Sekimeiya: Spun Glass

(Edit: After re-reading it with a friend, nosediving into the tips section and engaging with the extended mechanics I've revised the score because of the amount of complexity Adri tackles)

I’ve been waiting for a trapped in a facility game that would actually have a solid mystery for nearly a decade since I touched Ever17 as a kid, there’s been so many variations on the formula: E17,R11, Root Double, 999, VLR, death-game variants like the Danganronpa-universe, Raging Loop all the way to nukige variants like Room No. 9, DEA, Euphoria. Even though there have been a lot of different mixes with the trapped genre, Sekimeiya blows them all out of the water.

This is singlehandedly THE most complex VN I have ever read, it’s the only VN where the game will spell out the solution and you have to spend a long time in the backlog to just understand how the solution even works. There is an art to misdirection and foreshadowing that shouldn’t feel very cheap and (for the most part) Sekimeiya manages to present sound solutions to the insane clusterfuck it paints with its first route. Before I ramble more about why I like the game, I have to start with some of the negatives:

Cons

(-) Production

Considering how much 3D work/ Hand-painting/ Photography that was done for the backgrounds, I’m surprised at the lack of actual character CGs in the game, most of them featuring Shiroya (which either works for promotional reasons or just because she’s the main pillar for the MC and poster child for the game.) There’s a reason why the CGs are limited which plays into a specific factor of the game but even then I think other moments definitely deserved more CGs.

(-) Character Writing

This is a popular complaint against the game, and I agree and disagree with it. Mainly, I have no problems if the VN puts center-focus on the mystery but sometimes the characters would behave in such a way that felt way so ridiculous in service of the mystery, there’s so many moments of confusion in the game which would have been perfect instances to add dramatic elements, and even though some exist they also feel robotic and too calculated in placement and design.

Often times characters would leave to the bathroom or go on one of the upper floors and would just not get chased because they insisted on not being followed, character “N” can just pull character “K” to a separate room with esper levels of convincing and keep the others upstairs, character “S” can just say “don’t follow me” and run to the attic, there was a funny moment where character “E” asks the time and the MC remarks that she was better off just saying she was guilty.

I have no qualms about the lack of character depth I seriously don’t care that hard about what plagues the minds of Erina etc outside the confines of the building, and if the game wants to use the characters as vessels to deliver an impactful story I can’t fault it really, it’s the way it executes the story that’s the fundamental issue.

(-) Schizoid Protagonist – Deduction Bot (The first 4-5 hours)

The issue of the game is in the first few hours, the MC is a deduction machine, the game doesn’t draw its first breath and he starts printing out theories after theories about stuff that aren’t all the interesting. The writing is dense, but it bleeds everywhere and it feels like its going to hard before the actual mechanics of the plot are introduced. Several reviewers voiced complaints about how everyone turns into theory-crafters, and I don’t align with this issue at all, I like the fact that the game likes showing you all the playing cards before it pulls its sleight-of-hand to fool you and it does this with heavy internal and external dialogue.

This problem however disappears very fast when there’s actually interesting stuff to monologue about.

Pros:

(+) The Mechanics

The trapped genre’s more forgotten priced jewel should always be the solution but I have never been satisfied with an overarching explanation in many of the games the genre is defined by. “I read this in phenomenon in a journal once and turned it as a plot-device for the game” was always Uchikoshi’s vibe and I’ve hated it for so long, another hallmark of his explanations is done by abusing bootstrap paradoxes and I cannot emphasis how much I HATE these explanations, especially in the ZE universe.

Sekimeiya has hands down, the most complex, well-thought out mechanics I have ever seen in a sci-fi mystery. I appreciate the fact that the origin of the mechanics is irrelevant which is another Uchikoshi weakness as he goes into page-length explanations about quantum-mechanics and the like. Sekimeiya only cares enough to have mechanics that works within the internal logic of the story, and its able to conceal the actual mechanics with so many cool misdirections. I was able to make some assumptions that were right on the mark but the way they are executed just completely obliterated me.

Unmatched, just WOW, I am honestly a bit disgusted how do you even write something this technical and then manage to even rationalize it completely with the events of the story?

