TL:DR; Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin is the kickstarter-backed, debut title of Foxdrift Studios and it was released on October 4th, 2023; and like any good garden, I dig it! The art is gorgeous, the character models are unique over the generic styles I’m used to seeing, the character writing shines, the music is pleasing on the ears, and the plot is filled with twists and turns. What more could you want from the chronicles of an assassin?

I’ve been suffering withdrawal from not reading any VNs in the last month, and most of the ones I’ve read recently were on the older side, so I thought I’d look into a fresh release, and well, Chronicles of an Assassin is just that; fresh! I couldn’t find anything rotten about it at all~

The gameplay is straightforward. You have a couple of routes to choose from and if you play your cards right, you just might survive and maybe even get a little something more. There are lots of choices you get to choose from; over 30 - some are flavor and some are impactful.

Most dialogue choices lead to you building trust or betrayal with the character whose route you are on which will determine what ending you get. I really appreciate that the game tells you whenever you are gaining trust or betrayal. It also helps that the game has a fully completed walkthrough that will guide you to all the endings, super handy if you don’t feel like searching all the different combinations to see all the endings.

One thing that I partially wish was done a bit differently is the exploration of the bad endings. I think it would have been incredibly interesting to see how some of the characters react to the things that happen in a few of the bad endings, but instead it abruptly cuts off, shows a cool looking card that tells you where you went wrong, and takes you back to the main menu. I get it though. The game is from the point of view of the protagonist, Iris, and then the two people whose routes you can follow, so further exploration of some of the bad endings would require adding more character perspective changes and that might not flow as well. I guess this is sort of a compliment to the writing because it means that I was wanting more!


You are also able to enter a custom assassin name for Iris to be referred to. I thought that was a really neat touch and gave me an even deeper connection to a protagonist that I already liked a lot!

The UI is really pretty and does something that I’ve never noticed before with its buttons. Instead of having the buttons tab up off the dialogue/text box it has the buttons go up from the lower right side. I like this! It doesn’t block anything important from the scene and it is undistracting off to the side like that while I am reading, plus it looks really good. I want to see more VNs do that in the future!

A minor but another appreciated thing is that the game is entirely playable with just a keyboard and even lists the keybindings. It’s not super important, but it’s something I noticed and thought worth pointing out.

There is also a journal function that not only gives quick access to the credits and music tracks, but also has a tab for viewing unlocked in-game letters and a lore tab. When I first saw the lore tab, I was pretty nervous. I was worried that it would be required reading for understanding the world of the game. It’s not. It’s a very expansive and enjoyable read that goes in-depth about the various factions, locations, and languages but thankfully it isn’t there to act as a lore dump/do the legwork for the story; it’s an enhancement.

Speaking of enhancements, the lore page comes with a viewable map of the continent where the game takes place. It’s a highly detailed, yet clean and gorgeous to look at map that gives you a better idea of the overall game world!

The characters do a fantastic job filling each other in on the details of the world and factions as necessary, to a point that it feels very natural. It’s something that the reader is eased into over a period of time as well, instead of just being repeatedly bombarded with information.

The writer knew what she was doing when she did her world building. The story repeatedly gives off a sense of wonder by mentioning something about the world; whether it be the name of a faction, an item, or an animal - to get you wondering what it is and then introducing you to it later on! It all feels organic/natural (which is what a lot of fantasy themed stories fail to do properly, in my experience).

The story itself is pretty light-hearted, often romantic and comedic, but sprinkled with flakes of melancholy here and there. I don’t want to get too deep into it because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that there are more twists and turns than your typical racetrack! It was hard to put down, and even prevented me from getting some work of my own done because I kept wanting to read more. Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin clocks in at a satisfying 100,000 words! It took me around a total of 9 hours to read both routes.

The character artist, Cutecumber, did an amazing job. Her artstyle gave the characters very vibrant and unique designs. Furthermore, the character faces in the dialogue box have a wide variety of expressions. I thought I was done seeing all of Iris’s expressions by the end of the first chapter, but nope.

I’m not sure if it was who worked on the UI, the character art, or the CG Backgrounds, but there are these cool chapter title cards and a batch of them for one of the routes is that of a scorpion. I don’t know if it was intended or if I’m just seeing things, but I always see a heart-shape while staring at the top down view of the scorpion’s head on the title card, and I just think that is so cute and clever! That is good design!

The CG Backgrounds were well done, always matched the current scene, and perhaps most shockingly of all, I never noticed them repeating (as in to represent separate locations, they repeated, but only for the singular location it represented) - especially to the borderline off putting degree that it sometimes happens in a lot of VNs.

I’ve briefly mentioned characters a few times but haven’t given them a deep dive yet, so let’s get to that, shall we? The characters are so well written that if I was just staring at the script and the names next to the dialogue were covered I’d be able to tell who was saying what the vast majority of the time. The characters always feel genuine, especially the characters who are anything but. I loved it and had a fun time with all of them; from the supporting cast to the whole ensemble!

Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin gets a resounding, “Yes, you should buy it if you like visual novels. Especially if you are starving for a fantastic Otome!” from me. The $20 price tag is very fair, but if you are still unconvinced after reading this review, then consider getting it during a sale! Personally, I normally wait for sales to buy my games, but I bought this full price and am very satisfied with it!

I was hoping for a fun horde game in the same vein of Left 4 Dead, but instead I got "Escort Quest - The Game".

Being able to level up to unlock perks, more damage for weapons, character skins, and the large cast of playable characters is cool.

Unfortunately, the allied AI in this game is downright terrible, so I'd argue that playing solo with bots is pretty unviable even on the easiest difficulty.

The final straw for me was at Story 2 Part 3 when I experienced a bug that then lead into another bug which pulled my into an inescapable area (there is a bug where your character will sometimes get knocked down by nothing. The second part of this bug dragged my character through a gated area that had no way out).

When I thought about how I didn't want to go through the area defense objective and escort quest at the start, I realized that has been the whole game; defending areas and escorting NPCs until the hordes stop coming.

If it had just been get from one end of the map to the other and survive with 3 other players (bots) then this would have been something. Alas, in my opinion, Left 4 Dead 2 remains the undisputed king.

It's an inferior Left 4 Dead clone. It does some things right like having unlockable weapon and character skins, but it's bogged down by a needlessly convoluted card system and is plagued with bugs even after two years of release.

I gave up on Act 4 (of 6) of the campaign - played nothing else - and so far I've: Fallen through the map, had my character "die" hanging on a ledge that didn't exist, and got insta-killed in the final phase of a really annoying and unfun boss fight at Act 4.

Speaking of said boss fight, it's needlessly hard to do with the bots on the easiest difficulty and quite frankly, I can't be bothered to try to go through it again or to finish the slog that is this solo campaign.

I don't know about other platforms, but it's pretty telling to the quality of the game when only 9% of the Xbox playerbase has finished Act II of the game (yes, I'm aware it being on Gamepass has a bit to do with it, but still).

It's a shame that Turtle Rock couldn't nail down the formula and make a good Left 4 Dead successor with this (or presumably Evolve). Maybe they'll get it right the next time, but I wouldn't count on it.

As a fan of both horror and visual novels, it was only a matter of time before I crossed paths with The Letter. Personally, I feel that the horror VN space is surprisingly quite limited, at least in terms of worthwhile entries. So… what about The Letter? Is it worth reading, or best left unopened?

