozy game of low stakes and personal journeys.
Honestly, it's a pretty middling game. The puzzles were too easy. The default camera settings were set by a monster and the walking speed drove me insane.
But the game oozes a curious amount of charm. The characters are likeable and their relationships with each other were believable. The story wasn't groundbreaking but enjoyable. The game looks and sounds great.
I love that Nintendo has been reviving some of their long dead IPs. Can we get Hotel Dusk remake next please?
Honestly, it's a pretty middling game. The puzzles were too easy. The default camera settings were set by a monster and the walking speed drove me insane.
But the game oozes a curious amount of charm. The characters are likeable and their relationships with each other were believable. The story wasn't groundbreaking but enjoyable. The game looks and sounds great.
I love that Nintendo has been reviving some of their long dead IPs. Can we get Hotel Dusk remake next please?
2023
It is a cardinal sin to lock a true ending to a JRPG behind 100% completion. And the ending was not worth the effort. I should have just watched the true ending on Youtube and saved myself a tedious 3 hours.
Sea of Stars is carried by its art style and music. To the people saying it has a good story, are we playing the same game? The story itself is fine, standard JRPG chosen one saves the world, but the writing and world building is awful. I didn't care about any of the characters because they had no personality, really disliked Gary-Stu deus ex machina Garl, and stopped caring about the plot after the whole Garl part. And the dialogue was really, really terrible.
And like hello? Erlina and Brugaves?? Like I didn't like them at all but they really just yolo'd out of the story half way through. And Resh'an and Aephorul?? See you space cowboy??
Combat got tedious 10 hours in when nothing ever changed. I just spammed the exact same skills and strategy I did in the first hour to the final boss fight. There was no feeling of progression to the combat because of that.
Boss design is fabulous. The exploration and puzzles were simple but enjoyable enough. The game is eye candy with great music and sound design. Unfortunately the terrible writing, cardboard cut-outs of characters and self-insert Garl dragged down an otherwise decent game.
Sea of Stars is carried by its art style and music. To the people saying it has a good story, are we playing the same game? The story itself is fine, standard JRPG chosen one saves the world, but the writing and world building is awful. I didn't care about any of the characters because they had no personality, really disliked Gary-Stu deus ex machina Garl, and stopped caring about the plot after the whole Garl part. And the dialogue was really, really terrible.
And like hello? Erlina and Brugaves?? Like I didn't like them at all but they really just yolo'd out of the story half way through. And Resh'an and Aephorul?? See you space cowboy??
Combat got tedious 10 hours in when nothing ever changed. I just spammed the exact same skills and strategy I did in the first hour to the final boss fight. There was no feeling of progression to the combat because of that.
Boss design is fabulous. The exploration and puzzles were simple but enjoyable enough. The game is eye candy with great music and sound design. Unfortunately the terrible writing, cardboard cut-outs of characters and self-insert Garl dragged down an otherwise decent game.
I suffered through this just for Edgeworth and so I can play AAI2.
the good:
- Edgeworth, Gumshoe, Kay, Badd
- AGENT LANG chefs kiss
the neutral:
- the gameplay is fine but the novelty wears off after the first case
- the cases and majority of characters are painfully average and frankly forgettable except for the overarching mystery of the Yatagarasu
the bad:
- the bloat. there is so much unnecessarily dialogue which adds nothing to the game but puts me to sleep
- each case could have been written a lot tighter if people would just shut up and not make you have to prove every single tiny point before you can arrest the culprit
the good:
- Edgeworth, Gumshoe, Kay, Badd
- AGENT LANG chefs kiss
the neutral:
- the gameplay is fine but the novelty wears off after the first case
- the cases and majority of characters are painfully average and frankly forgettable except for the overarching mystery of the Yatagarasu
the bad:
- the bloat. there is so much unnecessarily dialogue which adds nothing to the game but puts me to sleep
- each case could have been written a lot tighter if people would just shut up and not make you have to prove every single tiny point before you can arrest the culprit
2006
I've always loved the Digimon anime as a kid but never actually played the games. I figured why not one day when I got tired of playing Pokemon.
