Starting my "replay" of Termina I did not really expect to glean much more than I had from my first playthrough of this game. I absolutely adored the game more than I have most other games and I've viewed as much content as I could find online for it. I thought I knew every inch of this game, every single intricate mechanic, character interaction, etc.

And this couldn't be any further from the truth.

My most recently completed run was with Abella, I got endings B and C on the same save file and I have so much more to appreciate this game for in this run now that I've seen all of the general endings firsthand. The sheer level of labour put into this game is inconcievable to me. Just the quality put into an rpgmaker game alone leaves me dumbfounded. Building upon the world, mechanics, and systems present in the first game in such a splendid manner. I have spent many hours merely thinking about this game and truly I cannot find anything to complain about.

Diversity in this game just breathes so much life and uniqueness to the world of Fear & Hunger. Just within the 8 playable characters, there's so many attributes that give each character their own distinict feel. In design, combat, and even just how you go about the navigating the world. Every playthrough feels magnitudally different just by the starting character alone. The soul absorbption mechanic adds on to this and creates so much depth for the progression system and understanding of the lore and game world. I've poured so many hours into perusing the wiki and watching too many a video covering unique interactions between the cast members and how they interact with the world. Mind Read, Diagnosis, and the Party Talk are all so intricately created it genuinely breaks my fucking mind to think that this game was produced by one person.

Combat once again follows in the foundation established by Funger 1. Though remaining more-or-less the same, the new REV system brings so much more depth to combat and I love it. The already complicated puzzle that is within each encounter now has an additional layer of which has heavy impact on the outcomes. Management of REV points could be the make or break for an encounter, and being so limited on how many you can store in your backend at a time PLUS being forced to commit to REV point usage adds so much stress to the gameplay itself. It really does wonders for establishing the brutal and ruthless resource management that this game has.

Style is something that I will infinitely praise this game for. I've watched some of the speedpainting videos, listened to every track (some hundreds of times over), and read through just about all of the dev's comments to other people regarding the music. Thematically the game never falls short and everything feels just so perfect. Again, it's so fucking mindblowing to me that this game even came to exist.

Funger's in-game world captivates me the most. All of the textbooks, flyers, papers, diaries, newspapers, everything. Nothing feels cheap in its delivery and nothing feels superfluous in its inclusion. I've read all of the pocketcat tales, all of the bibles, I cannot understate just how much I love how everything ties together both from the prior entry and from this one. Dialogues aside, the actual spritework and level design for the game itself is so magnificent and beautiful. Environments are put together and tracks are paired together like a match made in heaven. I cannot recall a moment where I've felt underwhelmed with the music and environment or annoyed with the design of an area. It's beautiful through and through. Character's and their relations to the world also do much to add depth and vibrancy to the characters themselves and those surrounding them. Again, the Party Talk and Mind Read mechanics are so perfectly executed and insanely deep. Nearly 3 hours of party talking paired with the mind reading ability (spoilers for obvious reasons). There's so much that you will miss out on sheerly because you don't play the game a certain way or don't unlock whatever skill. Characters in your party are also important because the Party Talk has unique dialogue based on those present/absent from the party. Words cannot express how much I love this system and how quite frankly fucking insane you have to be to put together all of this dialogue singlehandedly knowing that 90% of the playerbase won't even read a fraction of the interactions.

Miro has done a wonderful job with putting together such a game nearly singlehandedly. It's this game and Metal Gear Solid 2 that I believe are truly works of art. I'll admit I'm cranking out this "review" as something of a obligation because I want to write something of much grander scale but I lack the first-hand experience to do so. Think of this as something of a prelude if you would.

I'm currently 43 hours in and starting another run as Marina. This shit is crack. Help me.


STEAMDECK ADDENDUM:
I played this game on Steam Deck and it runs pretty OK. I'd suggest playing this on windows if possible. Unless you are running the latest protonGE version & the protondb fix for the game, you'll be fighting against massive fps drops very often.

The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave

Just what the fuck is a Denpa Men? er.. Denpa Man?

The Denpa Men is a trilogy (in the west, it's a tetralogy in Japan) of monster catching turn-based JRPGs exclusively played on the Nintendo 3ds. Judging off of their JP presence, I'd like to infer that it was massively much more popular overseas than it was in the States (or anywhere else for that matter).

But before delving into the game itself, I'd like to talk about myself and my relation to the game.

I have a lot of personal connection to this game, as with that, my viewing of the game inherently will massively differ from the viewpoint and opinions of others. I recall this as being one of my first true involvements with an online community surrounding a game à la being active within the space of creating YouTube videos on a now defunct google account and also participating within Reddit (🤓) communities surrounding the game.

So, why do I bring this all up?