The Letter was the debut title of Yangyang Mobile, which hit Steam’s servers in 2017. It was also released for multiple Sony and Microsoft consoles, as well as the Nintendo Switch, and the Google Play Store.

To call The Letter massive is a disservice, super massive would be more apt. Structurally it is similar to what the company Super Massive Games tends to put into works like Until Dawn or The Quarry, except that The Letter is a Visual Novel. If you are unfamiliar with what I am getting at here, it is VERY choice heavy with multiple endings. There are choices that you make which will determine the fate of the seven characters that you individually control and what happens to those characters determines how frequently they’ll appear in the story thereafter.

Under the hood, there are a lot of mechanics at play at all times. One of the most interesting ones, which goes towards determining the ending each character gets, is the relationship meter. Generally speaking, every chosen dialogue choice impacts one character’s relationship with another, or in a couple of cases, multiple. This might sound daunting, and it is, but it’s made a lot easier by the fact that the relationship bar between all characters is always readily accessible for viewing on the UI. Plus, you get a notification every time it updates and it shows a plus or minus next to the character to indicate how the bar has shifted in case you don’t remember where it was before. Every single character has their own relationship meters with other characters and they all start at different places on their respective relationship meters in regards to what the other characters meant to them at the start of the game. The relationship meter also carries over between chapters (for example, if Rebecca is low on Isabella’s meter; then when you go to play Rebecca, Isabella will be low on her meter).

There is also a mechanic called The Branching Tree, which is similar to, but not quite, a flowchart. It shows you all the choices that you’ve made and those that are to come. It is a very handy tool for subsequent playthroughs when you are trying to figure out how to access unseen content. In addition to seeing how potential choices might branch, it will also show a butterfly mark to indicate that the branch you are on - and/or options you have available to you - are the result of a previous choice.

Unfortunately, because of how the Branching Tree works and the overall structuring of the story, you can’t just select a route and load in from there (which you would be able to with a flowchart). You also cannot skip to next choice because of this setup. That’s rough for subsequent playthroughs, but Yangyang Mobile did their best to meet in the middle here by putting in a skip unread text button. It quickly fast forwards through text the reader has already read and then stops fast forwarding once new text - or some variant of already read text - is reached. Thankfully the fast forward speed is incredibly quick.

There’s also a journal tab on the UI available for viewing. The journal contains sketches of relevant characters/events next to a short summary of what has occurred from an in-game character perspective. This makes it easier to track what is going on due to how you’ll take on the role of a new character for each chapter (which means you’ll go back and forth on the timeline) and the fact that the game takes place over a period of 14 days.

Storywise The Letter manages to be horror at its most simple and captivating. It follows 7 people as their lives are irreparably changed - and threatened – by the discovery of a letter. The story is broken up into seven chapters and an epilogue. Each chapter chronicles a character’s point of view of the events that follow. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t be divulging more than that, but I do want to talk vaguely about the writing. Writing wise, it isn’t nonstop horror and bad things, there are some moments of calm and slice of life in between. I’m bringing this up because I’ve seen some people state that they felt the story dragged on because of those segments, however I firmly believe that the segments are necessary and found them well done.

To clarify, there was never a COMPLETE break from the horrific events that took place in the story, those things were always on all the characters’ minds. But, by having some measure of normalcy in between, the day to day as it were, it gives a chance for us to get to know the characters and their personalities better. If it was constant balls to the wall horror, we wouldn’t be getting some of those tender moments, which in turn causes the horror ones to hit harder. Having the normal in there is what makes things more scary.

Getting to see the characters be normal made me feel for them when bad things happened to them. Bringing me to the next point of review, I felt that the characterization in this game was REALLY well done. There was one character that went against nearly every bit of my moral fiber and I still felt for and liked them by the end of the story. That is some strong writing. None of the characters were perfect and all had their own unique flaws/demons. The only thing I want to complain about is that both Rebecca and Isabella seemed to have a habit of needlessly overreacting in ways that caused fights. This got exhausting at times, but I suppose that proves my point in how the characters all have their realistic flaws.

The art direction is spectacular! I adored the character designs. Truly, all of the character designs manage to stand out while not clashing with each other. While I don’t have much of an eye for art, I couldn’t help noticing how seamless the art style was at switching from a calm and clear look to downright terrifying.



I think the biggest criticism I can level at the game is that - after talking with a friend who lives in the United Kingdom - the way that The Letter represents the UK is almost wholly inaccurate. A lot of the buildings are very American in their architecture for example. While some English terminology is used, it’s mixed with American terminology as well, making it inconsistent. In my friend’s case, she believed the story to be set in the United States, despite it mentioning places in England, until a way into the game because of how badly this pulled her out of the experience. That said, I - as someone who lives in the United States and is ignorant of the United Kingdom in general - didn’t see anything amiss except for the architecture not matching.

There are some nice bells and whistles present that I wasn’t expecting such as animation. Sometimes there will be things like birds flying by in the background on occasion, or the curtains will be blowing in the breeze. There’s also English voice acting, which I really enjoyed (but can be disabled if it isn’t your cuppa tea).

Quick Time Events are present, but you can skip them and auto-win them by pressing the TAB key if you so wish.

Doubling back to what I said about the game being super massive in size… It took me around 17 hours to finish my first playthrough and an additional 7 hours to get through my second while fast forwarding through all previously read text. As of writing my review, I’m 28 hours in and have achieved 4 different endings and am sitting at 117 achievements out of 172.

Overall, I’d say that if I were to give it a grade it’d be with the letter ‘A’. I found the game to be impressive, never mind the fact that it was also the studio’s first release! It was clearly made by a passionate development team/studio and I can’t wait to check out more from them!

TL;DR: A unique gem and an even rarer backed kickstarter success story. The Letter has a ton of choices and directions that the story goes because of them. It’s highly replayable and well worth doing to see those other directions. Despite being set in the UK it is at least somewhat inaccurate to the setting, and while that is unfortunate, it makes up for it with the passion, sweat, and tears (hopefully not blood) poured into it by Yangyang Mobile. If you are unsure about buying it at full price, you can normally pick it up on sale for around $6; an outright steal in my opinion!

Night Cascades is an interactive, kinetic (single route, no choices) Visual Novel that was released in 2022. It was developed and published by Hanako Games of ‘Long Live The Queen’ fame!

Night Cascades is a cult-themed mystery thriller that takes place in the 1980’s and features a pair of women protagonists who not only have a series of crimes to solve, but also must tackle their relationship issues from the past. Perhaps the real mystery is will they or won’t they get together!

I found the writing to be very solid and enjoyable. The mystery is good and there is a logical progression in the investigation as well as the overall plot. All of the characters, both major and minor, had a distinctive feel to them; everything they said felt right, like it was something they’d say. There are a lot of times where you can read the protagonists’ thoughts, which helps add to their characterization, giving them a more personal feel to the reader, and also gives a sense of having walked in their shoes.

Speaking of the characters, I thought that the models were positively fantastic. The models lean very heavily into realism yet all contain this refined, beautiful edge to them that keeps them from looking gritty or too realistic. Furthermore, the backgrounds are all handmade and have that same aesthetic of pseudo-realism. Truly, the game is very pleasing to look at.

