Sorry these Week in Gaming articles have been so sporadic the latter half of this year. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of review gaming and whenever I’m not review gaming, I’m never sure I have enough to say about other games to put out one of these articles. After the disaster that was Orange Season: which I thought was going to be a great fall game but ended up so bad I put it down early, I got a couple of recently released fall Nintendo titles to play which are very much appreciated. I’m currently mainly working my way through one of those, the first one they released, and sitting on the other one until afterwards. Hopefully I’ll have those reviews out before the year is over, or at least one of them. But on the side, I’ve finally jumped back into Stardew Valley, always a good farming game that never disappoints.

I’ve been getting the urge to go back to Stardew Valley all year but I’ve been holding back, waiting on that 1.6 update content to hit consoles and now it finally has. I quite enjoy playing Stardew on my Switch with an 8bitdo controller. I had a beach farm I started a while back, maybe last year, that I had planned on being my very first Joja route. However, I only ever got a little bit into the first year’s summer. So, since the new update is now out, I decided to start over on that route and deleted my old file. I know I read somewhere that there would be new postgame Joja content to make the route as substantial as the community center one is, thus this seemed like the best idea for me to enjoy the new content. I also ended up joining a friend online in a new multiplayer farm as well where we’re trying out the meadow farm map with blue grass.

So far I’m right about where I left off from my last attempt at this beach farm before the update. I’m in the middle of the very first summer. I always play Stardew pretty slowly, I’m not an efficient farmer whatsoever. My house doesn’t have a kitchen yet and I’m still trying to decide what tool to upgrade first, now that I have the money to go with the copper bars. My pickaxe being so weak in the mines since I’ve reached the icy area, has been an annoyance. Also, watering crops by hand on the beach has been quite slow. Yet on the other hand, I want to upgrade my regular axe a few times asap so I can clear out the regular dirt area the beach farm has that’s full of giant logs, then I can set-up my crops with sprinklers. At the same time though, I might already be about to unlock the greenhouse by the time I would be able to upgrade my axe enough, so maybe I should just focus on my watering can and pickaxe after all. I’ve mostly been collecting the stuff required for the community center because I wanted to try and do it myself as much as possible for the various rewards, and then I plan to buy a Joja membership near the end. I figure maybe I’ll leave the hardest community center requirements, like a lot of the fishing, left undone and buy my membership once I’ve at least donated all of the required farming and mining related items. – Jenae

I’ve been doing a lot of retro gaming lately, both on original hardware and through recent remakes, and it’s been a ton of fun. My sister and I recently finished Lufia, which wasn’t as good as Lufia II but had a ton of charm all its own, and getting to see the evolution between the original and the sequel reminded me of just how much innovation happened during the SNES years. Jumping from that to Mega Man Legends on the PS1 was a different kind of reminder that those early years of 3D were rough when it came to control schemes. We opted to use the directional buttons for turning and the shoulder buttons for strafing, but even then controlling Mega Man around the 3D world comes with a major learning curve. The world of MML is incredibly charming, with that 90s dub you either love or hate, and wacky hijinks abound. The cast is impeccable, honestly. I understand now why Tron is so beloved. The comedy isn’t always a hit, but I have been having a great time watching these characters interact. The animations are also beautiful, and I adore Mega Man’s expressions. That being said, we eventually caved and used a GameShark code for invincibility so we could see more of the story rather than fight with the controls, though the safety buffer it provides has given me a lot more practice with the control scheme, since I do engage with it to the best of my ability. It’s fun when you get the hang of it, but it hurts my hands after extended periods. If ever a game would benefit from a remaster with modern controls, it’s Mega Man Legends. Maybe then I’d finally get to read the dirty magazines, too.

In modern retro news, I’ve been having a blast with the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake. What a stunning glowup that retains the charms of its NES roots. I’m too old and busy to deal with the grindy nature of the RPGs I grew up with, so having some nice QoL updates here have made playing it incredibly comfy while remaining nostalgic. It’s visually gorgeous, with colorful, vibrant locations, beautiful lighting, and fun voice acting that really gives the characters some pop. I went with the most basic setup of the hero, warrior, mage and healer, but I’ve only reached the second major hub so far, leaving me plenty of time to experiment with new party configurations. The Dragon Quest difficulty feels a tad on the easy side, but I know I don’t have the patience to move up to Draconian, so I’m pretty happy having this to sit back and relax with a couple hours a night. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Nov 10 – 16 appeared first on oprainfall.

Empire of the Ants was originally a strategy game released in 2000 for PC. The game itself was based on a French novel called Les Fourmis, written by Bernard Weber. 24 years later, Microid has published a new game under the same title, but the gameplay has changed considerably. Is the new experience worth it?