I feel that my attachment and love for the uniqueness of the game doesn't go unfounded. When I heard about the deactivation of the Nintendo 3ds/Wii U Eshops, I came to the realization that this game will not, in any capacity, ever be able to be experienced in its true capacity. It was Pokémon Go before Pokémon Go. Utilizing just about all of the 3ds' features to their extent; camera + gyro functionality to capture creatures, utilizing both local internet connections and radio waves to generate said creatures, and other more menial features like utilizing streetpass & system play coins (albeit in the sequels) just simply cannot be recreated via any other means of playing.

A remaster for modern consoles simply couldn't work, maybe the Nintendo Switch could produce something of similarity, but there would be much lost upon the shift to hardware lacking the uniquely weird capabilities and features the 3ds had. Especially when clawing into the nature of the future games. This is all without mentioning the dual-screen feature of the 3ds.

Ok, enough talking about the unique mechanical aspects of the game, why I am throating this game front to back?

Denpa Men and more specifically The Radio Wave Men has a very unique take on the character collectathon genre of games. As stated prior, the generation of characters is tied to YOUR surroundings. It forces you to get up and move around to new locations to unlock more characters to find. Fighting a boss that requires a certain type of Denpa Man that you don't have? Time to get off your ass and get moving buddy you gotta hunt for that shit in the real world. I think by far this part of the gameplay was most appealing to me as a kid (and in retrospect as an adult too) because the 3ds already encouraged the whole "real world moving" for play coins and street pass. It felt great to have another bonus for carrying my 3ds around with me because at any time I could pop it open and check on the Denpa Men nearby to see if I was convienently in a spot that would generate characters to help me progress along the story.

Moving along the actual core combat gameplay, it gets a bit more nuanced than "catch Denpa Men, play game, win." The game was demanding and expecting a lot more of the player. Outside of the typical typings of your characters, there are multiple factors which have a hand in the usage of a Denpa Men. This image depicts most, if not all,of the various antennae that they can be generated with. DM1 has a more concise list, but DM2 and DM3 expand on the prior antennae types far more like I literally can't find a dedicated list anywhere online so you'll just have to trust me on this lol.

So, Denpa Men are generated on the following conditions:

Antenna: None < standard attacking antenna < single support/debuff < AOE attacking antenna < AOE supporting/debuffing
Color: Red, Blue, Teal, Orange, Green, White, and Black in addition to mixed color varaitions with their own unique stats
Cosmetic: Face, height, skin color, accessories, and head shape.

In addition to how the game creates a highly unique and customized expeirence on a per player basis, there's really not a set way to win the game that will cater to everyone. Two people within the same town might have wildly different party members as a result of what radio and internet waves are local to them and at that, a rare character (denoted by sparkles when appearing in the capture mode) that generated by you may not generate for anyone who goes to the location in which you caught it. Additionally utilizing radio and internet waves makes the game viable for just about anyone regardless of location.

I know I'm hopping throughout topics a bit hard here but please bear with me, back on the topic of combat. Your party will start out with a max capacity of 4 members, then 6, and then 8. It opens the doors further and further for party customization and resource management. As the location difficulty increases, you WILL need to catch more Denpa Men, more equipment to fit out your Denpa Men, and more healing items to get you through dungeons.

Ultimately, this culminates into an experience which, by its end, has you progress along a very basic and barebones story with combat and experiences far more unique than most other turn-based JRPGs I've played. But this game ultimately pales in comparison to the future titles, taking all of the unqiue aspects of this game and cranking it way the fuck up.

I'm surprised I've made it this far without making mentions of the artstyle or music utilized by the game. Lets talk about it.

Denpa Men are Katamari-adjacent little guys. I don't really know what to say about the artstyle if I'm being honest. It's pretty generic and the monsters are typical of that which you'd find in a JRPG. The music, however, is one of the aspect where the game shines.

The OST opts for a very electric sounding vibe. Listen to the title track of the game and you'll have a general understanding on the music of the game. It's unique and cute and I love everything about it. Some complaints I have are that there's 1 battle track so it can get pretty repetitive quickly but that's about the worst of it I think. The Boss theme and Great Demon King theme are fucking bangers though I'm never changing my mind on that idc if I'm biased or nostalgia blind idc that shit bangs. Enough of that, I think the music is pretty bangin'.

Conclusion: If you have a 3ds play this game. Or don't. Free will.

Incredible.

Trails in the Sky brilliantly sets itself up for the grander story that is to come in the following game, the Second Chapter. Many elements of this game are masterfully crafted: music, characters, side quests, and many in universe aspects as to how the world functions.