At first, I found the font a bit hard to read but as I spent more time with it I got used to it and it wasn’t an issue at all, so maybe that was a me problem, but I thought I’d mention that for clarity’s sake. The choice of yellow text was a great choice and fit the text box well.

The textbox of whomever's point of view you are currently reading from has a nice oval-shape that reminds me of a rear-view mirror (which is appropriate because the characters spend a decent amount of time in a car) and is see-through so you can see the background/character models on the other side. I wish more visual novels had text boxes that allowed me to see everything that’s on the other side of them. I really hate missing out on parts of images when there is no reason for it.

The music was amazing and really helped sell the 80’s vibe to me. I’m of the opinion that it has a very jazzy feel to it.

Transition screens are handled in an intelligent and creative way. Whenever traveling to a new location, the game transitions to a map of the town and shows a dot traveling across it until the destination is reached, which it then changes to.

Perhaps the only part of the game that I felt wasn’t as great as it could have been were the interactive elements that I had previously mentioned in passing. The interactive elements/minigames are unique to which character you are playing as. One of them has you clicking whatever you see that you think is relevant to the case for clues and it tells you the number of them you need to find. There’s even a handy hint that you can click on if you get stuck.


The other character has what is called intuition mode which has a wavy thing it wants you to follow and then click when you see an eye icon. Following the waves was such a pain for me and I didn’t fully understand it, so I just opted to click everywhere until I saw the eye. I also didn't see any rhyme or reason to where I'd click giving the results it did. For example, there’s an instance where I had to click on the street and it follows up with a conversation about a character being a boy scout, great, but what does that have to do with the road I just clicked on to get that intuition?

The minigame just felt tacked on. It wasn’t awful and I appreciate the attempt to do something new and immersive, but it just didn’t work for me.

It took me three and a half hours to read through it and it regularly clocks in at a price point of $10. I’m a pretty quick reader so it might run most people around four or five hours to get through the entire thing. That might be a bit of a turn off to some, but I’d gladly take a tightened and well-paced experience rather than a rambling slog.

Really though, if that one small, insignificant thing is all I can find to rag on - and it is - then I have to say that this is a very solid visual novel and well worth experiencing!

Admittedly, I’ve lately been struggling to find a game that fully captivates my attention. Luckily, this all changed with an impulse buy - Kenshi - during the Steam Winter Sale.

Kenshi was made by Lo-Fi Games for PC and is their only product to date, although Kenshi 2 is confirmed to be on the horizon. It was released into Early Access in 2013 and then as a finished game in 2018. It was also, to my understanding, largely the effort of one person. Kenshi roughly translates to swordsman in English, but at the start your character will likely be either a punching bag or food. Yes, food…

Somehow Kenshi has achieved being a rather inspired blend of a single player Runescape and Fallout (no, not the modern ones: I mean, 1, 2, and Tactics).

Perhaps the true beauty of Kenshi is that it is an open Sandbox. There is no main quest, side quests, essential characters or overarching plot to follow; no no no, just like every day life, you are stuck on a rock with what skills you have and make the best of it… Or you can do what I did, and make things worse for everyone else! Of course, that’s not to say there isn’t a history. There is, should you choose to seek it out. There are some characters, books, and even environments that will enlighten you as to what came before.

There are also optional house building mechanics where you can build up your own base, trade hub, or even city. Furthermore, you have crafting which allows you to make your own clothes, armor, weapons, and food. To try to give you some idea of how expansive your options in this game are, I’m going to list all of the skills that I can think of off the top of my head without looking them up: Weapons, Athletics, Swimming, Cooking, Engineering, Armorworking, Weapon Smithing, Science, Assassination, Stealth, Robotics, Lockpicking, and Thievery. To further illustrate, you know the Weapons skill I just mentioned? That’s not a single skill, it’s actually 8 or 9, I couldn’t remember them all without looking them up.

On the weapon side of things you’ve got: Polearms, Bare Fists, Katanas, Sabres, Giant Cleavers, Crossbows, Turrets, and more. By the way, if your strength is high enough, it is entirely possible to punch someone’s arm off… It’s… pretty crazy.

There’s a multitude of stats that affect how good your character (or characters, should you decide to recruit/travel with others) is at combat; there are a few hidden ones too like what species you choose for them. That said, like I stated earlier, you will start the game out weak - regular goats will give you trouble. Somewhat ironically, getting beaten to a pulp - which will increase your toughness stat, should you survive - will make you stronger and more effective at combat. You level up your stats by doing them over and over, although there are some caveats to what works and when.

The combat is really simple, your character handles all of it theirself; no abilities, specials, or anything like that. All you can do is click on who you want them to attack or click away from them to have them flee while praying that they don’t get cut down in the process.

The health system in Kenshi is REALLY interesting. Each extremity has its own health bar and when a certain threshold is reached your character will go unconscious (it’s different for each species). The best thing about this, and I won’t let anyone convince me otherwise, is that it is possible to lose limbs from combat or lack of treatment. Fortunately, it’s possible to get robotic replacement parts should you be skilled enough to buy, steal, or make them!

Also worth mentioning is the inclusion of a blood/oil (depending on if you are a robot - err, sorry, the game calls them Skeletons) and a hunger bar, so it’s entirely possible to bleed out or starve to death as well. I’m going to be real with you, when I saw that there was a hunger bar, I was worried this was going to be The Sims in the desert, where I’d constantly have to stop what I was doing and search for food, but as luck would have it you can actually change how frequently your character or characters get hungry at the start of the game.

Although cruel, Kenshi is generous in the aspects that matter. You can tinker with a lot of settings at the start of the game, like the aforementioned hunger frequency, you can also change the frequency of dismemberments, enemy base spawn rates, squad size, global population, death chance, and things to do with towns you might build like their raid frequency.

You are also provided with a large list of starting states during character creation. These don’t lock you into any one playstyle, but can make for an interesting intro or help you get started toward something you are hoping to achieve with the character. For example, you can start out surrounded by hostile cannibals, traveling in a group, traveling with a dog, or as a slave; just to name a few.

I’ve had a lot of harrowing and funny moments with Kenshi. I think the one that stuck out the most to me was when I tried attacking a wild animal to level up my combat skills, only for it to completely wreck my character. As fortune would have it, it was merciful and left me to bleed out in the middle of the desert. After regaining consciousness and bandaging up my legs to prevent bleed out, I had Stork - my character - begin to crawl to town (his legs were broken), about halfway there I was reminded of the SeaBear from the Spongebob Episode ‘Campfire Song’ as it came back and attacked me again… FOR NO REASON!

There was also a time where Stork was traveling through cannibal territory and after knocking out and mortally wounding tons of malnourished cannibals, he was knocked out by a cheap shot, but luckily his vitals were fine and he was going to make a full recovery… or so I thought. You know what that remaining cannibal did? He picked up my unconscious character and started carrying him back to his camp to eat him. By complete happenstance, a traveling nomad saw and killed the cannibal; thus granting Stork another day at life.

There was even an instance where Stork came across a slave trader colony in the desert and witnessed some bandits that wandered too close to the colony’s wall get set upon by slavers. Taking advantage of the slavers' impending victory, Stork patched up a few of the bandits to prevent them from bleeding out, and he and his companions carried them into town and sold them into slavery. Hey… building an army isn’t cheap!

So yeah, Kenshi is a lot. It’s ultimately what you choose to make of it and how you decide to play. There’s also an active and very healthy modding community whose mods are easily accessible through the Steam workshop.