(+) Sai

When I say character writing is scuffed, I leave Sai out of that equation. He’s one of my favorite versions of the “fucking up the game” characters in the trapped genre. Whenever he was on screen it was always so juicy to the extent that I was disappointed when he didn’t have a dedicated route (I would have loved for Sai to do the explanation part in Chapter 5).

LOVED. THIS. CHARACTER.

(+) Story

(+) Chapter 1:

Starts off too polarizing but then it turns into my favorite “question” arc of any VN I’ve ever played, manages to pile on the most confusing chain of mysteries for a brilliant cluster-fuck in this lengthy chapter.

(+/-) Chapter 2:

I liked the twist, the chapter is quite short and isn’t THAT interesting to me personally and sort of demystifies the story a little bit since it makes one of the mechanics very obvious.

(+) Edit: After going through the tips variant of the events there's so many layers to the protagonist's character, the different endings have so many interesting components to them and reading this chapter after seeing some events in chapter 5 also greatly re-contextualizes the events of this chapter. This is Adri's most risky chapter because of the omissions he does from the narration.

(+/-) Chapter 3:

I saw a reviewer like this chapter and all I’ll say is the first half was so boring I dreaded having to read through it, but then I enjoyed when it picked up on where the story had previously halted. I really liked a lot of the reveals of what actually happened and a huge “wtf” ending reveal.

(+) Edit: The tips variant of this chapter hides an entirely new perspective of the protagonist connected to the final events of Chapter 5, the protagonist also reminisces about how they got a lot of the details wrong and it really paints a picture of how far Adri and the team went to hide the twist

(+/-) Chapter 4:

Just an overview of what went down at the start, barely a chapter.

(+) Chapter 5:

As much as I HATE END-OF-GAME INFODUMPS, the mystery of the game was genuinely so complex and intriguing that I didn’t mind the wizardry by which the MC whisked together all the complex plot-threads. Additionally, this chapter kind of proves the point that the whole game is more centered on the you – the player, figuring out how everything fell into place, with a “MCQ”-esque segment where just before the reveal it will give you the chance to prove that you understood the greater complexities of the game.

Chapter 5 at one point just goes outside the MC POV and straight up you are being directly talked to in order to figure out the greater plot points. This is insanely polarizing but I have to really dock points for just having a 5-6 hour long explanation-to-explanation narration where I didn’t even have a moment to breathe and digest anything.

The explanations are just, fantastic, if someone said it took them a decade to write this game I’d believe them with the effortless-ness of how its able to explain every insane thing. But its done in such an inorganic way that it almost felt like I was being lectured with a powerpoint presentation by the devs themselves.

I like to imagine since this is an indie project they really were strained on developmental resources that might have impacted how they approached to tell the story of this VN, which ultimately I can’t fault them too hard for.

TL;DR: The best explanation for a clusterfuck I have ever read in a VN, very polarizing execution.

(-) Ending

There is none, when the game wraps up all the knots the game doesn’t really care to tell you what awaits the fates of people outside the building, and since the center-focus of the game WAS the mystery, at the very most it manages to clean-house on that front. It does feel disappointing that there is no ENDING-ENDING.

(+) UI

The fact that an indie team managed to make such an interactive and helpful UI where VNs in the genre can’t even bother to add this level of accessibility just proves how much love was put into the game. Hats off to the team for going above and beyond, I love the added chart that’s probably gonna be super helpful when I might dive into the game again in the future.

(+) Soundtrack

I was iffy on the soundtrack at first, to the extent that I almost thought it was a bit funny and its very evident that these are not tracks that belong to the same album, but once my ears got used to all the tracks playing I actually ended up REALLY really enjoying them. A lot of ear worms that I’m not gonna manage to shake out any time soon despite these being licensed pieces.

(+) Conclusion

If I haven’t exhausted my compliments for the mystery of this game, absolutely jaw-dropping game with the most insane “question” and “answer” arcs. Starts off too wordy but once the mechanics come into play the game transforms into an unforgettable experience. I wish Trinitite keep working on newer titles so they can just polish up the character writing since they’ve already edged out every other VN in the trapped genre.

Shockingly impressively and an extremely memorable game, but with a botched execution in the writing department and a lack of an ending.