You start the story campaign as 103,683rd, a red ant belonging to the warrior caste. Your ant can be considered a tactician rather than a fighter, as it will not fight other enemies directly, but will instead give orders to various legions of ants. You belong to a federation of anthills that is prosperous, but is about to face various crises threatening its balance. In order to protect your federation, you will have to complete various missions which can be divided into three categories: Strategy, Tactics, and Exploration. Strategy missions are the most common missions and make up the core of the game. They usually require you to develop an anthill and capture other nests, which will be used to collect resources, upgrade your troops, or develop your powers as a general, which will be needed to win. As you face new challenges, you will have to make good use of the strengths of your ants. The strengths and weaknesses of ants rely on a sort of weapons triangle, where warriors dominate workers but are weaker against artillery ants, which in turn are weak against workers. Two other types of units will help your troops, super predators and support units. Predators are other bugs which have been “tamed” by ants, like Dung Beetles or Hornets, which are  strong against all enemy ants.

You can only control one legion of super predators, but they make a real difference on the battlefield, and you will quickly want to have them. Support units, like snails or aphids, normally help your troops by providing a passive buff. You can control your units with a mouse or a controller, but even with a controller, the controls feel extremely intuitive. I played the game with a DualShock 4and I quickly got used to the controls, which is unusual for a real-time strategy (RTS), as the majority of RTS’ are better played with keyboard controls.

Like every RTS, the gameplay introduces resources to collect in order to develop your colony. Food and wood are generally collected by building farms in your anthills, or by sending your worker ants to collect items found in your environment, such as apples or pineapples. Sometimes, you may have to defeat some bugs, like firebugs, mantis or ladybugs. You generally win by destroying the enemy’s headquarters. Using special powers might help you achieve your goals, as you can acquire abilities that can, for example, temporarily increase the speed of your ants, give them a life shield, or increase their aggressiveness with pheromones. There are a lot of powers to acquire and they will be crucial during your battles. You will also have to pay attention to the weather, as the light, humidity and general weather impact all the troops on the battlefield, improving or reducing their efficiency as well as your powers.

Tactics missions use the same mechanics as Strategy missions, but they introduce specific conditions to win, such as having to resist waves of enemies, collecting resources in a limited amount of time, or escorting a unit. Finally, Exploration missions request you to collect information on your enemy or scan your environment. For example, you might find items used by humans, like balloons or tin cans, and have to scan them. You could also have to hunt butterflies or fireflies. While your ants are very smart, they cannot swim at all, which means you will quickly drown if you don’t pay attention. Fortunately, your ant can run and jump, which will help you overcome any obstacle.

If you struggle with a mission, you are generally free to not complete it. The majority of missions are not mandatory, and you only have to achieve a certain number of missions to progress through each chapter of the history. If you struggle with Strategy, you could decide to focus on Exploration missions, for example. The gameplay, however, is not as elitist as it can be in some RTS’ like Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 3 and you should be able to complete all missions if you persevere. I am generally not good at playing RTS’, but I was able to complete the campaign after playing for 40 hours. There is a multiplayer component, but I was unable to experience it.

Technically, the game runs fine and is well optimized. I played it with a PC using a 4070 Super NVIDIA Gpu, 32GB Ram and an AMD Ryzen 5 7600 CPU. The game should be seen as an RTS which does not try to compete with references of the genre, but more as a strategy game which highlights the beauty of nature and the incredible intelligence of ants. Since the game is based on a book, it’s important to mention that the ants you will meet are depicted as more clever than in reality, which explains why they are able to tame various species of bugs or talk about diplomacy. The soundtracks are very relaxing, and you will never find them repetitive. The gameplay might look simple at first glance, but as you play you get to learn more about the depth of its mechanics.

I had a great experience with Empire of the Ants and it might be the best RTS released this year, so far, as well as one the most beautiful and fun games of the year. The game costs $39.99 or $49.99 if you want to buy the Deluxe edition. You can confidently get the standard edition now as the game has solid content to experience.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

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Being a fan of the Neptunia franchise, I was pretty excited to finally get around to Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution. I had some health problems earlier in the year, so I missed out on the previous releases, so I was more than happy to take a look at this on Xbox Series S. Let’s see if I created fantastic video games with the girls, or if the entire game is just one big bomb.

The story here follows Big Neptune as she has once again wandered into a new dimension. This time games rule everything and the makers keep the world in balance. She soon finds herself as the CEO of a defunct game studio run by some failed Goddesses. Can she help restore this studio to its former glory and help these Goddesses on their road to redemption?

Overall, I really had a blast with the story this time around. The new characters Jagaa, Pippih and Reedio were all great additions to the fantastic Neptunia cast. In case you can’t tell from their names, these girls are based on failed consoles in Japan. Jagaa is the Jaguar, Reedio is the 3DO, and Pippih is the Apple Pippin. They bring this front and center throughout the story as Jagaa says “Do The Math” constantly, which was an old ad for Jaguar even here in the states. The girls interact with each other very well and Big Nep adds a great dynamic to this foursome. Which is good since we see a lot more from them than our beloved Consoles Goddesses and their Sisters. Though that is kind of a shame since I think those girls playing off each other is always the best.

Graphically, Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution looks pretty good. All of the character models are nicely done and stages have plenty of details, as well. Though, you will notice a lot of these have been reused from the Sisters VS. Sisters game that released a while back. Personally, I don’t have an issue with this, but some folks that don’t like reused assets may take issue with it. The game ran great on the Series S with no frame drops on my 4K TV.