My praises having been sung, there are a couple of things to be aware of. Firstly, while you can interact with every single character/creature/whatever in the game, it is important to note that you cannot talk to every single one. I’d say that dialogue is limited to a select few characters in each area; somewhere between the 10’s and 20’s, but I wouldn’t necessarily consider that a negative. It just means that the characters that can be conversed with tend to have something of actual substance to say or some sort of purpose behind their words, whether that is segueing into selling you something, being recruited, checking you for illegal goods, or something else.

The other thing probably goes without saying as to the open-ended nature of the game, but it can be buggy at points. I haven’t run into anything gameplay ending or egregious yet, but I did end up having to leave behind a companion because he got stuck operating a turret and wouldn’t get off it. Granted, I could have reloaded an older save, but his stats were garbage and overall I didn’t deem him worth the effort. There is another answer of sorts, game importing!

Game Importing was made as both a work around for bugs and a new game plus of sorts (should you check the right options). Importing keeps all of your characters, gear, and stats, while also giving you a wide range of optional things to import like: research, buildings you’ve made, major NPCs statuses as alive or deceased, and relationships with factions.

For a game that I’ve seen go on sale pretty frequently for around $15 and having managed to dump 30 hours into whilst barely scratching the surface; I’d say the Kenshi was definitely worth it and I am looking forward to diving further into it after I clear away some of my backlog.

From roving cannibals to beings that emerge from the fog, a variety of enemies await those who attempt to tackle the world of Kenshi!

TL;DR: I'd recommend this to people who like reading and Japanese-inspired settings. If you like stories, then you might check it out because it is a good and interactive one, but don't expect a lot of difference between playthroughs. If you hate reading, then you will have a bad time; there isn't anything beyond reading and what imagination you bring with you: no sound, music, or pictures.

Samurai of Hyuga was a smooth reading experience. While I enjoyed the story that was presented to me and would like to heavily praise it, there are some things that I must address to prospective buyers beforehand so that there aren't any misunderstandings about the product: I hesitate to call it a video game and would say that it is best labeled as an interactive story. There are no sounds, music, or pictures, just words and some choices for you to select from. The choices that you choose do not change how the story plays out, but does change how your character reacts and may even add or take away a few pages, so they are more of interactions (I went through the game twice and did two completely opposite playthroughs and largely had the same experience minus some differences in dialogue).

Samurai of Hyuga has an interesting mechanic where for the first half of the game your responses define your character and sets your character's 'attunement' (if you make a lot of perverted responses or protective response within the first half of the game, then your character ends up being defined as such and any contradictory responses go against your character's attunement, although I noted no consequences of going against your attunement). It's a bit of a weird mechanic, but I didn't see it as something negative or annoying. A consequence of choosing a lot of the same type of response (responses have types, though they aren't laid out for you until after you have selected and chosen it) is that later in the story, if it is part of your attunement, some portions of the game has your character make dialogue responses automatically which are suited to their attunement; so if you choose charming responses a lot, then the game is going to make a lot of charming responses for your character because it is in character for your character to respond that way. The auto-responses don't get in the way of choice, there are still choices/interactions to be made in the later half of the game. By the way, you can name your character from a list of names or make your own as well as choose their gender and sexual preference. In addition to this, you can import your character and his/her choices to the sequel.

One thing that might really frustrate players is the fact that there is no way to do two playthroughs at the same time. You are locked into what you are playing until you hit the restart button, so if you make a wrong choice or misinterpret something you have to deal with (kinda cool, makes it much more life-like in my opinion, however some will not like that sort of thing). There is no way to go back to previous pages -bar restarting the entire story - however, it is set up to where you have a button on the bottom of the page that you must click to move on to the next one so there is barely a risk of accidentally skipping a page (I never did and most pages seem to have interactions you must make which further reduces that risk).

With the explanations and potential turn-offs out of the way, I can now focus on praising/discussing what I like about Samurai of Hyuga. The writing itself was very descriptive and interesting; this is something I have trouble tearing myself away from once I start reading. The characters felt real, captivating, and were very well done. The dialogue never made me cringe or feel shame, it was very natural. I was always able to keep up with what was going on and able to picture it in vivid detail thanks to how skillfully the words were delivered. I'd also like to offer that from a price standpoint it is cheaper than a lot of novels, especially the hardback ones and is a bit longer in length than your average novel (over 500 pages long). I realize the positives I list off may seem quite short in comparison to the explanation I gave, but there isn't much I can say without giving examples and spoiling some of the experience. I really only have the mixed feeling about there not being a way to go back to the previous pages without restarting.

Samurai of Hyuga is a resounding “yes!” to avid readers that enjoy swordplay and/or Japanese-esque settings, however, please be aware that the story as a whole is a few sequels away from being finished.

Shining Resonance Refrain is an action JRPG in the long running Shining franchise.

It’s also a port of a game - Shining Resonance - that only came out in Japan on the Playstation 3 and contains additional features! Shining Resonance was developed by Media.Vision while Refrain was developed by O-Two; and both versions were published by Sega.

I played the Xbox One version. There are two modes you can choose from, Original and Refrain. I chose to play on Refrain due to the fact that I usually only play games once and because it has enhanced features that the port added in it; such as being able to build bonds with characters, going on dates, and adding a couple of additional characters to my party. I consider it a new game plus mode, because It was weird starting out with the additional characters in my party even though it didn’t make sense at that point in the story, totally my fault though - but I actually think this is a neat feature.


It was a well-polished experience without any bugs, glitches, or graphical issues. The controls were mostly straight forward, but unfortunately I suffered an issue because a couple of inputs shared a button. To elaborate on that, there is an ability that you gain where you have to fill up a gauge and press R1 to activate it; it’s called BAND. There’s also a very spoilery ability you gain that makes you super powerful that you activate by pressing L1 and R1, but sometimes when I’d try to activate that, BAND would activate instead. It wasn’t too bad, but could be mildly infuriating when I was getting my butt kicked in a boss fight and needed that small extra boost.

Speaking of the controls, I’d say that gameplay wise it plays sort of like Tales of Berseria, in that you and the enemies move around in real time in a small enclosed area and you press buttons to do what attack you want until they are dead, whilst dodging so that you don’t end up dead. Each character in your party gets a variety of attacks/spells that can be chosen from and mapped to a button, but only 4 can be chosen at a time for each character. Characters can also be equipped with items called Aspects, which is what gives them additional stats and effects. Only a few of those can be held by a single character as well. That said, this does pave the way for some broken builds, if you so choose to pursue them!

I think the combat is both the best and worst part of the game. It can be super fun and engaging (which is why this game keeps creeping back into my thoughts) but it can also be a drag because of the huge difficulty spikes that some of the bosses have. Seriously, regular enemies are thoughtless encounters, but some of the boss fights are… well, they are something.

Regular enemies you encounter in the field will level up with you as you progress in the game, which is sort of good because of grinding (something I’ll get into in a minute) but what sucks is that you cannot figure out what level you should be to fight a boss until you engage that boss. The first boss in the game (disregarding the prologue) is level 14, I grinded on my way there for the fun of it and encountered it at level 7; naturally my party wiped in two hits. From what I recall, the highest leveled enemy in the area was level 6? To make things more confusing, some areas will have a super powerful enemy that’s like twenty or so levels above you, blocking the way - the game world is separated into modules by the way, ala games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Dragon Age: Origins - when you come across an area you aren’t meant to go into yet. But then they’ll have disappeared when you are ready to tackle those areas for the sake of the story.