If you want to skip to my overall thoughts with the game, I'll save you the trouble of scrolling and relay them here at the start,

I do not like RE VII,

First thing I should mention is that the game does reflect design choices from the original resident evil games, and even though you are free to explore additionally and uncover secrets, the progression is entirely linear, and the backtracking is always considerably short,

These are not negatives btw, even when I joke about the shadow puzzles etc, all the puzzles were doable and didn't require me to look up a guide or require an impractical or inconceivable alternative to solve them, they weren't particularly imaginative however, some requiring me to just match the orientation of picture frames on opposite walls to one another, while others requiring me to look at a clock, I wasn't too fond of them at the end of the day

========================𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗼𝘂𝘁=============================

If you're expecting me to sing praises for the house section of this game you are perhaps sorely mistaken, even though it has locked doors that can be opened by keys you get late game, and has areas that are interconnected, there is no need to conflate "interconnected design" with "good design", when anyone talks about the house being a good section I imagine them talking about the basement section which links some critical parts of the game, the rest of the house sections will be left thoroughly unexplored by you unless you're treasure hunting or something,

You can argue much of the same for the original REmake where many areas of the mansion are never revisited, and although I find that true, there are still many areas/hallways/stairways you DO frequent in REmake, and the more you risk traversing them the more you are led into remembering the game's exquisite layout, maneuvering through these in late game is not only fun, but can be the deciding factor between ammo wastage and conservation,
The same is not true for RE7, the main house floor has two black creatures that you can just skip by standing behind a table and picking the route they aren't coming from, and the rest of the creatures are in the basement, that's it, the layout doesn't require you to have a good memory, it's quite literally just a basement and 2 doors on the top floor that are relevant,

But Deiji? There's also the tunnel that connects the old house (with the insects) to the RV outside the main house, to which i will say
"Yeah, that exists",

Again it's not mindblowing design, am I supposed to marvel at the fact that you can open a gate behind the RV? I appreciate it but surely it isn't some bayeux tapestry masterpiece in level design

It might seem like I'm trying to say:
large police station with interconnected paths==good(RE2Remake)
large mansion with interconnected paths == good(REmake)
small house + small veranda with some interconnected paths == bad(RE7)

But in reality I don't think RE7's design is bad, it's just very very small in comparison,

========================𝗚𝘂𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆=============================

Capcom was completely out of it's element when making a fps and it shows, this gameplay is BAD, the only aspect I liked were the chem fluids, having to pick between making heal items or ammunition was such an interesting in-the-moment gameplay choice you had to make,

The gunplay is atrocious, and the fact that the backwalk speed is so slow makes NO sense, it felt cheap to do that when it makes no sense logically,

The knife was the only weapon that allowed me to have the most fun with enemies otherwise standing and shooting black tar was just fucking agonizing, absolutely horrendous gameplay, if I had the opportunity I would always speed past the enemies I just did NOT like fighting them LOL
That said the burner weapon is pretty fun in the insect level despite the fact that I know many people don't like that section lol

========================𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗲𝘀=============================

There are like 3 black tar enemy types, that's it, you already saw this complaint coming from miles away, I don't need to ramble on it more, and the gunplay having this congested FOV + slow walkspeed is also the reason why they couldn't go for much variety with not only the enemies, but the bosses,

I disagree with people, insect baker mom was quite literally the only technical and good boss fight, baker son was fucking cringe my god the same bullseye boss I've been fighting since RE4 please Capcom give me a break with this shit,

If there was a jumping option it would have allowed them to get some good broken maps to with bosses so navigating across patches of walkable platforms would have been interesting, as opposed to falling into the water and climbing back up like in the baker son fight, did I mention how much I hate it already?

===================𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭========================

Predictability is another key complain I have with RE7, much of this is just unfortunate design choices that give away interesting surprises, a very good example is when you fight the Baker dad and the room has just one snake door, I was fully aware that this door was going to open late game when I would have to go through the basement and get mobbed, which is exactly what ended up happening,

This is isn't "oohh haha big galaxy brain i am so smart i predicted what the devs would do" it's just how games are sometimes lol

Same turnout on the stupid boat section with Mia (I'll dedicate an entire paragraph to it later in the review don't worry) when you're on floor 3F and get mobbed by a giant black vomit tar guy while retrieving the wire piece for the elevator,

Once more when you're retrieving the hand for the serum in the long series of corridors,

