Woah, this was fun. Perfect level of challenge that rarely gets frustrating due to instant respawns, tight controls and a game that is fun to simply move around in.

Nice mix of really fun platforming challenges and combat puzzles and enough new powerups and enemies get introduced to keeo it engaging and fresh throughout.

I didn't care enough to follow the story, but the banger soundtrack that truly pumps you up, and cool cyberpunk vibes make up for that.

This is basically a fresh take on the Hotline Miami gameplay loop with some Mirror's Edge mixed in, but with enough of its own features to make it something different. It was a lot of fun to play with not a single second of downtime.

GINKA being the new VN from the same creators as the acclaimed ATRI inevitably gives it certain expectations, but thankfully I've always managed them. Because GINKA is not ATRI, it doesn't try to be, and I think that's absolutely fine.

I had a lot of fun reading this VN. It mainly focusses its relatively short (15-18ish hour) runtime on the titular character. And she's great. Adorable, multi-layered, properly fleshed out. The rest of the cast is fun but not quite as in depth.

I think GINKA is strongest narratively when it's about its main two characters and their longing for the childhood relationship they had before fate drove them apart, and how they cope with the consequences of the sacrifices they've made.

The main plot itself (which I can't say much about without spoiling) can occasionally get too convoluted for its own sake, and the amount of flashbacks interrupting scenes does hurt the pacing somewhat. Despite that, it did a good job keeping me engaged throughout.

I think my favourite thing about this VN other than Ginka herself is the art style. The CGs, character designs and background art are absolutely gorgeous. I love the music too, but that seems to be a given for the medium.

GINKA is not a masterpiece, it's nothing exceptional. But I think that's okay, it's a thoroughly enjoyable and beautiful looking VN about a bittersweet childhood love that overcomes the most difficult of hurdles. And that's about all I wanted from it.

+gorgeous CGs, char designs and art
+Ginka being a great and lovable character
+Music
+Fun bittersweet summer romance story

-Overly convoluted plot.
-Structure feels all over the place with its flashbacks.
-Some side characters feel underdeveloped.
-Ending feels a bit too convenient.

The atmosphere this game creates with its top notch sound design and stunning art style is something special to behold. Coupled with a captivating "show don't tell" story, it's one of the eeriest and most immersive experiences modern gaming has to offer.

Not without its share of issues though. Whenever you have to wield a weapon or flashlight, the game can easily get frustrating due to how slow and clunky it controls. These controls and the at times awkward camera will make action and chase sequences more tense, but not always in an enjoyable sense. There were also the occasional bugs that required me to reload the last checkpoint because a key item didn't show up for some reason.

Other than that though, this is one of the better horror games released in the past few years and it is a solid improvement on the first game.

This past summer I've had the pleasure to read Key's Summer Pockets Reflection Blue, my first big Key VN after being a fan of their anime adaptations for years. It's been a long 3 month adventure and it's been an absolute joy from start to finish.

To start off with the good, I'll quickly mention the crisp art, beautiful character designs (finally Key...), stunning CGs and memorable soundtrack. They all made the VN feel polished and made it one of the most pleasant audiovisual experiences with the medium I've had thus far.

I think the best thing about Summer Pockets is its colourful cast. If there is one thing Key does well, it's having charming quirky characters with brilliant comedy and character dynamics. Even 80 hours in I still had a smile on my face whenever I saw the gang hang out, goof around together and have fun. They somehow manage to even make the one-note comedic relief characters fun without ever getting overbearing.

My favourite character and route was Tsumugi. At first her design didn't even look that striking to me and she was the girl I was least interested in, but it didn't take long for her to win me over. She just strikes the right balance in so many ways. She has a childish innocent charm but not to the extend that she feels like a loli. She's quirky and weird but not to the extend that you feel alienated from her, you can still sympathise and understand her. She's cheerful and positive but not overbearingly so, and her voice is just nice and chill. Her route was the most slice of lifey and bittersweet of all, as opposed to the more heavy dramatic other routes, and I loved how it wasn't just Hairi and her, but she also had a best friend who changed the dynamic in a good way.

A cool feature of this VN is how after the prologue, you unlock a world map where you can select who or where you wanna hang out to spend your summer vacation days, and depending on your choices you end up getting locked onto a route after a little while. It was such a unique approach and made me feel like I had a better mental image of the island itself.

Speaking of the island, Summer Pockets goes through pretty great length with worldbuilding, having a bunch of history and lore, as well as reoccuring and memorable locations which all end up tying to the routes in a multitude of ways. It really felt like the island of Torishirojima and its inhabitants have its own culture and traditions, which I always appreciate.

Summer Pockets also has some awesome mini games. I was amazed by how in-depth and fun the ping pong mini game was, giving a bunch of extra dialogue options, a myriad of special attacks that were unique to each character, the ability to play doubles with anyone in the tournament and how intuitive and fun it was to play in the first place. It also had a pokemon style mini game where you collect cards and fight off against other characters. It's more luck based than the more skill-based ping pong, but still a fun way to spend your time when you wanna take a breather between routes.