Other than the worry of being underleveled, another thing that comes into play when dealing with bosses is the fact that you can only carry a certain number of each item. For example, you can only carry twenty healing potions, ten high healing potions, and ten revives at once. I get that they did this so you couldn’t just chug your way to victory, but I still hate it. Especially when it’s one of those instances where you have to fight bosses back to back and you had to use most of your healing stuff on the first boss.

Some of the boss fights were fun, but some were poor and it wasn’t necessarily the fault of the boss, but rather the party AI. So…….. from what I can recall, there are two bosses in the game that can do area of effect damage, one would cast a straight line of fire and another a cone of lightning, well, my allied AI companions would run straight through that and die EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! Therefore, I ended up having to fight each of those boss fights one on one. Luckily those two bosses had super easy to read movesets, so it wasn’t much of an issue, but there’s still something really annoying about seeing the rest of your party dying through no fault of your own.

This is one of those games where leveling helps immensely, and thus that was my strategy for overcoming the harder boss fights. By the time I finished the game, the protagonist, Yuma, was level 71. Yuma… not the entire party… just… Yuma. And here’s where I’m going to point out a really lame and glaring flaw in this game, your inactive party members do not level. You have to regularly rotate them out and level them all up, which is where the vast majority of my playtime with this game went. Now, yeah, most of my party was high 60’s, early 70’s when I finished, but it was a struggle to get them there. Side tangent before I get back to the main point; there’s one point in the game where you are forced to play as two specific characters and only have those two characters in your party, and if you didn’t grind them by that point in the game and don’t have a spare save file on hand, then you are totally screwed. I got lucky and managed to come across a post that warned me of that, so I was able to prepare in advance.

There are sidequests that are infinitely repeatable, which you might think would be a good source of experience, except that for whatever reason, they don’t reward you with exp. Usually you just get an inconsequential item as a reward. All the sidequests are either collecting a certain number of things like carrots or killing a specific number of a certain enemy; so there’s not much to be gained by them unless you want to do them.

And for the sake of transparency, you remember those Aspects that I mentioned earlier? There is allegedly one that you can get which will level up your inactive party members, but I found out about it super late into the game and never figured out how to get it.

Back on track, so, a lot of my playtime in this game came from grinding dungeons over and over on repeat, using a very specific method, to level my characters quickly. I’d estimate that I spent 15 - 20 hours of my 40 hour playtime doing this. Either I’m a masochist, have Stockholm Syndrome, or this is genuinely the case, but I found the dungeons to be well executed!
Dungeons are accessed through a thing called Grimoire. Throughout the game you can get different items that you can use to change what enemies, items, and characteristics there are, in dungeons. Dungeon map layout is also randomized each time for a unique experience, plus you can choose from different skins for the dungeon (beach, volcano, school, etc). So that did help break up the monotony a bit, but it also goes to show that the developers knew that grinding in this game was going to be an issue.

I thought that the environments, while generic, were pretty; you’ve got your snow area, your grass plains area, and your desert area. The music and singing in this game was well done - as it should be considering the title alludes to music and music being a main theme of the game; to the point that all the weapons have instruments built into them.

Another strong point of the game was the voice acting. I played with the Japanese acting, so I don’t know about the English dub, but some big names were brought in like Kazuya Nakai (Zoro from One Piece/Hijikata from Gintama). It’s just such a shame that the characters are bland and… characterless.

Character wise you’ve got Yuma - the protagonist - who acts like the overly generic shy guy caught in the middle of a harem anime, which is an apt description here because all of the women characters in the party give off harem vibes. Truly, it feels like all the women party members solely exist for Yuma to date. They all have moments (regularly) where they get super blushy around him and all look up to him even though he’s unconfident, whiny, and unassertive which makes the whole situation strange and feel all the more harem-y. Also, I couldn’t figure out where exactly to mention it, but pretty much all of the women in this game have big chests, or to lean onto this a bit more, one body type, so that’s kinda weird.

The first character you see in the game is Sonia, Princess of Astoria. She’s endowed with shining armor and is normally a calm, level-headed person, but around Yuma she’s often a stammering, blushing mess.

Next you’ve got Kirkia, a Diva Magica and elf who has a cool disposition, but often fawns over Yuma because of a power he possesses.

Then you’ve got Excela, The Imperial Princess of the Empire, and one of the lead antagonists of the game, she too, obsesses over Yuma because of plot reasons.

There are more, but this is the last one I’m going to mention in regards to how most of the women in the game pretty much solely exist to obsess over Yuma; Rinna. She’s my favorite because there’s an inkling of backstory to her that gives her depth, but I only ever saw it mentioned in passing and never explored/shown, and that is the fact she is something of an Archaeologist. I wish they had expanded on this with some cutscenes or side quests, it would have been a great way to build on her character and make her more memorable. Rinna often acts carefree and flirty, but has a lot of intellect that she likes to routinely keep under wraps. As previously hinted, she likes to routinely flirt with Yuma.


A few of the guy characters have important bits in the story, but they felt like they were mostly there to just move the story along and I never really got any extra background information out of them, other than how they relate to other characters in the party. So basically they were plot devices, not characters… And I think that’s my big problem with this game. Everyone in this game has an inherent function whether it be for the player to date as Yuma, or to just move the plot along. I mean, yeah, that’s a story, but there’s no window dressing to it, it’s all just very straightforward so there’s no getting invested, and that’s a real shame.

An even better example of this is, light spoilers ahead, a large chunk of the game revolves around one of the antagonists trying to find a way to make their dying emperor immortal; and you know what? I find that a pretty compelling hook. But then they fumbled it. How? They never showed the Emperor. He had no lines, no model, no sort of presence at all; and then he’s murdered off screen and we are expected to feel something, but how can we? A paragraph at best, that’s all the dude was.

To piggyback off that with another point, how can I be expected to care about the Empire falling apart or Excela’s struggle to try to keep it afloat when all I saw from it were antagonists? Seriously, the game would shift back and forth between where our heroes were to the antagonists which are always shown in a desolate building. That’s all well and good, but what of the rest of the Empire? What of its people? I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the capital, some citizens, or at least a small town. But nope, the Empire itself was also nothing more than a paragraph. No wonder its soldiers were so weak.

Between the lack of any Imperial Holdings, Emperor, or citizens, the small cast of characters, the fact that cutscenes are made of models with barely any animation behind them, and the fact that the game has only a single city/village you can visit, I got curious and tried to look up the budget for this game, but I couldn’t find anything. Still, I’m led to believe that it must have been low.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind another installment being added to this long running series, just with a bigger budget and better writing to back it up; because like I said before, I do feel that the combat is fun; so there are pieces here that work.

TL;DR: Crusader Kings II takes a long time to learn, so don't buy it expecting it to be something you can just jump into unless you play a lot of strategy or Paradox titles. If you have a lot of time to kill, are imaginative, and love character oriented games then this will probably be a good fit for you. There is a wide range of mechanics from choosing a spouse to trying to assassinate anyone (in the entire game, no essential characters). The DLC isn't as money-grubbing as it may appear at a glance. Not all the DLC may fit any one person's preferences, so I recommend researching what the expansions are and what they contain. I approve of this game!

