the second biggest flaw of rf5 is that there is no weird romantic tension between a shitty little back stabbing bastard of a dwarf and an emotionally constipated horse guy, as in, guy who actually was a horse, which spans for the entire length of the game from the first act to the finale as the entire town looks on with a knowing smile

the first biggest flaw is that the farm dragons dont have individual seasons



Okay, actual review time.

Mh. I'm not sure how to say this best?
I played and loved RF4 back in 2015, it was one of my most played games and, to this day, is an absolute comfort game. As such, I was incredibly excited for RF5, and in the end... it did not meet my expectations.

I preordered the Limited Edition w steelbook, CD, artbook, and plush, and the extras are all quite nice and good quality for their price.
The game though... Well.

Biggest criticisms first: It runs like ass on the console it was made for. Loading times are hell, framedrops are frequent. It looks... gently put, not good. It feels empty, the game world feels monotonous and too big, and traversal simply isn't fun. Some of the sound effects (especially the crickets) are obnoxious and led to me playing the game without sound at multiple points.

The characters took a while to get me invested, and even now (after more than 100 hours of play time) I care for most of the town very little; but there is a decent amount of personality to each of them if you care to look for it.

The bachelors and bachelorettes are... okay? I was very excited for the chance to finally be gay in a RF game, so I'll be honest, I hardly spared the girls a second glance (unless the game forced me to, which it did often and aggressively so). The boys are a mixed bag, and I eventually had to decide between Ryker - who seemed interesting at the start but kept feeling more and more flat the more of his events I played - and Martin - who seemed quite boring and like "just some guy" at the start, and still definitely feels like "just some guy", but at least he doesn't pretend otherwise. The rest of them are fine too, I think, just not to my taste.

The farming is... okay? It's not great, tile detection is weird sometimes, but it works well enough. My biggest gripe here is: WHY are there no seasonal fields. Especially with the farm dragons, this feels like a wasted opportunity.

I could go on and on about this game, but I'm getting tired here. I should make clear I still enjoyed my time with the game, but that was all despite its flaws.
Overall it is an underwhelming, half cooked sequel that could've benefitted from another year or two in development. It feels half finished only.

Lastly: It's greatest strength is the fact that I can wear my cheep cheep sandals and little blue hair bow in cutscenes.

I've wanted to play Zero Escape 999 for years, but the stars never aligned until now.
I've now 100%ed 999, and will start on VLR soon, but first I have to get my thoughts on 999 itself in order. So, let's do just that.

Presentation
I love puzzle VNs like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, so it was no surprise 999 captured me the same way. The steam port feels good to play, menu screens, character art, and overall aesthetic have that mid-2000s VN charm without feeling outdated or in need of an overhaul, and I have to admit: I really enjoyed the EngDub, especially Junpeis VA.
The soundtrack did its job well for most of it, although there is one track with some weird buzzing noise in it that left me checking my phone over and over again.

Characters
The characters were overall charming, and I found myself unable to really dislike any of them (even if Akanes and Junpeis interactions made me cringe a LOT), and the structure of the game (of splitting up again and again in different formations) meant I ended up spending time with characters I hadn't thought interesting at first glance, who later turned into some of my favorites.
Interactions and dynamics were fun and believable, and I found myself clicking around a whole lot just to see if I couldn't squeeze a line or two more out of some of the characters.
Also RIP Science Boy, you were a real one 3

Story
Without saying too much - it was real fun to slowly piece the puzzle together by playing different routes and getting different endings, and the True End left me satisfied with 999 and hungry to see if/how VLR and the third game pick up on certain story threads.
Some parts are still a bit obtuse, but that might just be on me. Nothing too big in all honesty.

Gameplay
Enjoyable, but nothing mindblowing. The VN sections are just that, with barely any dialogue choices aside from "Which door do you want to go through" and a few Key conversations, but that's nothing negative imo, as the conversations always feel fun and alive without player participation. Although I Wish I Could Skip Repeat Text
The escape room sequences were fun, even if it was sometimes a bit hard to tell which parts are clickable and which aren't. The puzzles had me thinking along, with a few great EUREKA moments, and seldom left me entirely stumped (I looked up the solution to one puzzle overall, but it might as well be that I missed a piece of information beforehand, as I played that section at 5:30am).
The multiple endings had me hooked to return for more!


TL;DR:
A fun VN with a charming cast, a cool mystery, and good to great puzzles. I 100%ed it over 18 hours split on three days and have seven pages full of notes and scribbles to show for it!