Now, let’s dig into the gameplay. The first thing you will want to do as the new president of this company is make some games. This is where disc development comes into play. You will choose some developers based on their skills in the genre you’re trying to make and create game discs. The more skilled these creators are and the more upgrades you’ve unlocked, the better the game is you create. These will be packed with skills that can be used in combat if equipped on the girls just like in previous games, so it pays to make a few good ones as soon as you can.

Next, you will want to explore dungeons in each area to establish trade routes to increase your shares. This is pretty simple, just explore each one to the fullest, and I would suggest clearing out all the treasures while you’re in there as well. Once fully explored, you unlock time trials for Big Nep on her bike or races against one of the enemies in the stage. Winning these will grant you some rewards that help you develop better discs.

Combat is a lot like what was found in Neptunia: Sisters VS. Sisters. Players can equip moves to either the X or A buttons and thrash your enemies to pieces. There are a bunch of different moves to choose from and you will unlock these as you level up. You can tag in other party members after so many moves to continue the combo by pressing one of the four directions on the D-Pad. Doing this will get you a lot of bonus damage and help you defeat even the toughest foes, but if you ever need more, each girl has a big EXE Drive they can use when the Link Gauge is full and can also transform into their Goddess mode for even more damage during attacks.

Overall, I had a great time with Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution. The story was great, I love the new characters, and even if the combat hasn’t changed from the last game, it’s still a lot of fun. I spent about 30 hours with this one and completed the main story. You could invest a lot more time in this if you wanted to do both of the towers and all of the fights in the battle arena, so I feel like it is well worth the $49.99 price tag. I do think it’s a bummer the swimsuits are once again locked to the Special Edition release at $69.99, they should allow you to purchase these separately and I hope they do at some point. Still, Neptunia fans will find a lot to love here, and this is also a good jumping in point for new fans on the Xbox as well.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution appeared first on oprainfall.

I’ve been a fan of the Final Fantasy series since way back when it started on the NES. I’ve seen the series grow in many ways, and go in some directions that I didn’t really care for over all these years. That being said, I wanted to see how the latest entry, Final Fantasy XVI, stacked up when the PC version was released. I was also curious to see how my mid ranged gaming rig would hold up to this beast of a game. Let’s dig in and see what I found.

The story takes place in the land of Valisthea. These lands are divided into six nations that hold their power due to the use of magical crystals. Things begin to heat up when a strange blight begins draining the very Aether from the land. A young man named Clive Rosfield, who is the guardian to his younger brother Joshua, finds himself wrapped up in this conflict very early. With their kingdom destroyed and Clive made a slave, we will witness where life takes him and the greater destiny ahead of him.

While the story here was much darker than previous games in the franchise, I actually really enjoyed it by the end. Seeing Clive grow throughout his adventure and overcome the struggles of not only accepting his past, but learning from it was actually quite refreshing. This game may have the best version of Cid ever and his dialogue gives a lot of flavor to a story that is dead serious most of the time. I do feel that the latter part of the adventure seemed to drag on a bit longer than it should’ve, but in the end this is an adventure worth taking.

Final Fantasy XVI is a very linear experience. You will move from one story mission to the next, progressing through this fantastic tale through many cutscenes. That’s not to say there isn’t anything else to do here. There are plenty of side quests with interesting stories of their own you can partake in. You can get some nice rewards from some of these as well. This makes them great for not only the world building, but for the nice spoils as well.

The biggest change here is in the combat; everything here is fully action based. Clive is the only party member you fully control, though you can issue commands to your dog, Torgal, who helps you in battle no matter how crazy the foe is you’re facing. You will want to try and stagger your foes with slash attacks and access elemental abilities from Eikons you have collected. These skills are invaluable in combat since they will help you take on even the toughest foes. Skilled players can get advantages in combat from perfect dodges and parries, making things a lot easier. For those of us not very skilled at action combat, Square has included a story based mode which automates much of the combat. This mode is basically press Square and win, but if you want to mix things up you can leave the action combat on and use some of the assist items that will help you dodge, parry or even automatically use items in combat. I thought this was a great way to do this since it gives players the ability to set combat up anyway they like.

In the sound department Final Fantasy XVI is just simply fantastic. The entire soundtrack is amazing, from the high powered battle themes to the more somber themes as you explore towns or just chill at the Hideaway. You can unlock these tracks to listen to anytime at the Hideaway using in game currency, completing quests and some even are even found in treasure chests. I played the game with the English cast and I thought they did an amazing job bringing these characters to life. This game would’ve fallen apart without them given just how much of the story is told through the cutscenes, so if the actors did a bad job, you would’ve never got immersed into the story.