While I have a lot I love about Summer Pockets that greatly outweighs anything negative, I do have a couple of problems, which are common problems I have with Key's works.

As usual, the drama more often than not feels very contrived and artificial. Plot elements are invented just to push the plot in a certain direction that ultimately leads to a sad scenario, and other plot elements also only exist to ultimately bring forth a happy ending. It's just so rare to find drama that feels organic and logical. I think the only exception is Shizuku's route, added in Reflection Blue. This route is far less reliant on magical twists and is far more character driven with actual good character writing. While there were a few other routes I had more fun with, this route was def the one I had the least amount of issues with.

I think to truly enjoy a Key work, you need to be able to suspend disbelief and roll with a lot of bs that Key throws at you. The less you think about whether everything makes sense and whether there are plot holes, and the more you just surrender yourself to Key's emotional storytelling and tragic twists and magical crap, the more you end up enjoying this. I can do it to some extend, but it still prevents me from being 100% on board with their drama. In the end I often just cannot feel as emotional as the VN wants me to be, few exceptions aside.

One of those exceptions is the original ending. The final scenes are incredibly beautiful and actually got me quite emotional, and I was surprised by how it ended. Sadly though, Reflection Blue adds an epilogue that undoes a bit of that impact in favour of a happier ending, but it's fairly minor still and didn't entirely ruin the ending for me.

Summer Pockets feels like a love letter to Key's previous works, with a couple of references and throwbacks. This is a double edged sword though, because while nostalgia actually fits one of the themes of the show and some references made me feel warm on the inside, Summer Pockets does love to borrow some plot elements from its predecessors. While Key often does this, it feels even more noticable here. With a lot of the drama and twists, I just immediately thought of some earlier Key arc/route and it took away a bit of the magic for me.

All in all though, I had an absolute blast with this VN. I think it does so many things right. It grapples with themes like coming to terms with trauma/heartbreak/grief (instead of running away from it), family values, nostalgia and making the most of those bittersweet, joyful, endless summer vacations. It's a VN that tells you that while cherishing old memories is important, you should not try to lose sight of the future and how you can make many more great memories. And I'm sure that one day, I'll look back on Summer Pockets with nostalgia and remember the precious summer memories that it gave me as a reader.

+Brilliant cast of characters full of charm and fun dynamics that will end up feeling like your own friends.
+Slice of life comedy perfection that you'd expect from Key.
+Ties together its different themes pretty well.
+Mugyuu.
+Addicting and in-depth mini games.
+Summer atmosphere and island lore.
+Powerful ending.
+Gorgeous art, music and character designs.

-Contrived drama with a lot of plot conveniences.
-Requires way more suspension of disbelief than you should be asking from readers.
-Reuses a lot of plot elements from earlier Key works.
-Tries a bit too hard and too often to make me cry.
-Epilogue taking away a bit of the impact.

SeaBed is a very well written psychological mystery that gives you puzzle pieces in the form of vignettes of the lives of its major characters and gives you the opportunity to figure out these highly complex people as they wrestle with grief, their fuzzy memories and depression. Its writing and the way its main (yuri) relationship is portrayed is refreshingly mature and devoid of the usual VN/anime tropes, and its mystery elements all come together into an exceptionally touching and bittersweet conclusion. The only "issue" I have with it is that its writing, particularly its descriptions of mundane events, can be extensive and dry to the point that I found it difficult to get through at parts. I also wish they'd make it more clear which character is saying which line, as there were times that this caused confusion for me. But that's easy to forgive when it does such a good job at its character writing and unique exploration and portrayal of grief. Highly recommended, even if prob only a smaller group can truly appreciate this kind of storytelling.

I have a bit of a history with this game. When I was a kid my best friend let me try Ninja Gaiden Black on his xbox and said I'd never be able to beat the first boss. I remember trying over and over and eventually being able to beat him, but then never got past the second boss. Years later I found Ninja Gaiden II's demo on xbox 360 marketplace. I ended up playing it over and over to the point of obsession. The combat felt so insanely satisfying and addicting that I couldn't let it go. Sadly I didn't have the money to buy the full game at the time so I had to let it go. Years later I've played Ninja Gaiden Black and both Sigma games countless of times, but it only took me until now to finally play the original Ninja Gaiden II. And what a joy this was to play.

This has the best hack n slash combat of any game I've played. It feels extremely fluid, responsive, fast paced and intense with a huge amount of moves, weapons and other things to play with. It's by far the biggest strength of the game and it fully focusses on it. Unfortunately that does mean that the almost metroidvania-like level design with the interconnected world of Ninja Gaiden Black is traded in for fully linear levels with nothing but combat. For that reason I still prefer Black. But at the same time it's hard to go back to Black after playing this one, with the huge amount of combat improvements and overall quality of life additions.

