cryber
2018
There's magic in these dungeons, something enthralling.
Funger's atmosphere is magnetic, it had me hooked from the very first run until the end with its cruelty, enemy design, and world. There's just something so wonderful about a game willing to kick your teeth in so thoroughly. As soon as I lost to a guard and ended up legless in a fleshpit with no idea where I was I knew it would be a special experience, which after mastering the first few floors proved to be true. What comes after those floors, while not as punishing since you're more used to the game's tricks, is still magical.
It's not flawless by any means of course, there's bugs and RPGmaker jank, but both are overshadowed by the level of love put into crafting it. If there's one main criticism I have it's that battles as the game goes on start to feel either routine(attack X part on Y turn) or lacking some complexity(spam attack torso). But battling isn't even the game's main focus so this isn't that important.
Funger's atmosphere is magnetic, it had me hooked from the very first run until the end with its cruelty, enemy design, and world. There's just something so wonderful about a game willing to kick your teeth in so thoroughly. As soon as I lost to a guard and ended up legless in a fleshpit with no idea where I was I knew it would be a special experience, which after mastering the first few floors proved to be true. What comes after those floors, while not as punishing since you're more used to the game's tricks, is still magical.
It's not flawless by any means of course, there's bugs and RPGmaker jank, but both are overshadowed by the level of love put into crafting it. If there's one main criticism I have it's that battles as the game goes on start to feel either routine(attack X part on Y turn) or lacking some complexity(spam attack torso). But battling isn't even the game's main focus so this isn't that important.
2022
A game with art direction this inspired should not be so agonizingly dull to play.
2023
A stale subgenre made great by injecting The Sauce™ aka an actually cool artstyle, music, and putting real bullet hell in it that makes late game/bosses feel frantic instead of routine.
This review contains spoilers
The comparison to Doki Doki is tacky and overdone considering this predates it by about 4 years, but unavoidable.
When I played DDLC in 2017 I heard the ~whispers~ of this ~other game~ that ~wasn't officially translated at the time~. I saw some screenshots from a certain happy birthday, and moved on with life.
Now 6.5 years later with more VNs under my belt, more life lived, and with memories hazy enough to have not quite remembered being spoiled fully, I rounded back onto reading Totono.
It was certainly an experience worth that wait, and a great of example of using the meta of your genre to tell an extremely effective story. Totono builds its main heroines wonderfully over the course of normal play, making the choice between them feel hard to make even before the curtain begins to get pulled back. Being railroaded into Miyuki naturally makes you feel bad for Aoi, which leads you into her route, which leads to abandoning Miyuki's, which leads to everything falling apart as it does. Despite me pushing in Aoi's direction as hard as possible as soon as I had the ability, they still brought me back to almost picking Miyuki in the end. The emphasis placed on your choice really did make it hard to make in a wonderful way, no saves, no reloads, just a binary with no right answer capping off an extremely memorable commentary on the genre.
When I played DDLC in 2017 I heard the ~whispers~ of this ~other game~ that ~wasn't officially translated at the time~. I saw some screenshots from a certain happy birthday, and moved on with life.
Now 6.5 years later with more VNs under my belt, more life lived, and with memories hazy enough to have not quite remembered being spoiled fully, I rounded back onto reading Totono.
It was certainly an experience worth that wait, and a great of example of using the meta of your genre to tell an extremely effective story. Totono builds its main heroines wonderfully over the course of normal play, making the choice between them feel hard to make even before the curtain begins to get pulled back. Being railroaded into Miyuki naturally makes you feel bad for Aoi, which leads you into her route, which leads to abandoning Miyuki's, which leads to everything falling apart as it does. Despite me pushing in Aoi's direction as hard as possible as soon as I had the ability, they still brought me back to almost picking Miyuki in the end. The emphasis placed on your choice really did make it hard to make in a wonderful way, no saves, no reloads, just a binary with no right answer capping off an extremely memorable commentary on the genre.