Just because I can predict it doesn't make it bad, but I feel like the opposite is came much of a detriment, when I would expect something and the game would never push the envelope,

I like the gameshow type segment with the Baker son, and I liked how it made sense how you escape since you already see the Birthday cassette, but they didn't do anything much besides putting string bombs all over the level, and baiting with wooden boxes filled with bombs, again I need to mention how just the opportunity to jump could have helped them put some variety into these sections,

The first disappointment I had was with the bubbling water at the start of the game, I knew they wouldn't try to scare me at all so I went into the water again and again, and as you can imagine nothing happens, and perhaps that would have made it too predictable, but the lingering feeling from that point never escaped me, which is that Capcom was too afraid to actually scare the players,

This game is gross, disgusting sometimes, but never scary, all the panic inducing mob spams are predictable, but still never scary, for a game that had the perfect setting to scare the shit out of it's players,


This could be me misjudging the intentions of the developers, but then I wish it was really fucking cheesy horror done in the most corny way possible, but it's just nothing,
Well, the Baker Dad was pretty funny anyway

======================𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝗕𝐨𝐚𝐭=====================

The boat section with Mia is probably universally hated, let's talk about it,

-It has 2 saves, one on 1F and one on 3F, and the rest of the navigation requires traversal with very little ammo, so you have to strategize when it comes to managing saves in this section, which I kinda liked

-It's extra frustrating because all the weapon management with ethan is thrown in the bin for this particular section, so you're stuck with a pistol and (later after you get the cabin key) the machine gun, this makes this entire level VERY stressful to play, but then they gave me a knife and the level was pretty much over and done with from that point lol

-This is where all the important storytelling is done, and the story is utter garbage, literally the worst tropes ever, I would have rather there was no story at all, little biological abomination with a mommy seeking imprint UGH, it's not that the level is entirely bad, it's just that having to do all this shit with such a terrible incentive makes it much harder, also makes this level extra shitty to go through especially since you've been fighting these black tars the entire game......doing it now without all the weapons you've accumulated lol

-The corrosive key item was a fine inclusion but it was just an excuse to hoard even more unnecessary items,

-The child itself ruins the game and knocks it down by like 6-7 points that's how bad this abomination is

======================𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝗦𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲=======================

RE stories have never been good is something I've always said and I maintain that sentiment, but RE7 doesn't fall under the same conditions of storytelling with the same Umbrella corporation again and again and again, and yet it still decided to not tell a compelling story(ends up being the same Umbrella schpiel with Mia's backstory reveal but eh), disappointing but not unexpected

The entire ending was just abhorrent I would like to forget it immediately, literally stockpiling all that ammo meant nothing by the end, didn't use the grenade launcher properly in the game even once LOL

=====================𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬======================

Cringe.

I liked the old woman on the wheelchair I thought her appearing in the different sections of the game was cool but they ruined her too with that stupid end reveal, just ugh
Ethan is deadpan, I like him but that's BECAUSE he's so lousily written, I can't tell if they were going for mentally unhinged, like James Sunderland from SH2 where he doesn't show much of a reaction to anything

Love him for wrong reasons, at least I didn't have to bear with him being traumatized by stupid shit but like, at least show a reaction to killing your wife in the start of the game my god

Hate the bakers except the Dad and Zoe but I don't LOVE them either lol

=====================𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟====================

-Hated the cassette segments, at least there are like 4 of them, they are pretty stupid storywise too, im in a dilapidated boat time to watch a cassette so i can recover my memory! I'm being chased by the Baker mom let just tape this for my husband real quick! So stupid

-Unskippable obnoxious cutscenes,
-Long irritating intro making replays hell
-The blocking feature is redundant I literally forgot it existed until they forced me to do it at the end lol

=======================𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥============================

I didn't like it, it has some really ambitious ideas but it's so far from reaching it's potential, whenever I'd thing it would get good the game just decided to let me down again and again

Fun read, was so engrossed I read it all in a day,

The actual END of the VN is pretty ass but everything before that is really fun,

Centers around Sakura but Rin fans got enjoyment out of it too (thank god she isn't inactive or has just minor amount of usefulness my god), rape was a bit goofy infact so were the h-scenes........at least I got a laugh out of them

Good

Scooby doo ass game but at least it isnt doo doo ass garbage like Persona 3.