This game is so over the top it makes Bayonetta, DMC and God of War feel grounded and restrained. It throws dozens of lethal enemies at you in many occasions and just pushes you, and the game engine itself to the absolute limits. Thankfully I played this on the Xbox Series X which ran it in a perfect 4K 60FPS, which feels utterly breathtaking for a game as fast paced and bonkers as this one.

It's very flawed, has plenty of bullshit sections, enemies and bosses. But man, 80% of the time this game feels like an absolute dream to play. When everything falls into place perfectly, it's hack n slash bliss.

There is no game like Ninja Gaiden II and there probably will never be.

Making Lovers is one of the more beloved and popular romcom VNs and it's easy to see why. First of all, it's refreshing to have an adult cast/setting. Meaning you drink at a bar together, get drunk, look for apartments, move in together, talk about marriage and children, workplace shenanigans among other things. It's refreshing to not have the usual teenage cast+school setting. ML gives you relatable and genuinely funny gags as the characters navigate adult life together.

ML has five different routes after a very brief common route. The short common route means that you hardly even meet the other girls once you're locked to a route. This is actually nice, since it means that it's not a harem and you won't get the unrealistic situation that MC has five different girls in love with him at the same time. If ML does one thing well, it's consistency. Every route and girl is about equally good. They offer so many funny, wholesome, memorable scenes at a very steady pace. I don't think there was a single moment where I was bored reading this VN.

Another cool feature is being able to choose your own date location, as well as a place to eat afterwards. Each date you put together is slightly different, making it enjoyable to put together the perfect date that fits each of the girls.

Overall, it's all I'd want from a romcom VN. It's lighthearted, funny and adorable and shines brightest when its endearing characters are just goofing around together, with a little bit of substance to each route just to make the characters feel a bit more fleshed out.

Gameplay-wise, it's excellent. Cool new additions and feels more fluid to play, although a little more inconsistent when it comes to enemy behavior and staggering. They did cut out some parts, which is a shame.

The story and atmosphere did get a significant downgrade sadly. They tried too hard to make it serious in tone, which just doesn't work for a story like RE4. The cinematography during cutscenes and the sound design are both flat out worse than a 2005 game, which is disappointing.

Overall, it's a fun remix of the original game and on its own, it's a fantastic game that is a blast to play through, but by no means does it surpass the original, or even fully live up to it.

Mystery is one of my favourite genres, but also a genre in which I only love a few works. Mystery is so hard to do right, both in terms of keeping the story engaging while not being confusing, and having a satisfying answer to all the questions that the reader has had over the course of the story. To come across a story like Fata Morgana, which does such an incredible job with its mystery, is such a pleasure. Twisting its story and changing your perspective of situations so many times without it ever getting confusing or convoluted, and having a record amount of plottwists without ever having any misses. The story has so many different plot threads that are being woven together into this beautiful tapestry, giving you an enormous amount of "aha" moments in which you recall an earlier part of the story that suddenly makes sense.

While its mystery is excellent, it's merely the method in which the story is told, rather than what the story is truly about. Fata Morgana at its core is a tragedy. A story about a group of characters thrown in the most harrowing, painful, difficult situations imaginable. Flawed, human characters who often act out of fear and ignorance, who make mistakes, who hold grudges, who do awful things. But while it deals with an abundance of themes, such as identity, communication, loneliness, fear, bigotry, hatred, coping with unbearable pain and a lot more, Fata Morgana is ultimately a story about forgiveness. About hope, salvation and love. It's one of the most powerful and beautiful love stories I've had the pleasure to come across. And it handles all of its themes with nuance, with delicate care. It's wonderful.

If I had any problems with the game, it would be a couple of pacing issues. Some parts drag a little long when we've already gotten the point. But other than that I struggle to think of any. Despite the scope, complexity and depth of its story and characters, I simply can't think of any loose ends or anything it truly dropped the ball on.

Lastly I want to mention some of its most immediately striking aspects. The atmosphere, art and music are among the best I've found so far in the visual novel medium, which is a high bar. The soundtrack is utterly enchanting and unique, and greatly enhances the emotional, harrowing, eerie and euphoric moments of the story. The VN delivers in every way when it comes to telling its story. It's an experience I'll absolutely never forget, and I struggle to put into words how impressive this story is to me. So I'll leave it at that.

Well, this game came out of nowhere. And what a great game it is.

Beautiful cell-shaded art style making it feel like a comic book come to life, actual unique and fresh gameplay with a heavy emphasis on rhythm and music, banger soundtrack, charming cast of characters, varied and fun bosses and a gaming experience that just left me entirely satisfied without being bored for even a single moment...

And all of that for €30 (if you don't have game pass). It's rare to find this level of generosity for a non-indie game. Gives us a glimpse of what the gaming industry could've been like if it wasn't a cash making machine. It feels like a game straight out of the Gamecube/PS2 era in terms of how it oozes fun and passion, but with the polish of a modern game. Recommended.