Crusader Kings II is the game that I absolutely must review (133 hours and growing playtime). I will do my best to remain impartial throughout this review and to address the game as it is, while offering some opinions on things such as DLC, despite being somewhat biased. The game is rather difficult to learn at first, so if you are not a patient person or do not have the time to learn the game and want something you can just jump into, then Crusader Kings II probably isn't the game for you (it took me 8 hours to learn how to play). On the other hand, if you like strategy titles, participating in assassination plots, conquering lands and have a lot of time to kill, then this might be a game that you'll enjoy. For the most part, I think Crusader Kings II has something to offer everyone, even the strategically challenged (like me. I'm awful at this game and therefore use console commands, but it doesn't hamper my enjoyment at all).

At it's core, Crusader Kings II is more about the characters than conquering everything. Indeed, the game ends at a certain date (1453) rather than when everything is under one's thumb or certain conditions are met (excluding the date being reached). Characters have their own randomized events (often fun and quirky) that can shape their stats and relationships with each other. Events can range from having an affair to being possessed. Some events have choices, while others do not. In addition to events and the obvious fighting, there are also plots which allow you to do things like try and arrange someone's death through assassination, go on hunts, or hold a feast. I know I'm really starting to beat a dead horse here, but nearly everyone that has played multiple games of Crusader Kings II has that ONE character that sticks in their mind (mine was a guy that adopted a cat, lost an arm in battle, held a massive funeral for said cat when it passed of old age, and then died of an infection shortly after the cat's funeral). The characters of the player's and game engine's creation are something so wonderful.

Some other mechanics include: Marriage (anyone of opposite gender can be married if conditions are met), Lovers (same-sex or otherwise), dungeons with prisoners that can be executed, ransomed, or released, fabricating claims on land to go to war, going to war, hiring mercenaries, converting areas to your religion, and whatever mods may add. The mod community for this game is really awesome, variety-filled and big!

One thing that I rather dislike, but makes sense, is that you have to have a Casus Belli (cause for war) to be able to declare war and go out to fight. This is either achieved by being of a certain culture, having differing religions, or a claim (fabricated or legitimate). On the bright side, this does prevent the AI from ganging up on you.

Something rather off putting to a newcomer of the game, at least it was to me, is the large number of DLC. Most of the DLC is cosmetic in nature, while a few do add some changes to the game (improvements or otherwise, I'm looking at you Conclave). The really neat thing, in my opinion, about the DLC that adds functions is that some of those functions are patched into the game for free. One such example would be India's landmass was patched into the game for free so that players may fight and conquer India, but to play as an Indian you must own the DLC. In terms of which DLC to buy, I'd say use the search engine of your choice, figure out what the expansions are, and then what they contain (if that strikes your fancy, of course). I will say that while amazing, I don't feel the DLC are necessary and that the base game provides more than enough entertainment, but they certainly are fun!

“I want to tell you something. Something really important.”

Sweetest Monster is a kinetic novel (a visual novel without choices). Although it doesn't have choices, which some might be looking for in a game, it does have a very intricately designed/tightly-knit story that more than made up for the lack of interactivity, in my opinion. I can't bring myself to tell you anything about the story because it is very hard to put to words without spoiling anything, much like Ebi-Hime's other works, but I will say that it leans more toward the horror genre than romance (though it arguably pulls bits from both) and that the story itself is very bold. Beyond that, the best I can offer story-wise, is pointing you toward the author's description of the game.

The artwork is beautiful, yet carries an air of creepiness to it. Meanwhile, the music is both vibrant and classical, a perfect compliment to the art (especially some of the objects that appear washed-out/antique by intended design). I also found the sound effects to be on point and fitting with the somewhat eerie theme. There isn't any voice acting, but I'm glad because I feel that it might have worked against the dark feel that the artwork and score provided, not to mention how it might have cut over the excellent soundtrack.

There are also quite a few extras: Art Gallery, Music Box, and Author's Notes. As with the other Ebi-Hime titles I have played, I found the Author's Notes to be very informative, well written, and interesting. I really like what the author set out to do, and accomplished, with Sweetest Monster. The game does indeed have uncensored nudity (I've seen questions posted about this, but couldn't figure out where to place mention of it in my review, so I chose to post it in the most ironic spot I could think of). I'd say that the VN is a bit short as it took me around 4 hours to finish, but I am a somewhat quick reader.

In closing, I found Sweetest Monster to be a more than worthwhile and thought provoking read. I would definitely recommend it at its normal price. If you are still unsure, then maybe wait for it to go on sale or pick it up as part of the Ebi-Hime Bundle when that goes on sale.

TL;DR: This is a definite recommend for anyone that loves apocalyptic settings and RPGs. Encased is a well written and immersive game that deserves a place up there with the great classic Isometric RPGs of old. It does have a few things that I felt it could have done better, but it did not hamper my overall enjoyment of the game and for the near 44 hours it took to complete a single playthrough, it was definitely worth buying! I'd even go so far as to call it a great entry-point for someone looking to play an Isometric RPG for the first time.

Encased is the first venture by indie company Dark Crystal Games and is an isometric styled RPG in the same vein as Fallout 1 and 2, and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. This game is an absolute hidden gem. While it does have its small share of flaws, I found it to be very well put together and on a quality bar equal to (and greater than, depending on the companies in question) many AAA games.

Encased offers a variety of ways to earn experience for leveling up: you earn it from combat, completing quests, exploring maps, crafting, and opening loot containers/corpses with items inside of them. I found this to be one of the game's greatest strengths as it encourages the player to play how they want without punishing them for their preferred play style. Speaking of combat, combat is turn based and done through the use of Action Points which determines what specific and how many actions you can take within a round (as with most old school RPGs). The number of Action Points granted to each character is awarded based on their build/stats. I played on easy and didn't find the combat difficult (which was a problem I used to run into on some of the older RPGs).

I'm of the opinion that the character creator did a concise and excellent job explaining stats and how things were calculated, something that often struggles to keep my attention. However, if one is unsure of how builds work or doesn't feel like cobbling one together, there are a wide range of premade characters (I think it was around 20?) with interesting backstories to choose from.

On the note of backstories, you get to choose from a small list of factions - “Wings”- to be a part of at the start of the game which will open up some potential dialogue choices for you on down the line. That said, you are free to pursue your own interests and don't have to act in your factions interests at all. The factions are both one of the strongest and one of the most disappointing aspects of Encased.

The factions all have really great aesthetics, motives, and writing – they just feel right in the world – but I wish more was done with them. Granted, they are involved in the overall story, but it would have been neat if they'd had their own quests instead of just those that intersected with the main story and if you could have joined them. Not being able to join some of the factions is a huge missed opportunity, especially considering that all factions have a reputation bar that you can build up.

This leads me to my biggest gripe about the game; toward the end of the game you meet with each faction (assuming you didn't choose to wipe them out, you can do that to any of your choosing) and their representatives are gathered to ask you to do a certain thing for their specific factions. However, some of them won't actually ask you/tell you their plan unless you have specific stats. The faction I was trying to help had a requirement of 8 Charisma (among one other high one that I forgot) for them to tell me their plan which would have led to unlocking a new potential ending for me. This decision baffles me, because the only time you can set your Charisma is during character creation, and it makes the reputation bar kind of pointless? I had a few of the factions do this, actually. This is something that I strongly feel should have been tied to the reputation bar.