People carry a lot of fond memories of this game from their formative years so they are blinded to just how meaningless the "gameplay" side of this game is but if you're looking for le funny banter this game is decent, infact the "friendship" theme is the only thing going for it.

I know 3 people myself included who got confused by the start of the game so I'll lay it out for anyone that's interested,

The game has a very linear way of clearing its content despite how you have the ability to sometimes switch the order around a bit for variety, one of the game's charms.

The start of the game is a bit confusing, and it feels weird and over the place, Forgotten Crossroads misrepresents the game and misrepresents the journey you'll have ahead, I say the best way to clear content in this game is to have the aim of clearing all bosses which gives you the perfect road map, and once you're fought the Mantis Lords you're good to go,

The OST, the visuals, and above all what fantastic lore the game has. It's charming it's adventurous it has personality, the developers claimed that they designed the areas first and kind of found the story around it and it's pretty wild how well and cohesive most of turned out (minus the hive, what's up with the hive? TF is that place? Take it out)

I have yet to do the Pantheon but would love to embark on that adventure one day. Also great pricing on the game.

This was the first VN I ever read. EVER. And I really do think it's a good entry title for people because it has a digestible ambitious story, with good enough character banter and intrigue factor that keeps you motivated to find out the truth about all the mystery.

The OST is not remarkable at all, people mention Karma but...... it's not up there, I'll say the OP is one of my favorites take that as you will

The dumbass hologram did not need an entire route. For the love of god. Why.

Okay before I move onto my issue with the story I'll make a general statement so you can click of this review and go play it or whatever,

Ever17's story only works and operates at a level of convenience that is far too absurd. It genuinely baffles me how SPECIFIC it is, people could argue that the story's structure itself INSISTS that it must happen this way, but I really think the game is wild for just the weirdest convenient nonsense just to confuse players.

Alright now to the spoiler category:
-The game's fundamental plot twist is that both sides of story happen in different time periods of Lemmuria, the job of the game is to confuse you so you think it's all happening in the same time just different variations, so it does this twist using 3 characters:
1) A CLONE child of one of the characters in the previous time period (okay?)
2) A hologram (.......okay)
3) A literal immortal unageing person (are you serious)

THE LITERAL reason these 3 things exist is just to mask the fact that the game occurs in 2 separate time periods (iirc 17 years apart), WHY, WHY DOES THE GAME INSIST SO HARD ON THIS TWIST

I truly don't remember the next part so if anyone can enlighten me please go ahead:
We never truly find out why the original event at Lemmuria occurs, and if it occurs why isn't there a call to action to save them from the outside, why (for a facility with a damn high functioning hologram that fucking deserves a whole route) does it not have accessible means to contact the outside, this ALWAYS irked me

The point of the game is to get You(the character in 2017) to somehow recreate the exact event in (2034) which is done via Blick Winkel (I can't fucking believe I remember so damn much form this game), and lord only knows how in the actual hell Blick Winkel convince You(2017) so WELL that she just does it, also Takeshi in (2034) has red hair, WHY. THIS IS SO SPECIFIC. WHY. WHY ON EARTH. CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS? I don't get it it should be blue....anyways.

The game implies Takeshi and Tsugumi procreated in the fucking gondola

Why the fuck did they procreate in the fucking gondola, the damn sexually potent gondola are you fucking for real (trust me I genuinely enjoy Tsugumi's immortality status but it's in-service of a twist and not like a cool thing she just has which is pretty awful)

All in all? I grew up with this game, it's my first title, the first thing I was elitist about, tearing it down really doesn't bring me joy, because it has it's charm, you go into Lemmuria and you remember the experience, you remember going on youtube and seeing those weird 3D sprites and having a physical reaction, you remember searching images for it on google and finding weird promotional art, you remember the dumb Tsugumi washing machine jokes (that's apparently the only thing it's largely known for in it's longevity of an existence), the game is plot hole ridden, and it's not fun plot hole ridden, it's just a weird little hobbit (I don't know what i mean by this)

The worst game from the franchise

At release it had a keyboard input issue and the optimization for the game was so outstandingly bad but I remember feeling like the absolute most baddest person playing this during my IGCSE, anyways,

I'll go off on the negatives:

-Only the first class trial is genuinely good, which was also partly in the demo (a demo which probably raised my expectations more than it should have), if you base it off of emotive quality I can give you the benefit of the doubt but every single mystery was so predictable, what a disappointment

-The ending is the worst thing ever made, it's genuinely bad, I know people are like it's polarizing and "divides the fanbase" but I don't get how this even has supporters, as if we did not play the same game

Let me explain to you something I didn't like about the overarching plot in SDR2, the leaps of pseudoscience where they are in a fucking VR and monokuma can source specific character data and like craft scenarios like a goddamn arcade machine with a mini game Twilight Syndrome Murder Mystery, like it's actually absurd how "it's possible they just develop the technology in the future" is used as the worst patch up job ever to justify some of these........

I usually only ever excuse it because it wasn't that offensive there and I take most of danganronpa as high camp or goofy on purpose (which it REALLY is)

But V3? Oh the engineers developed a completely realistic visual where earth is charred ......... oh we can just straight up give you an ultimate (that's like actually real like Miu is straight up a genius who ends up being the reason why they manage to escape after she edits the shit out of Kubo)........ here's a fleshlight that restores fragments of memory like BRUH THIS IS A NON-EXPLANATION at this point

That's not the part that upsets me the most, the part that upsets me is that the game has a genuine disease called "Cospox" which the Ultimate Cosplayer has where she can't cosplay as other people (much like the Ultimate Imposter could)........ are you fucking kidding me V3? And this is accepted AS EVIDENCE IN THE FIRST TRIAL? AND THIS REMAINS TRUE FOR THE ENTIRE GAME EVEN WHEN ITS REVISITED AT THE END? like this is the VILLAIN, who's literal
"twist" schtick was that she didn't follow the damn rules of the killing game and willfully fucked with the game and eliminated one of the participants

When I was reading it I was like yo this is embarrassing,

-Ouma and Kaito try to catch Monokuma up on a technicality with their switcheroo and they manage to do this after they incapacitate the monokuma surveillance.... again Miu literally the only candidate who breaks the entire fucking game is the reason why they manage this thanks to her fucking Electrobomb I just can't fucking go on Miu is such a nonsense character anyways this should have been entirely irrelevant because in this dumb sci-fi reality it should have been easy to tell who's in the fucking Exisal thanks to idk heatvision or something? Like this fucking game allows you to straight up give people Ultimates and has like an entire engineering team behind it what the fuck is even going on

-Retconning the Hopes Peak Academy arc by making it part of a fictional universe did irreparable damage to the franchise, DR3 had to be rushed out before DRV3 because V3 retcons everything before it as fiction, a lot of people complain about DR3's painful execution or lack thereof but I wholly blame the existence of V3, in service of the worst twist ever made they had to RUSH DR3 and conclude the Hopes Peak Academy arc in its entirety, IT'S ALL because of V3

-Garbage characters

-Class Trial #3 is always camp and pretty easy to guess, here it was just bad

-Ouma is overrated I did not like him as much as you guys did that's for sure

The good:

-OST as usual

-Executions are literally actually brutal this time around and I dig that

That about wraps it up, this is not peak fiction or like the goat, one of the worst games ever made it, "it was all a dream!!!" tier ending, straight up bad.

This rating is for Kokoro's route, which is by far one of the best routes I have ever read, perfect balance of intrigue and quite literally it's better to call it "Cliffhanger-The Route", I was on the edge of my seat quickly running through every single dialogue because it just doesn't stop, you're telling me a body switching scenario but it's between two people stuck in two completely different situations where one of them is being chased by an unknown serial killer while another of them is awaiting their death in a snow cabin? And that's a massive generalization, there's so many layers of mystery that I got completely lost in it

Nakazawa and Uchikoshi always do this particular thing where they patronizingly explain their pseudoscience and take away the charm of their own story and R11's tail end suffers from this, the explanation is bad, and if you took a respectable physics lecture you'd even take offense to the levels of reaching that the writers can achieve, but more offense I took is towards the explanation that is supposedly "canon" but never made it into the game,

Yup you've heard that right, this enigma of a game doesn't have a "true route" that explains everything, I don't know the fine details of the issue with development, but we have a title that really ends with perhaps one of the most shocking cliffhangers I've ever seen.