Now let’s talk about how this PC port performs. I have a Ryzen 5 5600x and plain ole RTX 3060, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to work when I installed the game, but I have to say overall things went quite well. I did have to run the game with FSR and at 1080p, but I was able to keep high settings and the game mostly ran around 60fps. There are some busy areas that would tank the framerate, but even then it never got below 30fps. I thought the Eikon battles might be an issue for this card, but honestly they ran really well, which surprised me a bit, but I was pretty pleased with the results overall. The last patch they put out makes it so the shadows take more of a hit when you go down to medium settings, so if you’re looking to squeeze out a few more FPS with a minimal hit to your overall look that would be the way to go.

Overall I had a pretty good time with Final Fantasy XVI on PC. I really loved the story and watching Clive’s grand adventure made me really think about things several times. The music is top tier and the very customizable combat is just a lot of fun. I haven’t had this much fun with a combat system since Nier: Automata. I put about 47 hours into the game and complete both of the DLC quests as well. I feel like fans of Final Fantasy will enjoy this one at its $69.99 price tag for the complete edition with all of the DLC. It’s another grand adventure for the franchise, and I have to wonder what the next entry here is going to look like. Will we go back to a more futuristic look or keep our medieval roots? Only time will tell.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review. You can read oprainfall’s PS5 review of the game here.

The post REVIEW: Final Fantasy XVI Complete Edition (PC) appeared first on oprainfall.

Oh how innocent I was a few weeks ago. I haven’t been following Orange Season too closely honestly, but I do believe I was following the game’s official account on social media for a while and when I’d see the occasional screenshot, I was pretty intrigued. I thought this would be a fun, relaxing fall review I could enjoy spending a few weeks on. I won’t waste any time keeping you in the dark. I don’t have much good to say about Orange Season. I spent all of five hours on it and was already regretting asking to review this one after only the first 20 minutes of playing it, due to the issues it has.

First, let’s discuss what kind of game Orange Season is. Orange Season is an indie farming game. Like other farming sims, your character moves to a new town to live the charming, rural farm life. You’re dropped off at your farm, told to greet everyone in town and take care of your farm, of course. I went into this review assuming there would be some big goal like most farming games have: for example, making the town more popular and bringing in new tourists, or restoring a community center. Well from what little I was able to put up with playing Orange Season, I never actually found out if there was some larger goal beyond making your farm a success. I started off cleaning up the area you get for planting crops and got stuck at least once in the middle of a rock.

After planting a few starting crops and cleaning up the area some, I spent my time hunting all over town looking for new characters to greet and introduce myself as the new farmer in town. This is where the biggest issue came into play and a large part of why I refused to spend anymore than five hours on Orange Season. So when the map is actually working, it’s not the most helpful. The main town area where most of the characters live and hangout regularly is quite large. I don’t know that I’ve played many farming sims with a town this large. Now you’d expect that the map would help you locate characters around town; however, as you can see in the picture above, you’re merely told who’s in which section of town at any given time and I found no way to actually pull up a legitimate diagram of the town to locate these people. You only know which separate, large section they’re in and seemingly if they’re in a building or not. I saw some of the characters had a blue house symbol so I figured maybe that meant they were in their homes. Still, a majority of the houses were seemingly locked at all times as well. I imagine this could be a feature where you have to get to know the characters better to be allowed into their homes, but it was quite obnoxious and made tracking them down near impossible.

Anyway, not only was the map an extremely bare minimum of any use to me, but it constantly would glitch and become 100 percent useless. I could open the map and it’d be fine, and two minutes later open it again and the map was completely blank. No section would be highlighted, I wouldn’t see any faces of who was in the area and the cursor to move between the sections on the map was gone. Plus, the map glitching like this required a full game reset. By that I mean, I had to close out and re-open the game to fix it, only for it to glitch again less than five minutes into starting the game back up. This is a farming game where characters are constantly giving you requests to complete and you need to be able to reliably track them down. I found myself spending multiple game days simply trying to find them all at least once and greet everyone for the first quest. Then there were four characters who told me to come find them once I had and they would give me new quests, which again, I’d have to track down various characters for later to complete.

The map glitching out was only one of two big issues I had. You may have noticed earlier I mentioned getting stuck in the middle of a rock. My character got stuck quite a lot as if there was an invisible barrier all around and I’d have to wriggle my way out as best I could. I got stuck on rocks, I got stuck in a circle of trees and I often got stuck on houses. Houses you can even phase into while wriggling around trying to escape. To get off the house, away from the invisible barrier, I’d have to go up into it and then keep coming back down trying to dislodge my character. I’ve included a clip above of one occasion where this occurred. Then when I accidentally opened my map while randomly pressing buttons to try to get unstuck, the map had gone blank yet again. I even once got stuck at the very edge of the fishing dock on a lake and went on an adventure walking across the lake. The lake has this treasure floating on a wooden plank and I thought to myself, “Why not go get that treasure while I’m stuck out here?” But alas, another invisible wall made this impossible and I was not allowed to go check out the treasure while stuck on top of this lake. So I went back to the dock and wriggled all around trying to get back on and away from it.

