While I have never written an in-depth review of the game, I will at some point, Lisa the Painful and its subsequent follow-up-, Lisa the Joyful are simply my favorite games of all time. I have been hooked on the franchise for nearly a decade at this point which has led to me scouring the internet for additional content related to Lisa. This has led me to the slew of fangames made over the series that each individually addresses or adapts specific aspects of the original games and for the most part, are pretty good at capturing that magic. However, these fangames have generated a stigma of being abandoned or having an extremely long turn around so it was such a surprise to see Lisa the Undone release after a little over a year since its original reveal trailer.

This fangame stands out from other titles as it attempts to remake the Lisa the Joyful. As much as I love it, the original Joyful is marred with problems that exist on both a narrative and gameplay level which this fangame initially plans to address. I quickly realized that the structure and story of this game are significantly different from the original making this fangame a complete reimagining rather than a simple remake. This revelation made me especially excited as now I did not know what to expect.

I embraced many of its writing changes with open arms, and I felt I was generously rewarded for doing so. It is clear that the developers are deeply passionate about the world and lore of Lisa with large parts of this game serving to just expand on these elements. There are several moments where your crew takes a breather and you all discuss the current state of things in both the game world as well as how your characters are feeling. This is the sort of downtime time, while existed in Joyful, did not flesh out the characters to the same degree this fangame does. Buddy is no longer a raving maniac right away and Rando is not just a pushover. Elements of these personalities do exist but they are no longer the defining feature of these characters. One of my favorite changes to the writing is where you are given chances to see Buddy act like an actual child with her interacting with other kids being some of my favorite parts of the game.

The expansion of the world in Undone, is another greatly enhanced addition. The world in Joyful felt very cramped and lonely which felt accurate to the game's narrative but I much prefer Undone’s expansive setting that covers many different parts of Olathe. The world feels freeing but also extra dangerous due to your decreased fighting abilities. The expanded setting is also backed up by a slew of different unique areas to explore, really funny encounters, great sprite work, and reworked very interesting encounters. This world expansion also fleshes out each Warlord more giving them more of a build-up as well as explaining how they got into the position that they are in now. A simple cutscene that depicts all of the Warlords gives them so much more characterization that I am extremely excited to see pan out.

Finally, a lot of the writing reflects on the different worldviews one would have within the setting of Lisa. Many times, you are given the chance to talk to a character who will spout off on the current state of things and how one should react to it. While not all super interesting, certain encounters reign as some of my favorite writing in all of the Lisa games. These encounters also deliver solid answers to a lot of questions about the franchise that I have had stewing in my head for nearly a decade now. Some might be turned away from the vast amount of writing the game presents, a stark contrast to previous entries, but I think for any game to have this amount of dialogue it should be for a reimagining of Joyful.

Alongside these writing changes, new gameplay mechanics have been introduced that add extra depth to Lisa’s general gameplay. No longer does Buddy wield mastery over a Katana, instead she is given several weapons that she gains mastery over time through repeated use. This is combined with a new mask system that allows Buddy access to specific skills that relate to the mask that she is wearing. This adds a new consideration as one can plan and set up a specific loadout that would fare better for certain fights. There also exist companion combo moves that allow you to team a party member for some sort of attack or buff. These new mechanics make up for the fact that throughout the whole game, you are much weaker than you ever were in Joyful.

Some interesting new additions include a dice rolling and internal monologue mechanic. Disco Elysium directly inspired these with there being not much difference in how these mechanics are presented. The dice-rolling mechanic is my favorite of the two as it can completely how an encounter plays out and adds another consideration for your loadout as gear can change outcomes. The internal monologue is developed through specific decisions made in the game which will have Buddy’s mind start to splinter off into different ways of thinking. In the game's current state, this mechanic does little to change the narrative in any way and acts more nice flavor text.

If it is not obvious, I was utterly blown away by the quality of this fan project. As it stands this may reign as my favorite fangame for the moment. The amount of care and love put into the game's writing and world-building is palpable leaving me excited as to how the second part of the story will pan out. This is not a perfect experience however as I do think some mechanics are not as quite fleshed out as they should be leaving some parts a little underwhelming, such as being a little deceiving to your contribution towards certain outcomes. Some narrative points are not given a conclusion or a very satisfying one. I also think the balance between actual fights and reading dialogue is a little uneven at the moment. While I do like the game writing I did find myself at points wishing I could get into another encounter soon. All of these problems match the current state of the game as it has just been released and a second part is on the way. I have faith that these issues will be addressed but at the end of the day this is still a very solid video game.

If you are a fan of the original Lisa games like I am, this is a must-play. The amount of added depth to the world and interesting recontextualizations make it worth a try at the very least.