That having been said, I thought the writing was great, and that both the main quests and side quests were engaging and varied. One of the side quests involved going to a family dinner, that was fun. I think that's one of the things that made Encased so endearing to me, that it wasn't always about combat or going somewhere to kill/collect things, but that you got to sit down, talk to people, and have some brief normal moments in a not so normal world.

The companions are great fun. All of them were unique, felt like a part of the world, and had some interesting things to say about themselves. That said, I wish they had more dialogue options and passive dialogue, it felt like I went through all they had to say rather quickly. And yet... I wanted to have all of them in my party, but could only have two at a time so I ended up spending the entire game with the first two I met – so overall I'm of the belief that the companions were done well since I had a hard time choosing who to take with me.

As far as I know, companions aren't romanceable (the two I had certainly weren't). There aren't really romances, but there are rare opportunities for brief encounters here and there with certain NPCs.

There's also a crafting system. It was straightforward enough. I liked being able to make my own ammo, grenades, med-kits, and drugs.

My second and last gripe about the game has to do with the maps. I've seen a lot of people say that they felt the maps are empty, but I don't feel that's the case. I'm in the camp that believes the maps are too big. There's a lot of resources on each map and if the maps had been condensed a bit, then that feeling of emptiness wouldn't be there. It's a minor annoyance but since the combat is turn based and the maps are tiled, it costs AP to close the gap between allies and enemies so you might have enemies aggro'd on your playable character and your companions might be a ways off, so then you have to waste a round or two because you are using your AP to get in attack range; that would have been less of an annoyance if the maps were shorter. While the maps have a few different biomes (desert/swamp), I would have liked to have seen a couple more: snow, forest (of all dead trees), ash, salt, any of those would have been a welcome addition.

Now that I think about it, this could probably count as its own complaint, but the companion AI pathing is a mess, so every once in a while your companions will try to take the most complicated route to get somewhere on the map (when out of combat) when the maps being smaller could have circumvented this.

There is a lot of content. I did every quest and fully explored every map I came across, while dreading that the game was almost over, and it took me nearly 44 hours to complete it. I've no doubt that the game could be finished in half, maybe even a fourth the time if one were so inclined to do so, which makes the prospect of going back through it again appealing for me.

In closing: Yes, Encased does have a few things I feel it could have done better, but I found it a very memorable and enjoyable experience. I realize I went into a lot of detail with my complaints, but that's because I really love Encased, and I hope that Dark Crystal Games sees my review and takes my feedback into consideration because I'm looking forward to seeing them improve and what they might put out next!

Today I’m going to be reviewing Final Fantasy X out of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remastered. Final Fantasy X is a JRPG that originally came out in 2001 on the Playstation 2, but the remastered version released on various platforms throughout the years starting on the Playstation 3/Vita in 2013 and finally hitting Xbox One and Switch in 2019; the PC version released in 2016.

The remastered version was largely handled by the Chinese studio Virtuos whom received some assistance from Square Enix - who also handled the publishing. The original version of the game was developed by Square. From my understanding, aside from upgraded textures and enhanced graphics, the remastered edition contains content that was previously only available in the international versions.

I happened to play the PC version. I never had any crashes and it was a stable and bug free experience for me. One thing I found interesting is that on Steam it has its own launcher and you have to select between X, X2, or the after stories, and then the game proper launches.

I have a lot to unpack here with this game, but before we get started, I feel that I have to say that I’ve never been so on the fence about whether or not to recommend a game. It was such a mixed bag for me. Because of that, I’m going to start with the huge elephant in the room, the difficulty.

Difficulty wise, this game is really hard. I’ve seen a lot of members of the Final Fantasy community claim that not only is it the best, or one of, but also the easiest game in the franchise. I honestly can’t attest one way or another whether this is true as I have only played this entry, 14, around half of 13-1, and a small smattering of X-2 back when I was a kid, but it is anything but easy if it’s your first time playing it and you go through it blind.

I’m actually pretty convinced that most of the people who comment that it is an easy game are doing so with the hindsight of having beaten it before, got the items that allowed them to easily cheese the bosses in a few hits, or they are REALLY used to building fantastic character builds.

Actually, speaking of cheesy items that allow you to beat bosses in a few hits, that’s sort of my main gripe with this game. To elaborate, whenever I hit the metaphorical wall on boss enemies and struggled, and anytime that I’d google, the general answer was “go make such and such awesome item that will give you an immunity to x status effect”.

That’s all well and good, except the part of the explanation which often gets left out is the fact that said items are usually only gotten through stealing off of monsters and the most effective way is to complete a side quest where you have to capture a number (think it was 10?) of each monster which will open up an arena that will then allow you to do so. Either way you are looking at a multiple hour grind there.

Me being my naive self, opted to just grind more levels each time I struggled instead of grinding out those items and doing the side quest because I wanted to get on with the story, and I mean, why would I need those items, the game is easy, right? I always persevered through it; until the final boss.

To backtrack a bit, I did once try some optional content that was highly recommended by a large segment of the community. There’s this powerful creature you can get to help you called Anima and I had done all the prerequisite stuff to unlock it. But as it turns out, it is blocked by a monster. The monster in question is low on health and pretty weak, but you are forced into using three specific characters for it (which is normally fine in and of itself), however said monster has a one hit kill that turns you into stone and makes said party member shatter so they can't be revived. I tried 7 separate times against it, but there’s only so much you can do when it kills your party members in one hit and they are non revivable.

This time there were two solutions offered. One was go grind out a minigame called Blitzball to get a character an awesome ultimate move (we’ll get to Blitzball in a few ranty paragraphs) or, “Go build a set of armor that blocks petrification”, which required grinding a specific item.

Anyway, I said nah, I’m not going to bother and started the endgame content with the final bosses. Which, wouldn’t you know it? The final boss of the game has the same exact move as that earlier boss, just reskinned. It was at this point at 52 hours in I decided to give up on the game entirely. Final Fantasy X is a difficult game, but only because a lot of the boss fights have really cheesy, cheap 1 hit kill mechanics.

One other thing worth noting, is that you cannot skip cutscenes. You can pause them, but you CANNOT skip them. So if you die at a boss with a long cutscene a lot, then you are going to end up with some of the game’s dialogue seared into your brain.

Disregarding the 4 or 5 boss fights I temporarily got stuck at, I’d say that the rest of the game is easy.

Well, other than the optional minigames. I had read and heard that the Chocobo Racing Minigame was such a hairpulling, RNG filled chore that I honestly just decided to avoid it entirely. There’s also a lightning dodging minigame that’s pretty hard to time. If you dodge 200 strikes of lightning in a row you get a prize! Then you have Blitzball, which is a sports minigame somewhat similar to football where you have two teams trying to score goals. Everyone on both teams have levels and level up the more you use them in matches. At one point in the story you are forced to do a match and you can choose to read up on how to play it. I did the tutorial for it (which is broken up into chunks) and still struggled to understand it. I ended up winning the match, but only after going into overtime with the butt-clinching score of 0 to 0.