2024
Roguelite deckbuilding boiled down to its essentials in an amazing way. A standard poker deck, 4 systems of cards that interact with it, and an unending need to make the numbers go up.
Put together with hypnotizing art direction+music makes it clear why people call this addicting, and it's not because of gambling.
Put together with hypnotizing art direction+music makes it clear why people call this addicting, and it's not because of gambling.
Troubleshooter is not a perfect game. There are problems I could list with the story as it stands, or small issues in gameplay that largely live in the later game of the DLCs.
But those nitpicks pale in comparison to the passion and ambition dripping from every inch of it. A small studio decides to spend the better part of a decade on a project, one which in essence is a prologue for a somehow even larger planned story despite being well over 100 hours long, and it works.
Getting to the credits and seeing that the game had TWO programmers was an extreme shock. Seeing that the devs have a 400 page thread on Steam to take ideas and feedback they've been maintaining for 6 years was too. The fact that such a small team created such a deep and intricate TRPG is downright inspirational.
Every character is unique and fun to use. Every character has a ridiculous amount of customization. Many maps provide a challenge even on the normal difficulty. It's a massive pile of ideas and systems built up over years that should collapse under its own weight, but never does.
But those nitpicks pale in comparison to the passion and ambition dripping from every inch of it. A small studio decides to spend the better part of a decade on a project, one which in essence is a prologue for a somehow even larger planned story despite being well over 100 hours long, and it works.
Getting to the credits and seeing that the game had TWO programmers was an extreme shock. Seeing that the devs have a 400 page thread on Steam to take ideas and feedback they've been maintaining for 6 years was too. The fact that such a small team created such a deep and intricate TRPG is downright inspirational.
Every character is unique and fun to use. Every character has a ridiculous amount of customization. Many maps provide a challenge even on the normal difficulty. It's a massive pile of ideas and systems built up over years that should collapse under its own weight, but never does.
2018
Did not go into this expecting to love it as much as I did, but the charm put into every character really creeps up on you.
I have small gripes here feeling that there were some missed opportunities to explore the rules of the death game, but they are minor in the end and far overshadowed by just how great the character writing was. Miharu especially was a star of the show in that department, though Rinka, and almost everyone else endeared themselves to me by the end. Really great read overall!
I have small gripes here feeling that there were some missed opportunities to explore the rules of the death game, but they are minor in the end and far overshadowed by just how great the character writing was. Miharu especially was a star of the show in that department, though Rinka, and almost everyone else endeared themselves to me by the end. Really great read overall!
2016
I feel like you could lock Shouzou Kaga in a room with sticks and rocks and he'd have started making a new SRPG within a few days.
Despite some limitations of the SRPGmaker engine, Vestaria manages to perfectly capture the spirit of past FE games Kaga has directed. A charming cast, a focus on narrative events happening on the maps themselves, and of course busted prf weapons everywhere as has become common in his games.
When Vestaria shines, it shines extremely bright with both challenging and interesting maps. But along with the unrestrained creativity that makes these moments so good, there are multiple maps where the event/secret hunting devolves into tedium instead. Especially some of the later chapters, whose length and size manages to dwarf Fire Emblem 4 maps that spanned entire countries, taking multiple hours to complete even before things like resets. The last chapter specifically is a monster of a challenge, whose roughly 6 hour clear time must make it the longest in the series.
This all comes together to make Vestaria a mix of both the best and the worst the Kaga Saga games have to offer, but overall it comes out to an unforgettable experience that continues the FE legacy even 25 years since Kaga has touched the series officially.
Despite some limitations of the SRPGmaker engine, Vestaria manages to perfectly capture the spirit of past FE games Kaga has directed. A charming cast, a focus on narrative events happening on the maps themselves, and of course busted prf weapons everywhere as has become common in his games.