(Fun Fact: I was so excited in the first 40 minutes of this game that I quickly added it to the Backloggd database. I know it doesn’t matter but this is the first time I’ve done this and I just wanted to mention it.)

The third entry is a series of improvements and a few steps backward. While the innovations the game brings do wholeheartedly make the series better, at some point there is some head-scratching game design that felt like a regression to the formula they have established.

To go over the improvements, the simple addition of a slide mechanic feels great to control and makes traversing each level feel more dynamic. I felt I had more options when dealing with enemies making running past them a viable option that doesn't result in me getting hurt. For the first half of the game, I'd say the levels have been some of my favorite of the game so far. The same goes for the robot masters where each fight felt very hectic but had a somewhat clear pattern. I wish some of these fights were not just trivialized by other weapons and were manageable with the mega-buster. Gemi-Man is a great example of a fight I like where figuring out the rhythm of the attack patterns is very satisfying but is harmed by the fact you can destroy him with a specific weapon. The final addition I enjoyed was transforming the special weapons into the adorable robot-dog companion Rush. He still pretty much serves the same purpose as the special weapons but I'd rather look at a cute dog than a random gadget.

Onto the missteps, I said I only enjoyed half of these levels because the other half felt like a test of patience with trial and error being the main method to get through them. I did not mind the added difficulty of the revisited stages, outside of instant death spikes, but the Doc-Robot fights were not that fun. The idea is interesting with you revisiting Mega Man 2 fights but with little knowledge as to what type of boss was coming and what their weakness is I ended up dying a lot in these sections. Finally the reliance on using Rush in the Wily stages is not necessarily a bad thing but similarly to parts of the last game as soon as you run out of energy for Rush you might as well get a game over.

I still enjoyed my time with this entry and was overall less frustrated with this entry when compared to the first one. Experimentation did lead the series off better in the long run but I was a little sad to see them slightly miss the mark.

The xplay jrpg. Introducing this game to specific sections of the younger queer community was like the CIA introducing crack to black neighborhoods. I mourn for those impacted, you know who you are.

This isn't the worst JRPG I've ever played, or close to IdeaFactory's worst, but it is the most embarrassing, including all of their games that had to be "censored" (removed child pornography) so they could be sold in the west. If this game came out in 2007, when VGCats was the height of popular culture, this would have caused white 9/11. It's humor is an artifact from a different time, but this series persisted long after we progressed as a society past it.

The game itself goes out of its way to be boring. Having fun with the game? No you aren't, and please refrain from lying to me in the future. If you get joy from this game, then rejoice! You will enjoy almost every other JRPG out there, because this accomplishes the bare minimum to not be incompetent, and jack shit otherwise. Again, another example of how this game feels out of time, this seems to have the same design ethos that drove the famicom Dragon Quest clone deluge, down to "progress is relegated behind your raw stats, grinding is intended game design".

I don't have any numerical rating for this game. If I had a coworker of mine say that they played Neptunia, I would suggest they refrain from sharing that fact in public.

It’s no stranger to anyone at this point that Konami was once a powerhouse video game company, especially in the 90s. During this decade they developed and published so many classic and interesting titles that it’s no wonder some of them have fallen to somewhat obscurity. Vandal Hearts is a perfect example of this as I had only heard of this game from a specific YouTuber and outside of their videos I would never hear anyone discuss it even when talking about games from this era. This could be due in part to its lackluster sales or its sorta basic setup and gameplay, though regardless I still think Vandal Hearts is worth looking back on.

The easiest way to describe this game is that it’s a PS1 Fire Emblem game, sporting a similar type of grid-based maps albeit with more 3D elements than older Fire Emblem titles. The gameplay is also similar with different characters that have varying classes and skills that you use to your advantage. There is a class promotion mechanic that adds some sort of customization even if in the long run it doesn’t matter too much (more on that in a second). One of my favorite parts of the gameplay is the intense sound design that goes with each swing of a sword or casting of a spell. The best part is whenever you defeat an enemy they explode in a shower of blood. That aspect is one part of the game that stuck in my mind for so long.

The story itself is pretty basic but effective with it being another rendition of having to defeat an evil empire before they take over the world kinda shtick. As you progress through the game, you acquire more characters in your party ending with a little over 10 characters to use in every level. I wish you had the chance to interact with party members in between levels as there are certain story beats that flesh out characters somewhat but it never got as deep as I would have liked. The choice to not have to swap characters in and out for levels, though lessens customization, actually made me care about them a little bit more as I felt we were one large band marching through events.