Aside from the two big glitches that made this game completely unplayable for me, I still didn’t really enjoy it otherwise. Planting crops and growing stuff worked alright. But only the watering can and hoe had any guide for which square on the ground they were targeting. Also, trying to target anything properly seemed like you had to be at a very specific angle to do so. When I would walk right up to doors they wouldn’t activate very easily, neither to let me open them nor to get the being locked notice. I would have to move my character around a bit and come at them not quite right up front and be at the perfect angle. Not only that, but planting seeds doesn’t even have a targeting square, you kind of just hit the tool button as you walk around the dirt you used the hoe on and hope your seeds plant in the spot you want. One more issue I had was that I couldn’t cycle through the calendar and check the dates on the calendar page of the menu. It seemed there was no way to do anything with that menu, the only thing viewable is when the next festival is. I couldn’t figure out a way to physically move a cursor across the dates.

I truly went into this thinking it would be a fun farming game for fall. Even after I was disappointed and regretted asking for it in those first 20 minutes of gameplay, I still thought I could at least get through a full game year and then make my judgments after I gave it a shot. Unfortunately, the main two glitches in this game made it the most frustrating, impossible disaster I have ever reviewed. Now, I wanted to give the developers the benefit of the doubt, but then I went and looked up how long the game had been in Early Access on Steam. This game came out as an Early Access title in early 2017 and now over seven years later it’s finally received a full retail release, and they’re charging $29.99 for brand new console versions of the game. Sure, they may fix these issues later and it can become a game worth playing. Truthfully, I loved the atmosphere and I thought Orange Season was a very attractive game visually. I also had fun with the fishing gameplay. But the fact that after seven years of testing and polishing, this is the game they’re charging 30 bucks for, is utterly ridiculous. I refuse to waste anymore time giving this game and the developers the benefit of the doubt and I cannot recommend Orange Season whatsoever. I believe fans of cozy games or farming sims specifically are better off spending their money elsewhere.

Review Score
Overall

The post REVIEW: Orange Season appeared first on oprainfall.

When this week’s Cooking Eorzea column goes live, it will be the first day of this year’s Saints Wake event in FINAL FANTASY XIV Online. It will also be the start of the end of the year rush through October, November, and through the Starlight Celebration and into the Heavensturn.

It doesn’t honestly feel like the holiday season is starting for me until the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Halloween-equivilent event begins, and then everything happens so fast that I find myself almost unable to keep up with it. I find myself organizing a pair of Secret Smilebringer events in real life, the weather turns incredibly cold, I travel to see people, I shop for sales, and I wonder how I am going to make the next year better than the year that just passed as I somehow also find the time to squeeze in doing the fun little events that happen in game.

Somehow, I will still find time to write this column as we go along through the busy upcoming holidays.

Now, if only I could figure out a costume to wear…

If you’ve missed an installment of Cooking Eorzea, you can check out all the prior recipes here.

Recipe of the Week

This week’s side dish comes from the Thanalan region and it has a ‘Medium’ difficulty! While this is the 50th dish in the cookbook, it is only the 49th one I’ve made. I am deliberately waiting to make The Minstrel’s Ballad: Almond Cream Croissants until the very end of the column, since it has an Extreme difficulty rating.

I have never used arborio rice in a dish, let alone making risotto of any sort. I was honestly quite excited to see a dish that often gets featured in cooking competitions on TV, and I was extremely hopeful that I would be able to make it with no issues.

Anyway, here is what the Cheese Risotto is supposed to look like:

Featured Ingredient of the Week

Arborio rice is an Italian rice used in making risotto and rice pudding. Normally, when I use rice in a recipe, I first cook it in a rice cooker. Making cheese risotto was the first time I’ve ever used rice raw within a recipe, and I honestly found that to be so unique to use. All of this made me want to pick arborio rice as my ingredient of the week for this week!

My Cooking Attempt

First, a shot of all the ingredients used for Cheese Risotto:

First, I peeled and minced up the parsnips. This week’s Cooking Eorzea column was actually the first time I have ever bought parsnips in my life.

Setting the parsnips aside, I next peeled and diced up the onion. I had forgotten how the tears from chopping up the onions sting in my eyes!

Finally, I minced up the garlic.

I then measured out the chicken broth, added in a sprig of rosemary and a bay leaf, and brought it up to a boil.

While the chicken broth heated up, I shredded the Parmesan cheese wedge.

Once it was boiling, I put it on a different burner on low and then I got out another pan and melted butter into it.

Once the butter was melted, I added in the garlic, the parsnips, and the onions. I then blended them all together in the pan while they softened for about five minutes.

Once the vegetables were ready, I added in the arborio rice, and I stirred to coat the rice with the butter and vegetables. I then let it all sautée for a couple of minutes.

Once the rice was ready, I poured in a half cup of white wine and blended it in too. I kept blending it in until the white wine was fully absorbed by the arborio rice.

Next came the longest, most annoying part of the dish. I kept measuring out a half cup of the chicken broth (after I removed the rosemary sprig and bay leaf) and adding it to the main dish. Once I poured out the half cup, I would whisk it all together inside the pan to blend it all together. I would keep mixing it until all the liquid was absorbed. I would then repeat it again and again and again. The longer I worked, the more engorged the rice became, and the longer I had to stir into order to get all the liquid soaked up.