I guess these don’t really classify as minigames and more as puzzles, especially since you are forced into them as part of the main story, but you have these trials you have to complete which are puzzles that revolve around moving spheres around and placing them in proper spots as well as occasionally moving blocks around. The first one was simple enough with trial and error. The others required a guide for me to complete. Funnily enough, I am of the belief that is why those puzzles are in the game, to help sell the game’s strategy guides because back in 2001 when it was on the PS2, there was no YouTube or any other real alternative to help out and no one will convince me otherwise.

I think that’s kind of my other problem with the game, all of the optional content just isn’t, at least in my opinion, fun.

Those personal grievances of mine aside, I think it’s a decent game with an amazing story. I found the story to be very engaging and unique. Most of the time I experience the story of something, whether it is in a book or a game, it shares similar beats with another story I have experienced before, but that wasn’t the case for me with Final Fantasy X.

I really loved the overall theme of having to decide whether to adhere to or let go of tradition.

I also found the companion characters to be some of the best companions out of any game I’ve ever played. They all had their own complete arcs, unique designs, distinct places in the story, and were just really pleasant. Plus, the voice acting for them, in the English Dub at least, fit them well. The voice actors really brought their A game. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but one of the characters, Wakka, is voiced by John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) and it took me well into 20 hours into the game to realize that, and only because he sort of slipped into his Bender voice when the character got angry.

There’s a lot of strange mechanics at play in the game as well.

Leveling up has this sphere grid mechanic. Each character has their own place on the grid and you have to move around and select which spheres to unlock. So like, if you want to raise a character’s attack then you need a power sphere to place on the attack slot, but in order to move on the grid you need a level. One level equals one movement, and it costs to move back over places you’ve already been on the grid as well. The grid is massive and would take ages to entirely fill as each characters’ grids intersect. That’s not a bad thing tho, as that means any character can learn any other character’s moves.

There are two equipment slots for each character. One is for a weapon type that is unique to them and the other is for an accessory type that is unique to them. As you get farther into the game, you’ll eventually unlock the ability to customize certain pieces of equipment which allow for the adding of status effects that you can inflict on enemies.

There are also tons of hidden systems at work behind the scenes. I don’t really understand it all, and not a lot of people do, if even anyone properly does at all; as there are tons of spreadsheets of data for a lot of things. For example, there’s a hidden creature that you can recruit which can instant kill any enemy, even bosses, at the cost of you paying it money. But the amount of money it takes to do the move with that chance to instant kill is based on a hidden unseen metric of how much it likes you which also ties into how much you’ve offered it each time for doing that move.

There’s also a specific scene where you get to ride a snowmobile with a companion and which companion you ride with is based on which one likes you the most, but that metric is hidden from you.

Some of the boss battles allow for what is called trigger commands. Trigger commands are specific to characters. I found this to be creative as it sometimes allowed for an alternate way to handle a boss, like by activating a crane and crushing it for example. However, I also found trigger commands to become frustrating as for certain battles you’d need to do trigger commands to move away from a boss’s attacks and that trigger command would take your entire turn. I realize I’m being a bit vague there, but I’d rather not spoil anything.

On the flipside, you can switch between companions who are on the field and who aren’t without it costing you a turn. You can also always see the turn order which is a really nice touch, so there’s never any confusion about who moves when.

So… Would I recommend playing Final Fantasy X? That depends on you. It’s a game, not a book - and the farther into the game I got the more sour I became because I largely wanted to experience the story above all else. If you like challenges and grinding to break the game, then I’d say it’s definitely worth it. If you don’t like grinding, then I’d say maybe give it a pass unless you are dying for something to play with a REALLY good story (although there is a rumor of a Remake being released in 2025/26 so you might want to hold out and see if that is any easier).

"Life's a fleeting thing in this wicked world."

It gets so lonely here was made by Ebi-Hime for the Yandere Game Jam 2023 and as the title of said convention suggests was released in 2023. Before and after its release the title was heavily advertised for its yuri cannibalism, and I am happy to declare that it lives up to the promise!

I won’t be getting too much into the story aspects of the VN as it is a 2 hour romp and I don’t want to rob any would-be readers of the experience! It has a very specific theme and explores how love can have a unique meaning to each of us. Interestingly, the story is also told in a 2nd person point of view; something that I believe Ebi has only done once before, but it’s so well done that you wouldn’t guess it.

The game has multiple routes, with a true ending, and a few bad/game over endings. In my opinion, it does a great job building up tension and atmosphere on each of those routes by making use of sounds such as birds chirping and heavy breathing (as the situation demands).

The background art has this washed out/stained glass look to it which helps build on said atmosphere, while the characters have a vibrant and often jovial look to them. The character designs are very pretty and have an innocent look to them. I’m not going to get too much into detail, because again, I don’t want to spoil much; but one of the characters has a lovely dress that reminds me of Chain Chomp from Super Mario Bros, which is a statement I’d never thought I’d make (or a fashion statement that I never thought would work out so well).

The soundtrack contains lots of piano, perhaps nothing but, managing to switch between hopeful and ominous as the situation demands. All in all, I’d say the piano gives off a classical feel, in fact, sometimes the music sounds downright enchanting!

The game also contains the traditional gallery, music, and notes in an extras section that Ebi-Hime games are known for! Reading Ebi’s thought process and what decisions led her to write the story the way she did is interesting and entertaining to say the least!

Another thing that I really appreciate is that the textbox is embroidered with flowers, which matches the png icon of the game (also a flower).

Speaking of, The UI while playing/reading is really nice and unintrusive! It has buttons for going back, going forward, skipping through text you've already read, a save button and an exit button; all of which are made obvious by the pictures that overlay on them. It’s simplistic and unburdensome, and I wish more Visual Novels would take that approach with theirs instead of making me have to right click and scroll through menus/tabs to do so!

Did I mention that ‘it gets so lonely here’ is eternally at the very low price of free? It’s a steal and well worth the read, so check it out!

Death by Chew Chew!

I paid close to $3 for this and boy is it rough. There’s a great concept in here somewhere but the game was executed in every possible way contrary to it. Despite feeling lukewarm towards it once the escort missions hit, I was determined to see it through.

Unfortunately, a few levels from the end there’s a mission where you have to destroy a battleship after escorting your own through a narrow canyon for about 30 minutes. A narrow canyon where your ship will take the majority of the enemies firepower because it is nearly too big for the area…

The first time I got through it the battleship didn’t spawn so I had to restart thanks to the checkpoint activating there. The second time it did spawn, but its energy core that I was supposed to destroy glitched out, and it kept happening from the checkpoint. I already had an hour and a half or so into this single mission out of about 4 to 5 hours of total playtime, so I decided I wasn’t going to restart it from the beginning for a third time.

If I could, I’d give Dark Void 0 Stars. I normally do not believe in rating things based on numbers but this was such a low effort and so much of a mess that I feel like I am within my rights to quantify the game’s value with those two simple words: Zero Stars.

I mean, seriously, how do you screw up a game set in the Bermuda Triangle with robots being piloted by alien snake-people who have teamed up with Nazis - who use jetpacks during World War 2; which also has Nikola Tesla somehow thrown into the plot for good measure? This answers that.

And yeah, the plot is incoherent, technobabble and nonsense, but you can’t tell me that all those ridiculous elements can’t make for a great gameplay experience. One final thing that irks me is that the game is afraid to outright call the bad guy humans Nazis and instead opts to call them Fascists at every turn; while technically correct, if you’re that uncomfortable with the subject matter to call it by the appropriate name, then you don’t deserve to be covering it.