The biggest problem the game suffers from is its stagnation. The first half of the game had me seriously considering where I should move my units when I should attack and use support spells. About halfway through you realize that this game is not as tactical as it makes it out to be. For starts, if a party member falls in battle your only penalty, besides reduced chances of winning, is losing some money at the end of the battle which you will be swimming in most of the time. Each level is uniquely made though only a few of them have some sort of gimmick which the latter half of the game stops doing. Some of my favorite examples of these gimmicks were setting up an ambush for a powerful group of enemies and advancing up a train as the carts are slowly released behind you. Once you reach a certain level with your sorcerer you can spam their highest spells for great damage which kind of loses some of the strategy when going through levels.

That being said, I still had a blast playing Vandal Hearts. Simple, defeat the Empire stories, worked on me a lot and it was fun going through a short war campaign. I also wanted to mention how much I love the art style of this game. It looks so unique compared to its contemporaries with the designs being a mixture of anime and high fantasy artwork that emphasizes exaggerated expressions. It’s a shame the artist, Hiroshi Kyomasu, has not worked on much sense as I enjoy there style.

I think if you enjoy games like Fire Emblem or just tactic games with medieval settings then Vandal Hearts is still worth checking out.

After a long break from the series since binding blade being extremely difficult for me, blazing blade was a much better introduction to the series as it teaches you the various mechanics well through "Lyn mode" where you start off the story with one of the main lords of the series. The levels in this game are more fun to go through as they are less brutal than the ones in binding blade. It was introduced in binding blade, but I really did supports starting off with this game and it really gives more depth to the 3 lords and characters with the only downside being that a character can only A rank with one character so you will end up not seeing most of the supports. I thought the story is great and especially if you completed a certain support it would blend in well with the storyline.

Having played 6 entries in the series at this point I am fully attuned to what these games offer. 20 to 25 hour stories with twists galore, wacky sidequests/minigames and men expressing their emotions through their fists. I mention this because if you have played other games in the series, Ishin follows the exact same set up almost to a tee albeit with the backdrop of 1800s Edo Japan. The lack of change outside of the setting while initially comforting also led to me being burnt out with the game sooner than I did with other entries. That being said some of the ways the game does differentiate itself are great.

The city of Kyo is a refreshing new setting that does a good job of differentiating itself from the series usual setting of Kamurocho. The addition of forming bonds with the citizens of the city and helping them out not only made it so there was always something for me to do but also added additional depth to city that I wish some of the other games took note of. I loved that fact that when I helped NPCs with problems they started to react to my presence positively as I roamed around the city. Kyo also has great parts of it that are just fun to walk around. Whether it be the bustling main street or a quiet temple path Ishin succeeds in one of my favorite aspects of the franchise, that being it's fun to just run around town.

One of the largest changes to the game is its story with many beloved Yakuza taking the roles of real life historical figures that existed during this time. Through this you get the usual structure of a Yakuza story with the slow unraveling of a grander plot being orchestrated by unknown enemies. The context that this based on historical events, albeit obviously fictionalized in many ways, made the story plenty entertaining to go through even with is predictable setups.

For the most part, I had a blast with Ishin. For the first 12 hours I was glued to it with me wanting to do as much of the side content and even engage with its crafting system which I am usually not a fan of. Past this point however the intense similarities to previous titles made me start to become burnt out. Even the setting change and updated combat was not enough for me to really feel like I was playing the same game again. That being said the format the series is a lot of fun its just hard not to notice how repetitive it can be.

It's kind of sad to see this game pushed to the wayside after it came out early last year as I believe its a worthy entry and an overall great remake.

being a Disgaea kid i thought i wouldn't really enjoy this for some reason and also because i always think this about Matsuno games before i play them. but as usual i was wrong!! maps are fun and while the 5 character limit is a bit restricting, we were still able to express ourselves via our party, which is basically why i love playing any TRPG in the first place.

in contrast to XII that i played earlier this year, the story is actually political this time and focuses a lot on the motivations for Ramza's rebellion while discussing what the people in power are doing to Ivalice by dragging out a prolonged war out of pride and a desire to take hold of history's reins. while individual characters themselves are not really the focus, whatever glimpse of their personality you can get make them usually likeable enough to care about their story.

it is a, sometimes, uncharacteristically (for the series) brutal game, which makes me wonder how it did get approved to carry the FF name while Xenogears had to be a different series altogether for these exact same reasons. i did enjoy the story a lot even if most characters end up as no more than chess pieces themselves, even Ramza to some extent. which makes me wish there were more sidequests to flesh them out, the Construct 7 quest for example was delightful and so was the Rais and Lionheart's quest added to the PSP port. i should also say i didn't really mind the second half of the story and it think it still maintained most of it's themes even with the inclusion of the Lucavi.

this is also one extremely beautiful game, the sprite work is literally miraculous, every action has weight, characters will hold and interact with each other and they won't feel disjointed or weird, it's such a joy to watch them move around. And even then i still enjoyed the PSP cutscenes a lot, really love how they emulated Akihiko Yoshida's style in 3D.

glad i finally played this, now i don't have to keep wondering if i'm gonna hate it or not, it's a really really good game and playing it alongside with my bf alternating control between fights was a really special experience i'm not going to forget anytime soon

I think for most people this second entry is considered a vast improvement over the first game and for the most part I would agree. The basic gameplay has been improved allowing for more customization and strategies and the story does a wonderful job of paying off every major story beat set up in the first game. In all regards it is a superior game but I still think I find myself enjoying the first entry a tad bit more.