Digimon World DS is surprising alright. The story is... well what you'd expect of a children's game but the gameplay is solid. Building and customizing your digimon through digivolving and de-digivolving is so much more satisfying than raising pokemon.
The encounter rate can be brutal though, especially if you get lost in some of the maps.
Digimon World DS is surprising alright. The story is... well what you'd expect of a children's game but the gameplay is solid. Building and customizing your digimon through digivolving and de-digivolving is so much more satisfying than raising pokemon.
The encounter rate can be brutal though, especially if you get lost in some of the maps.
Sky SC has to be one of the few games I cried as the ending credits rolled not because the ending was sad but because I couldn't believe it was over.
There's a lot of flaws to Sky SC. Namely how formulaic the story was, the amount of backtracking near the end, and how stereotypically anime the Ouroboros Enforcers were.
However the storytelling and characters more than carried the entire game on its back. FC was essentially a 60 hour introduction to the Liberl arc and SC is where everything pays off. And the payoff is so, so worth it.
Estelle Bright is one of my favourite protagonists. She's incredibly well-written and her character development across both games, from a type naive airhead to a maturing young woman, sure of her path and the people she wants to walk beside, is incredible and completely believable.
All the characters in the game are so well written. It was never a drag to read through all the dialogue in the game because I love all these characters so much. Do yourself a favor and install the EVO voice mods. I can't imagine playing the game unvoiced. From Agate to Oliver to Kloe and Loewe, watching their struggles to find their own path was no less a delight than watching the magnetic relationship between Estelle and Joshua. And Estelle and Joshua's relationship is peak.
FC was a good JRPG. SC is something else entirely. I'm struggling to put it in words but something about how comfy the game was despite the raised stakes, the well written characters and their relationships with each other, the incredible writing, story and world building makes this something really special.
Congrats Falcom. I'm hooked. I'm playing the next 11(?) games in the series.
There's a lot of flaws to Sky SC. Namely how formulaic the story was, the amount of backtracking near the end, and how stereotypically anime the Ouroboros Enforcers were.
However the storytelling and characters more than carried the entire game on its back. FC was essentially a 60 hour introduction to the Liberl arc and SC is where everything pays off. And the payoff is so, so worth it.
Estelle Bright is one of my favourite protagonists. She's incredibly well-written and her character development across both games, from a type naive airhead to a maturing young woman, sure of her path and the people she wants to walk beside, is incredible and completely believable.
All the characters in the game are so well written. It was never a drag to read through all the dialogue in the game because I love all these characters so much. Do yourself a favor and install the EVO voice mods. I can't imagine playing the game unvoiced. From Agate to Oliver to Kloe and Loewe, watching their struggles to find their own path was no less a delight than watching the magnetic relationship between Estelle and Joshua. And Estelle and Joshua's relationship is peak.
FC was a good JRPG. SC is something else entirely. I'm struggling to put it in words but something about how comfy the game was despite the raised stakes, the well written characters and their relationships with each other, the incredible writing, story and world building makes this something really special.
Congrats Falcom. I'm hooked. I'm playing the next 11(?) games in the series.
Crisis Core emotionally destroyed me in 2007 and it emotionally destroyed me again 15 years later. I love this goofy game so much.
Maybe I'll get around to finally playing FF7R for Zack.
Maybe I'll get around to finally playing FF7R for Zack.
Kuso >>>>> everyone else
A little too heavy handed for me at points, and tbh I was bored during some of the slower moments, but worth a playthrough just for Kuso. Once again, the poster boy does nothing for me.
A little too heavy handed for me at points, and tbh I was bored during some of the slower moments, but worth a playthrough just for Kuso. Once again, the poster boy does nothing for me.
This game did not have to be 23 hours long. I felt like the first half just dragged, partly because the first four cases were very easy to figure out, and partly because I didn't care much for any of the characters. The majority just didn't live long enough for me to start to care about them. The others never broke out of their tropes and actually have a personality or developed in anyway. I only really cared about Sakura, Kyoko and Byakuya.