R11 does not exist without flaws, sometimes the twists are twisting for the sake of it, but sometimes the game fakes you out with a twist so dumb that it makes you really sit and think how good the author got you (I'm looking at you...the MAO inhibitor cheese explanation)

All in all from what I know about the actual explanation, I REALLY do not like it, it's bad and I need Nakazawa and Uchikoshi to stop basing their games on some off-hand random science trivia fact they find in some magazine, and I need them to stop explaining to me more than they need to because I know for a fact there's no scientific basis for their cooky sci-fi mystery VN

With one of the best first routes I've played, a solid title
I'm willing to ignore everything else even though it contributes to my obsession with this title. Also I like the OST sue me.

Danganronpa now occupies probably one of the worst reputations by the sheer existence of its fanbase, but that has more or less fizzled out after V3 and probably might see a resurgence from a future title (i say this despite the noise people made when danganronpa S dropped.......anyways)

This is one of the best mystery VNs I've read, period, but I'll have to address the flaws right away

-Has the most boring Ultimates I have ever seen it feels like the creativity department wiped their hands and called it a day, "Ultimate Breeder", "Ultimate Princess", "Ultimate Classic Dancer" this is all nonsense rubbish

-All the characters you could genuinely not care about.......survive LOL, well technically if you see DR3 anime as canon they are all kind of alive minus one person

-Some mysteries straight up have plotholes but you don't really notice because the momentum and the pace are really tight

-Overall mystery of how they end up in the killing game is as bad as ever

-You can tell Kodaka regrets the fact he killed Junko because he can't make a single title where she isn't there in form or another (I'll touch on this in my V3 review)

Now the good:

-OST killer, so fucking good

-Has some of the best class trials in the entire franchise, especially class trial #4 god that one they really decently thought about

-Actually funny at times (V3 was so fucking beyond unfunny)

-Twilight Syndrome is such a cool thing to put in a class trial and to show off the mystery in such a way, it's baffling how poorly they handled it in the DR3 anime adaption when this is probably the best iteration of how the story went down

Anyways besides the literal cringefest that hope vs despair at the end always is this game is solid, the pace is good the mystery is top tier and it's probably a shining example of what the medium can achieve if it's focused

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Immortal Difficulty)

Off the bat this is easily one of the best if not the best metroidvania currently out on the market. I don’t know how Ubisoft of all companies, the company that has an assembly line that pushes out the most smelly dirt chewing Assassin’s Creed titles, managed to make this game or even decided to have a dedicated division work on it with a budget.

As usual I’ll split the game into pros and cons,

(+) Bosses

There are mainline bosses then there are fodder (mini) bosses, and honestly the mini-bosses are just fine. Of all of them Alternate Sargon was the only one I genuinely liked because it really got me to learn how to play more aggressively and utilize launchers (which greatly help in the Menolias fight), others like the Prisoner that swings a pillar and the giant possum (Elrik?) are there to teach how to get behind enemies to maximize your damage.

The funniest one is the crab which is also a boss for a side-quest… why does this boss exist again?

(+) Mainline Bosses

(-) Jahandar is extremely mediocre

(+) Kiana just blew my mind, the fight feels like a dance where you’re constantly making decisions by parrying, dodging, jumping and the like. Kiana is one of the best early game fights I have EVER played

(+) Azdaha follows up with a very similar style to Kiana’s gameplay albeit this fight felt way easier and the switch-ups are very fun to learn, the music of this fight is fucking phenomenal as well

(+) Menolias is the first skill-check in the game where you really need to be fast on your feet, the fight requires you to clear the field and keep Menolias on his toes since he really doesn’t like to stick in one spot but he’s susceptible to launchers which puts the fight greatly in your favor

(+) Orod was the hardest fight in the game for me, the switch-ups threw me SO off, and he hits VERY, VERY hard, with large AoEs.