The major reason for this is the retreading of all the same locations in the first game. One of my favorite parts of an RPG is exploring new locations and making my way to new towns. The retreading of this familiar locations, while it makes complete sense in the story, lessened my enjoyment of spending time in these locations and interacting with one of the games strongest quirks that being the unique dialogue for every single NPC in the game. I praised the first game for how interconnected the whole world felt in it and this game improves that writing even more I just did not engage with this aspect nearly as much. The sheer length of the game and the retreading of familiar ground eventually lead to me burnt out more than once.

Despite my complaints the story is still great and has more cemented the fact that I am a fan of this series.

A pretty neat short fishing that is a little confused as to whether it wants to be a horror game or a fishing game which it does not fully succeed in either.

From the idea of it just being a fishing game it almost accomplishes this by having a wide variety of fish to catch and there being a satisfying loop of catching and earning money. The routine of strategically catching certain type of fish in order to upgrade your lure to go to deeper depths in an inherently satisfying concept. The first time I fished in the large part of the lake and I saw a dark hole in the middle I was motivated to get the upgrades needed to see what fish are there. It's honestly pretty satisfying to meander around the lake looking for fish. The soundtrack really adds to atmosphere with there being a few looping ambient tracks that either put me at ease or made me tense. The fishing was the best aspect of the game for me as it was relaxing to just have something on tv while I depleted the lake of the fish.

The other angle the game tries to go for is horror which is not nearly as successful. Going into this game I knew it was a horror type game but this really only occurs at the very end. The game does a good job of building up the feeling of isolation with some of the ambient tracks making it sound as if you are not alone on this lake. As you continuing playing though you realize that there is no danger and that all the uneasy elements is just set dressing. I really think there was a missed opportunity from having the horror stem from the fishing being more messed up the further down you fish as for the most part the fishing is pretty normal. The game builds up to an ending that while it is unnerving does not really feel that earned and feels like it goes from a 0 to 100 on the horror scale.

I enjoyed my time with this game but I was disappointed with how little actual horror there was. If they fleshed out the fishing more I could easily see this be a pretty fun fishing game. Like what if instead of just buying new lures and rods you could also change the look of your tent or buy items that help catch fish quicker. From a horror angle, having more messed up fish was the bare minimum.

PS: I think having to wait for the final door to open is bad design. I just barely missed it then I had to wait two in game days for it to open again which is just annoying.

PSS: I absolutely adore the clay animation art for the marketing and I kinda wish they had more elements like that in the game.

This is one of the those games where if you spend enough time online you eventually be introduced to it. As an elementary schooler I was first introduced to this game through an internet personality showcasing the infamous Uboa. Though the experience was a bit traumatizing when I was younger it also greatly fascinated me and looking back this may have been the start of my love for the weird offshoots in the gaming industry. When the game was eventually ported to Steam I finally got to indulge myself in the oddity that fascinated me so many years ago. I then proceeded to play it for an hour and then didn't pick it up again until three years later.

Yume Nikki is a bit of a strange game to go back to. The basic gameplay is often incredibly boring with limited actions and decisions to make to progress in the game. Since the game lacks and sort of direction, without a guide, you may spend hours trying to find some of the last items you need to complete the game. What I didn't really get when I first played it is that all of these decisions were intentional in creating one of the moodiest and offbeat walking sims I have ever played and there in lies the core appeal of the game. The most rewarding experiences I had while playing was seeing what absolutely bizarre areas I would find myself in. The game does an incredible job of mixing lighthearted goofiness with abject terror all while having an incredibly somber tone to the whole experience. The community that has sprung up around deciphering every inch of this game is endlessly fascinating and the lack of info surrounding the creation of it adds to its mystique.

I think what Yume Nikki excels at the most, besides everything I previously mentioned, is being the groundwork that so many RPG maker horror games would be based off of. It's an incredibly important part of video game history and is one that is seldom talked about outside of online spaces and I think that is a real shame. I have my qualms with the game sure, as previously mentioned it can be a bit of a slog to traverse and its cryptic nature can sometimes end up hurting the experience. BUT, with the price of entry being only your time, I think its a game that everyone should try at least once just to experience the odd little game that influenced so much in the indie space. I don't know I could say that I really like this game but I can say that all of its quirks and oddities will be lovingly stored in my thoughts for many years to come.