Maybe it was because I started playing this right after finishing Ace Attorney but I felt vaguely insulted about the game literally spelling out everything for me. None of the trials were particularly difficult either. I had more trouble trying to figure out what exactly the game wanted me to do to prove my point or even just hitting the right points with all the white noise (mean difficulty is more annoying than difficult) than actually solving any of the mysteries.
I also felt like the game just ran out of steam at the end and instead of letting the player come to the conclusion themselves, they decided to just info dump everything in one go. For a game that built up its overarching mystery over time in fairly decent way, it was a let down to have everything solved in one long exposition.
Maybe it was because I started playing this right after finishing Ace Attorney but I felt vaguely insulted about the game literally spelling out everything for me. None of the trials were particularly difficult either. I had more trouble trying to figure out what exactly the game wanted me to do to prove my point or even just hitting the right points with all the white noise (mean difficulty is more annoying than difficult) than actually solving any of the mysteries.
I also felt like the game just ran out of steam at the end and instead of letting the player come to the conclusion themselves, they decided to just info dump everything in one go. For a game that built up its overarching mystery over time in fairly decent way, it was a let down to have everything solved in one long exposition.
2018
What's there to say about Hades that isn't already known?
Easy enough to get into, narrative good enough to get you to stay, this is the rogue-like for people both new to and fans to the genre.
I put the game down after escaping Hades because my backlog's insane, but this is a game that will never get taken off my Steam Deck.
Easy enough to get into, narrative good enough to get you to stay, this is the rogue-like for people both new to and fans to the genre.
I put the game down after escaping Hades because my backlog's insane, but this is a game that will never get taken off my Steam Deck.
More than a decade later and I still love this cast of colourful wacky characters, the storytelling, presentation and everything that makes Ace Attorney so special.
An absolute classic and a must play for anyone that likes VNs.
Also plays perfect on Steam Deck for the nostalgic portable experience.
An absolute classic and a must play for anyone that likes VNs.
Also plays perfect on Steam Deck for the nostalgic portable experience.
2016
The only good route in this game is the true route. And by good I mean the least dumb route in the entire game with some sort of semi-satisfying ending.
MC drove me nuts. She's the epitome of bystander otome MC who needs to be rescued at every point. The LI are meh all around except for maybe Toa and secret character (though they kind of ruined the secret character with the direction of their relationship with MC and y'know how little relevance he ended up having to the story. I really liked him otherwise but they ruined him and the potential he had ugh).
I came in with low standards and was still disappointed. The only thing 7'scarlet has going for it is pretty art (I really liked the backgrounds) and some interesting ideas about life and death that were never really fleshed out.
MC drove me nuts. She's the epitome of bystander otome MC who needs to be rescued at every point. The LI are meh all around except for maybe Toa and secret character (though they kind of ruined the secret character with the direction of their relationship with MC and y'know how little relevance he ended up having to the story. I really liked him otherwise but they ruined him and the potential he had ugh).
I came in with low standards and was still disappointed. The only thing 7'scarlet has going for it is pretty art (I really liked the backgrounds) and some interesting ideas about life and death that were never really fleshed out.
I adored the setting, enjoyed the visual presentation and the characters but I can't help but feel that the ending was kind of anticlimactic. I can't really put my finger on it, but I feel that the buildup to the big bad was lacking. The dialogue was great but maybe the storytelling in general could have been done better.
2020
If you hate good storytelling, complex characters (including MC) political intrigue, historical Chinese settings and more plot than romance you will not have a good time. If on the other hand, you adore all these things like I do, you will love My Vow to My Liege.
I don't think I'd ever played a VN with a protagonist I liked and admired more than AhYu. She's naive at times, too lost in revenge at others, stuck between she was was and who she has to be, and yet follows through with her own convictions and tries to damn best to protect her people and country. She's such a realistic, believable, complex character with her own agency that I don't know how any other otoge protagonist will ever beat AhYu's place in my heart. I care more about AhYu's journey than I do the love interests. Not that the love interests were uninteresting. They're all well-written characters in their own right (mostly), with their own different dynamics with AhYu, and their own believable character motivations who grow throughout the routes. We even get a female side-character who is well written, just as badass as MC, and doesn't exist just to talk about boys with the MC!!!