Once I FINALLY got all the broth used up, I took the pan off of the heat and added in the cottage cheese and the shredded Parmesan cheese.

I then sprinkled in pepper and salt on top for seasonings.

I then blended all of that together again.

I then scooped the cheese risotto out into a bowl and added the furikake on top.

And here is this week’s final Cooking Eorzea dish for Cheese Risotto!

I am going to be honest about this week’s Cooking Eorzea dish: I didn’t care for it. It wasn’t because the dish was bad – far from it – it was more the texture. It reminded me of thick porridge, and the parsnips and onions gave it a bit of a soft crunch on top of that. I didn’t care for how it felt in my mouth, to be honest. Additionally, I wish it was a lot cheesier than what it was!

Afterword

If I was to make this dish again, I would want to make it with a lot more cheese. I would probably also try to mince the parsnips up even more, as the soft crunch got distracting after a short bit. I would probably try to add in even more salt and pepper than I did to see if it enhances the flavor further. I just don’t know if I could get past the texture of the arborio rice when mixed in the other ingredients!

Alright, it’s time to run through the list of people that I want to thank for making this week’s column possible! First, I want to thank Victoria Rosenthal for writing The Ultimate FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Cookbook. I also want to thank the staff over at Insight Editions for giving me permission to use the photos from their book to show how these recipes are actually supposed to look- including this week’s one for Cheese Risotto. Furthermore, I owe Brandon Rose a special thanks for creating the logo for this series on short notice. You should check him and his works out over on X– and you really should look at them!

Finally, I want to thank both Hiromichi Tanaka and Naoki Yoshida for producing FINAL FANTASY XIV Online in both iterations of the game. Even though we are far and away into Dawntrail at the moment, it took the efforts of both to create Eorzea as it stands today.

Next Time, In November

Imam Bayildi is the next Side dish that I will be making in Cooking Eorzea!

I have never actually baked eggplants before, and so I am excited to work with it. Please be sure to return in November to see how the dish turns out!

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Cooking Eorzea Week 49: Cheese Risotto (FINAL FANTASY XIV Online) appeared first on oprainfall.

We haven’t put one of these out in a little while.  To be honest, I usually have the most time to put out these articles myself, but I haven’t been doing a ton of for fun gaming in the last month or two. Most of my gaming was review stuff I couldn’t talk about in these Week in Gaming articles. However, I did play the Metaphor: ReFantazio demo the other week. I just didn’t get around to discussing it here, or in an impressions article of its own. Honestly, I’m now somewhat regretting playing that demo…because it was too fun and I don’t know when I’ll be able to play the full game. At the moment, it doesn’t seem like I’ll have a copy to play anytime soon. And thus, I was stuck playing an older Atlus RPG this past week, instead of the shiny new one that’s been all over social media. I’m jealous of all of you out there enjoying Metaphor right now.

Anyway, I recently found myself picking Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance back up instead. It seems like this year in general, I’ve barely made progress in quite a few games I’ve picked up and keep putting back down. When I last put down SMT5V, I had only gotten a bit past the beginning area of Shinagawa. Vengeance and it’s wonky, horrendous sound balancing, was what prompted me to buy wireless earbuds about 2 months ago now. Going back to it with my new earbuds has been really nice. There is still a bit of an issue with the wonky sound balancing, mostly I have to turn it up one or down one at certain parts, but overall I’m really enjoying it. It’s soooo much better having the sound right in my ears and not having to deal with it too much. Also, while my specific model of earbuds, the Soundcore P30i, didn’t come with a game mode option originally, they just recently received an update which added it. It turns itself off when I disconnect and turn off my Switch though so I have to reactivate it in the phone app each time, but I’m enjoying the fact that it’s there. I’ve opted to turn it on, default SMT5V‘s volume sliders which puts them all back at max and it is working out quite nicely for me. I just have to turn up the volume one for story stuff, and back down one for gameplay, so that isn’t too bad.

I managed to fully get through the rest of Shinagawa this week. I went from the main character being around level 31 or 32 and got him up to 36. I got to enjoy seeing the Fairy Village again and I’ve put a handful of new demons in my party. It doesn’t feel too old or repetitive revisiting the same areas again that I already went through in the original Shin Megami Tensei V, because everything is quite different with the new story. I mean I had read reviews saying it’s the same and doesn’t really change until about halfway through, but that doesn’t seem true at all to me. Things are already significantly different, one boss not seeming as big of a deal as they were the first time, your various friends from school following along with you a lot more and various other stuff. I haven’t been spending as much time exploring though and fully filling out maps. Vengeance doesn’t seem as crazy easy now as it did when I first started it, but I do believe it’s still significantly easier than the original and I haven’t found myself spending as much time on each map. Although, I’m sure I’ll revisit them all periodically to go locate more Miman and clear up quests and whatnot. – Jenae

It’s that time of year again, where I get to attend my favorite local con. This year, RetroGameCon extended to three days, and despite it being a relatively small affair, the extra time was a welcome addition. I love this con for its small size but variety of activities and vendors, and it never disappoints. It definitely got a bump in attendance this year, though, since almost the entire cast of Baldur’s Gate 3 were special guests, and the lines reflected that popularity. I haven’t played BG3 and so wasn’t personally interested in seeing the cast, but the enthusiasm from fans of the game was palpable. I was happy to see so many folks visiting my small con, but I have to admit it was also a bit overwhelming, and I’m not convinced the con staff were quite prepared for the attention having the BG3 cast would bring.