The tools of engaging the player with the world did a lot to immerse me in the world. Countless days I've played where I couldn't put down the game due to how engaging and beautiful the game is. Despite a large portion of the game being optional; the Bracer Guild board postings and the occasional hidden quests that you seek out yourself, with absolute certainty I can say I participated in almost every side quest and a handful of hidden quests. The gratification of stumbling upon a hidden substory is unparalleled. Often times, the side quests, hidden and publicly known alike, offer so much knowledge into the world whether it relates to the history, different branches of society, or relationships between characters. Trails has an amazingly realized world that delves into some truly unique territory. Purchasable newspapers, books, and other various outlets for in world authored texts is truly something I heavily appreciate in the game.

Being a PSP game, it should come to no one's surprise that the soundtrack is fairly limited. Exploration of the world can only be so grand, combat has many hardware limits inflicted upon it, and NPC dialogue can only go so far. That being said, the game utilizes all of these aspects to their fullest.

The soundtrack is about an hour in length, yet throughout the +40 hour duration of the game it ceases to wear itself out. Not once was I able to find myself annoyed with the choice of music or even the existence of a track altogether. I absolutely adore when and how the developers chose to use certain tracks for cutscenes, locations, and events. Sound design is, simply put, superb, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Standard battle music, boss music, and any music played during specific fights always land. I can very easily recall moments where the game uses music to its advantage. The most notable and memorable being a scene in specific where a character snaps, eliciting a reaction from an opposing person, then eerily creeping back into their ominous foreboding song. Contextually, this scene is absolutely fucking loaded with emotion and intense story significance. Typing it this way to avoid spoilers absolutely does it zero justice, you have to witness it firsthand. Music in this game carries a LOT of emotional weight, the use of music to fit regardless of tone or setting is also shown in how music environmentally consistently matches the mood throughout the entire main story. For what it's worth, given the length of the game and the length of the soundtrack, I have an utmost level of appreciation for how expertly crafted the music and environments are built in tandem.

Exploration and visual flair is definitely one of the biggest aspects in my adoration with the game. Areas are beautifully crafted, with each space having such uniqueness to it. Each of the main explorable cities and their outskirts are all uniquely interesting and a blast to explore & learn about their history upon reaching them for the first time. Bracer Quests are equally one of my favorite mechanics for this reason. Should you not feel compelled to explore the lands of your own volition, Bracer Quests act as one of the supporting reasons to explore and familiarize yourself with your surroundings. The 1.3 GB file size for the original PSP release still absolutely blows my mind. I love the unique style in how the world is designed and how it presents itself, that early 2000s JRPG aura is super emphasized, and I'm here for it.

I don't want to delve into the specifics of the combat much to be honest. I enjoyed it for what it offered and that's about the most I can put into words about it, I'm willing to excuse its simplicity for it being the first game in the series. Though I can safely say I'm not the biggest fan of sepith farming, I do however like the payoff. It grants the complexity of crafting your “perfect” orbment loadout for your characters, adding just another layer of strategy to the base combat that I'm definitely a fan of.

After completing the game on numerous runs, I can say that I have unfortunately warmed up to this game and like it a bit more now. Original review below.

Enter the Gungeon, but for people who are fans of
-Big boobs
-Crammed rooms
-Big boobs
-Newgrounds

Upon rereading, my thoughts have become a lot clearer regarding this.

I'd like to view its existence as something more than only being a game. Yes it's very clear that it plays like a game, it shouldn't necessarily be rated or critiqued and in doing so would be insulting to the author.

This is, in my eyes, a journal entry adapted to fit stylistically in the world of Cave Story. A style much similar to the other game created by Bagenzo, Madotsuki's Closet. It isn't created as a work to be enjoyed in a traditional sense. You are looking into, what I interpret to be, an autobiographical memory or some turning point for the creator.

I think it's best to view this as a creation birthed from self-healing and personal reflection. Intent behind the creation is suited for the creator, not you.

Also check out Madotsuki's Closet if this game struck you in any way shape or form

One of the few games where I can say that the gameplay is so gripping and the music is so good that I'm only continuing to play despite the story being total dogass.

Counting this as mastered because I got Ace rank on every level and don't care for any of the visual novel stuff

I feel that it's important to note that I'm currently halfway through the game with only 3 hours in, I'm expecting to beat it at 6-7 hours which leaves the VN sections taking about 10-11 hours of the game's time which really annoys me because so far it's just poorly written.
I was right i beat it at 7 hours and 20 minutes lol

Quit the game over a year ago (February 2021)

The story, gameplay, and every aspect of the game is not worth your time in the slightest. Within the ~200 hours I sunk into this game I probably could've finished numerous other games. As one of the better gacha games I've played, it's just awful man. Please do not sink your time into playing this game.

At best the game is meh and while I do believe that it is a bit fun to play with friends for the love of god don't play this game solo (or at all really).