I loved the setting. I eat up political intrigue and warfare. I read lots of Chinese WNs, I was very comfortable with the historical Chinese setting, Wuxia concepts and intimacy of nicknames. (AhYu and AhJiu ow my heart). For those new to the genre it may be a bit confusing but the in-game glossary should help some.
The only things there were issues were 1) translation quality and 2) Chenfang.
The translation is fine for the most part but I noticed lots of typos especially towards the end of the game. Nothing that ruins the game but they exist to blemish great writing otherwise.
Chenfeng. Oh boy. Why did they do my Chenfeng dirty like this? His route is the worst one out of the four due to plot reasons that lead to less romantic interactions between them. Chenfeng is my favourite LI. I love his design and his VA, and I adore the bodyguard trope. My kink is devotion and loyalty okay??? So it really hurts me that they didn't flesh him out fully and give us a route as well written as Goujian or Wu ZiXu. Wu ZiXu hands down has the best route. I personally didn't like Goujian as a LI because of the decisions he made and the consequences of them and I'm not as forgiving as the MC. YiGuang kind of came off as too perfect, his route too "easy" in comparison to the others, and his carefree personality kind of put me off (also because his good end hurt my Chenfeng loving heart).
Favourite routes: Wu ZiXu >>>>> Goujian > Chenfeng > YiGuang
I don't think I'd ever played a VN with a protagonist I liked and admired more than AhYu. She's naive at times, too lost in revenge at others, stuck between she was was and who she has to be, and yet follows through with her own convictions and tries to damn best to protect her people and country. She's such a realistic, believable, complex character with her own agency that I don't know how any other otoge protagonist will ever beat AhYu's place in my heart. I care more about AhYu's journey than I do the love interests. Not that the love interests were uninteresting. They're all well-written characters in their own right (mostly), with their own different dynamics with AhYu, and their own believable character motivations who grow throughout the routes. We even get a female side-character who is well written, just as badass as MC, and doesn't exist just to talk about boys with the MC!!!
I loved the setting. I eat up political intrigue and warfare. I read lots of Chinese WNs, I was very comfortable with the historical Chinese setting, Wuxia concepts and intimacy of nicknames. (AhYu and AhJiu ow my heart). For those new to the genre it may be a bit confusing but the in-game glossary should help some.
The only things there were issues were 1) translation quality and 2) Chenfang.
The translation is fine for the most part but I noticed lots of typos especially towards the end of the game. Nothing that ruins the game but they exist to blemish great writing otherwise.
Chenfeng. Oh boy. Why did they do my Chenfeng dirty like this? His route is the worst one out of the four due to plot reasons that lead to less romantic interactions between them. Chenfeng is my favourite LI. I love his design and his VA, and I adore the bodyguard trope. My kink is devotion and loyalty okay??? So it really hurts me that they didn't flesh him out fully and give us a route as well written as Goujian or Wu ZiXu. Wu ZiXu hands down has the best route. I personally didn't like Goujian as a LI because of the decisions he made and the consequences of them and I'm not as forgiving as the MC. YiGuang kind of came off as too perfect, his route too "easy" in comparison to the others, and his carefree personality kind of put me off (also because his good end hurt my Chenfeng loving heart).
Favourite routes: Wu ZiXu >>>>> Goujian > Chenfeng > YiGuang
2016
Simple and cute but the ending is so unclimactic except for the secret route maybe.
I really like the secret and Mason routes. Finley was just hecka cute. The others were forgettable.
I really like the secret and Mason routes. Finley was just hecka cute. The others were forgettable.
2016
A very cute and charming game with beautiful sprite work. More VN than actual RPG (the combat is very simple and sparse), I found myself strangely invested despite how short the game is. Over the course of the three ~1 hr chapters, I've grown really attached to this serial liar and his lie-eating daughter. I wish there was more than the three chapters. I would love to play through many more hours of this duo's lives though the third chapter (good ending) did wrap things up satisfactorily.
Plays great on Steam Deck as well.
Plays great on Steam Deck as well.