As always, my favorite part of RetroGameCon is walking around the various vendors and seeing what they had in store. There’s always a nice mix of video game and handmade items. I usually buy at least one item, though this time around I only grabbed myself a Suikoden II gacha in honor of that remaster finally coming out next year. I got Mikolotov, the handsome knight from Matilda! (I would have preferred Camus of the two, but one can never turn down a hunky boy.) We did find a couple sealed games for pickup and spotted several titles that I’d love to have some day but wasn’t prepared to pay for (sorry, Ys V), but even if we hadn’t, I just enjoy the window shopping. For my son, his favorite part of the weekend was the extensive free play area. Every year, there’s an assortment of old consoles, PCs, pinball and others for congoers to play. My son has recently taken a shining to pinball cabinets and spent a lot of time playing those, as well as hitting up the older PCs available. He had a ball with SimCity, played some Monopoly on Windows 3.1, and even took a turn at the Oregon Trail. His pioneers died tragic and avoidable deaths, and he learned a valuable lesson in actually paying attention to the amount of food and water he had available.

There were also a ton of board games available in a separate room, along with live concerts and panels. I sat in on an informative panel by industry veteran and Diablo IV writer David Rodriguez, and we all had a great time watching performances by Mega Ran, Danimal Cannon and Lame Genie on the main stage. There were also a ton of fantastic cosplays on display every day. Honestly, it was just a great weekend where we could hang out and immerse ourselves in all things video games, and I look forward to it every year.

In actual video game news, I finally started playing the Silent Hill 2 Remake. I am so far enjoying it, though I don’t feel I’ve played enough to give it a proper evaluation. I love the music and atmosphere, and the environments are gorgeous, with little blink-and-you-miss-it details I appreciate. The fact you can explore more of the city gives Silent Hill a lived-in feel that the original game lacked, though this is a double-edged sword. The fact Silent Hill is a real place means it should have a sense of actual people existing here, but I do feel like it detracts somewhat from the main premise of the game and the dream-like quality that permeated the OG. The voice acting so far is fine, just different than what came before, and the character models are well-detailed if oddly proportioned. I’ll have much more robust thoughts on this remake as I play more, but for now I’m impressed. – Leah

What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

The post oprainfall Week in Gaming: Oct 6 – 12 appeared first on oprainfall.

Adventures are wonderful experiences. They allow one to explore unknown regions and experience unfamiliar cultures, and the Ys series truly embodies the adventurer’s spirit. Each entry in this series has you explore brand new regions and meet new people, all while saving the day and helping those around you. And while there is a chronological order to these games, most entries can be enjoyed standalone without having played any past game in the series, making it easily accessible to newcomers. Couple this with a well-designed action battle system and a soundtrack that really gets your blood pumping, and the Ys series has really made a place in my heart as one of my most beloved video game franchises. Ys X: Nordics is the latest adventure following the red-haired swordsman, Adol Christin. Ys X is a fresh start as it does away with the party battle system seen in recent games like Ys VIII and opts for one focusing on two playable characters. And in a move I did not expect, X introduces naval exploration and combat. Knowing Adol’s rotten luck with ships, I never thought Falcom would implement something like this, but here we are. I was very much looking forward to playing this newest adventure after it was first announced. Was Ys X another memorable adventure in the story of Adol Christin, or was this one journal that was better off being undiscovered?

Ys X: Nordics takes place shortly after Ys II and before the events of Ys: Memories of Celceta. Adol Christin, along with his companions Dogi and Dr. Flair, travel to Celceta in search of their next adventure. Unfortunately, their trip takes an unexpected detour when their ship is boarded by the Balta Seaforce, a group of Normans that safeguard the Obelia Gulf region. Adol and crew end up having to wait at the port town of Carnac for the next passenger ship. Here, Adol receives the mysterious power of Mana from a voice calling themselves Lila. Oh, and he also ends up getting cuffed via Mana to a Norman girl, Karja. As the two try to figure out what’s going on, tragedy strikes the town of Carnac, and the pair find themselves at odds with an undead enemy known as the Griegr. What is the true nature of the Griegrs and what is their goal? Who is this Lila that granted Adol the power of Mana? What caused these Mana Cuffs to appear and bind Adol and Karja together? Adol and Karja set sail on the Sandras to not only quell the Griegr threat and save Obelia Gulf, but solve these mysteries popping up around them.