When Vestaria shines, it shines extremely bright with both challenging and interesting maps. But along with the unrestrained creativity that makes these moments so good, there are multiple maps where the event/secret hunting devolves into tedium instead. Especially some of the later chapters, whose length and size manages to dwarf Fire Emblem 4 maps that spanned entire countries, taking multiple hours to complete even before things like resets. The last chapter specifically is a monster of a challenge, whose roughly 6 hour clear time must make it the longest in the series.
This all comes together to make Vestaria a mix of both the best and the worst the Kaga Saga games have to offer, but overall it comes out to an unforgettable experience that continues the FE legacy even 25 years since Kaga has touched the series officially.
Lovely artstyle paired with a roguelite card collector that removes the randomness of shuffling in favor of cooldown/buff/debuff management and attack orders. Also comes with a story that while not incredibly strong, works as a dripfeed to keep you doing runs. Could be a bit more varied in encounters overall, but otherwise great stuff.
2017
I love this game(I nearly quit 30 times)! Exploring and adapting to the world was amazing(putting this death system in a platformer should have you tried at The Hague)!
Somehow still want to come back for every campaign too.
Somehow still want to come back for every campaign too.
Love the art, very charming at what it goes for, and made me buy a Tiger-chan plush halfway through.
Log Wild/10
Log Wild/10
2018
Very fun and satisfying gameplay held back by a baffling combo system whose timer is so short it punishes you for playing "too cool" and getting multikills with the same specials that combos feed, because a cleared screen means a reset combo if the next enemy takes too long to show up. Plus weapon specials take time to charge, which is time not killing, which kills your combos.
This along with multiple unlocks being tied in this system makes replaying again and again to go faster become less satisfying instead of more.
This along with multiple unlocks being tied in this system makes replaying again and again to go faster become less satisfying instead of more.
2023
Absolutely stellar game, Neowiz knocked the ball out of the park immediately upon stepping into this genre with a near perfect package.
It is, in fact, Like Dark Souls. However Lies of P not only meets , but surpass' Fromsoft's own efforts in many ways. While never quite reaching the highest highs of something like Elden Ring or Dark Souls 1, LoP instead maintains its high quality throughout the entire surprisingly long experience with maybe only 1 bad boss in its long lineup.
The weapon handle/blade system is amazing, the boss weapons are all extremely fun, and the build variety leaves me wanting to sink multiple playthroughs despite the game being mostly linear. The mix of deflection and parry system with the extremely quality boss roster makes this by far the soulslike where it feels the best to truly master a boss, rivaled mainly by Sekiro in that department.
While the story itself is not mindblowing, what is there is perfectly fine and made downright impressive by how it and the art direction/world still feel natural despite trying to adapt Pinocchio of all stories. Things really should have fallen apart on that end and its a testament to the art design team that they didn't.
It is, in fact, Like Dark Souls. However Lies of P not only meets , but surpass' Fromsoft's own efforts in many ways. While never quite reaching the highest highs of something like Elden Ring or Dark Souls 1, LoP instead maintains its high quality throughout the entire surprisingly long experience with maybe only 1 bad boss in its long lineup.
The weapon handle/blade system is amazing, the boss weapons are all extremely fun, and the build variety leaves me wanting to sink multiple playthroughs despite the game being mostly linear. The mix of deflection and parry system with the extremely quality boss roster makes this by far the soulslike where it feels the best to truly master a boss, rivaled mainly by Sekiro in that department.
While the story itself is not mindblowing, what is there is perfectly fine and made downright impressive by how it and the art direction/world still feel natural despite trying to adapt Pinocchio of all stories. Things really should have fallen apart on that end and its a testament to the art design team that they didn't.
2023
Definitely some great atmosphere and sound design, but maybe proof that a game can be TOO dark? I feel like at a certain point fumbling in the dark starts to hurt the tension more than help it.
Still really strong short and sweet horror though.
Still really strong short and sweet horror though.
starting to think homicide is the greatest expression of love but idk