(+) Vahram was the one I thought I’d have the most trouble with but since he’s also susceptible to some aggressive gameplay it was smooth sailing for me, easily the best fight in the game bar none, not only because it has responsive gameplay elements that are fun to learn but also because the fight IN context is just.. fucking cool

(+) King Darius is the best use of grappling for a boss and even though I got a little frustrated and annoyed at first, given that I played this on the Yuzu Emulator with a keyboard and mouse, his tells are so easily distinguishable from phase to phase that it makes the fight just as enjoyable as Kiana and Azdaha

(---------------) Final Boss, I HATE. THIS. FIGHT. THIS FIGHT DRAGS BEYOND BELIEF. IF I COULD REMOVE ONE THING FROM THIS GAME IT’S THIS FIGHT. HOLY SHIT THIS FIGHT IS ANNOYING TO LEARN. This fight has 4 phases (where the 4th phase is le MC powertrip), so essentially you have to survive 3 phases, if you die you do all the phases over again and its fucking grating. There are switch-ups in this fight I straight up did not care about as it added to my irritation and for each phase you have to hit this random ball to transition to the next phase like are you serious? This is a fucking waste of time. GARBAGE.

(+) Utility

PoP has this utility for exploration where it can explicitly mark the next objective on the map and this is just SUCH a relief I cannot even imagine playing the game without this, additionally you can add pins on the map and even screenshots for certain points-of-interest.

(+/-) The World Design

The way the abilities are used to flesh out a lot of the platforming segments is fantastic, some are better than others (mostly ones that involved the time mechanic), the areas where I truly hated the trial and error platforming is the desert and the snow area which are just ATROCIOUS.
Metroidvanias, by design, are meant to be annoying, the genre insists on walkbacks and opening shortcuts, which can honestly become insanely formulaic and often tedious. The early game is absolutely brutal in this regard since you’re working with a limited health pool and on Immortal if you’re facing two enemies on screen it can turn into a life and death scenario real quick. One important thing I want to mention is how beautifully interconnected the levels are.

What I can honestly say about exploration in PoP, however, is that… it isn’t that rewarding, I feel like I grew more and more exhausted as the game progressed because of the chorelike nature of the traversal, even with an entourage of enemies with carefully telegraphed movesets at best I just hated fighting them most of the time. It isn’t FUN to do additional platforming challenges in PoP, if what awaits me are Xerxes or gems. The collectibles aren’t interesting enough to warrant extra exploration unless you’re a completionist.

To compare it with HK’s world design, on the design and the interconnectivity of the layout PoP smokes HK, but HK does more with less complexity, and it also utilizes the world to tell the story of the game. HK’s areas are MEMORABLE, even if you’re in the pits of the abyss, each area has a distinct soundtrack, so walking into something like the City of Tears has a lasting impression. A complaint of HK has always been the grid like nature of the map making every single map feel the same, and while I agree with the reskinned map critique, traversal in HK just doesn’t feel as Trial and Error as PoP on Immortal sometimes.

With a challenging difficulty mode, comes challenging traversal, and I for one think that it tanked my enjoyment outside of the bosses.

(+) Gameplay

All the individual mechanics are fantastic… besides clairvoyance which was strangely never used in a boss fight, the teleportation mechanic is the most unique one and each time the game encouraged me to use it I was just thrilled. The game is also very intuitive so often times if a puzzles involves a certain mechanic its very easy to tell which one. Grappling is another one which I really enjoyed in late game despite hating the area where it is used the most (the ice area).

Athra Surges are just….damage bursts, not much to say about these but they do have different customizability options for levels of surge batteries.

Amulets are honestly great despite many of them being complete garbage (as is with other games). The amulet that I never took off was actually the one that healed me for every parry I did successfully, despite not healing a lot it made it easier to not use the heal for the any of the boss fights since that just instantly recovers 3 bars and you feel like you’re over-rejuvenated.

(+) Story

I like the story! I think its super basic but it works really well and it positions the protagonist in the story quite well, I feel like PoP wasn’t interested in pushing the narrative in any complicated direction which is for the better, and by fighting and besting most of the bosses I actually felt a sense of victory and accomplishment as I laid them to rest, more than any direct story-telling could accomplish.

(+/-) OST

I liked some OSTs

(+) Conclusion

Fantastic bosses except mini-bosses, Jahandar and the final CANCER boss, well worth it to play the game. I’m hot and cold on the exploration but the work they’ve put into carefully connecting multiple branching paths is no joke and I can only respect it. This is a game made with a lot of love for the genre, even though I find it funny the devs said they took inspiration from games like DMC5 which is one of the worst games ever made.

Amazing game. Also I think Vahram is hot.