I found the main story to be decent, it isn’t the strongest in the series, but I did enjoy playing through it. It started off strong, but it definitely floundered midway through. But after the midpoint, the story picks up again and leads to a satisfying end. The revelations on the true nature of the Griegr and how they came to be were pretty interesting, and I liked how past events, told through Runestones, connected to current events. However, one of the things I found Ys X handled really well was the development of the main characters and other Sandras crew members. Much of the main cast is in their teens, and they’ve been thrust into an unprecedented situation due to the Griegr threat. Watching them gather the resolve needed to tackle this threat was inspiring, but that’s not all. Not only did the characters achieve the resolve to tackle an unkillable enemy, they also found the courage to chase their dreams and work to better themselves. This can be seen with the members of the Youth Brigade (Grenn, Rosa, Cruz, Rafe, Mira) and others such as Ashley and Ezer. Much of the Sandras crew’s development is optional, but I highly recommend doing their sidequests and watching their bond events. It really adds that much more to the story and how you feel about the characters. As the story progresses, you can also see the characters overcome their preconceived prejudices against others. For Karja this would be her views of non-Normans, for the rest of the crew it would be how they see Normans. Seeing them bond through the course of this journey thanks to this common enemy and extraordinary circumstances was really something. I also thoroughly enjoyed the chemistry between Adol and Karja. Adol is always ready for his next adventure and Karja makes sure to watch his back and make sure he doesn’t go too off the rails. It was enjoyable watching their bond grow throughout the story and seeing Karja grow to trust Adol more and soften her tone toward him. And of course, I mentioned earlier that most of the Ys series is accessible to newcomers, and X is no exception. Newcomers can start with this entry and not feel lost at all. While the story itself had its high and low points, the characters were a very bright spot in this adventure and carried things through.

Ys X: Nordics, like its predecessors, boasts an action battle system. However,  Falcom has done away with the system that has been a staple since Ys Seven. No longer is Adol traveling around fields with large groups of companions with different attack types. This time around, the amount of playable characters has been limited to just two: Adol and Karja. It is known as the Cross Action System, and it allows for players to switch between Adol and Karja and control them independently, but it also allows for controlling both characters at once. When controlling the characters independently, you can perform normal attacks, skills by holding the R1 button and pressing one of the face buttons, jump, dodge, and guard. Skills are powerful attacks that deplete Skill Points (SP) with each use. Dodging allows you to move swiftly out of attacks but also counter Speed Attacks (blue aura attacks). This is important as you can’t guard Speed Attacks. When both Adol and Karja are present (which is most of the game), regular guards turn into a Duo Guard, allowing you to block most attacks without taking any damage. Duo Guards also allow you to protect against Power Attacks (red aura attacks). Power Attacks can’t be guarded when solo, and dodging is ineffective against these attacks. Holding down the R2 button switches control into Duo Mode. In this mode, you can control Adol and Karja at the same time. Here, you can perform Duo Attacks on foes which involve striking the enemy at the same time and Duo Skills. Duo Skills are extremely powerful moves that Adol and Karja perform in tandem, allowing you to quickly take down the enemy’s Durability Gauge and their HP Gauge. These skills can be made even more deadly in combat thanks to the Revenge Gauge mechanic. As you Duo Guard enemy attacks, the Revenge Gauge slowly fills up. The rate at which the gauge fills up can quicken if you guard attacks at the right time. The gauge can reach a maximum of x5.0, and the higher the number, the stronger the Duo Skill becomes. The Revenge Gauge mechanic definitely comes in handy when facing stronger normal enemies and bosses. It may sound overwhelming, but once you get used to these mechanics, it makes for a very cohesive battle system.,

Adol and Karja can be strengthened via leveling up, getting new equipment, and via the Release Line Depth system. The first two are pretty straightforward, but the Release Line Depth is new to the series. In this system, there are a series of nodes where you insert items known as Mana Seeds. Mana Seeds are separated into multiple different categories: Valor, Mettle, Optimism, and Darkness. Valor increases your Strength and ability to whittle down HP; Mettle affects a character’s Defense, Vitality, and ability to deplete Durability; Optimism increases multiple stats including Luck; Darkness can exponentially increase your stats at the cost of decreasing another stat. Depending on how many of a certain Mana Seed type are in a specific Release Line Depth, you can unlock Mana Abilities for Adol and Karja. For example, you can unlock abilities that decrease damage, decrease the amount of SP used, increase damage done, etc. As you reach certain levels, more depths are unlocked, allowing you to insert more Mana Seeds and use seeds of a higher quality. Using this system, you can really have Adol and Karja specialize in whatever suits your needs. In my case, I built Adol like a glass cannon with high Strength, but lower Defense and Vitality. Karja on the other hand had overwhelming Defense and Vitality with a high Break stat. So I would use Karja to destroy an enemy’s Durability Gauge and then switch to Adol to really bring the hurt. Honestly, I really only paid attention to the stat boosts and tended to ignore whatever Mana Abilities were unlocked, but this system was very beneficial overall.

Continue the adventure on page 2 ->

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I wasn’t expecting to go on a months-long hiatus again.

At the end of March, I got seriously injured and I ended up not being able to walk or live independently for months.

While I spent a lot of my recovery in Eorzea, I found myself being drawn into spending as much time as possible in the world of FINAL FANTASY VII Rebirth. I had tickets to see the orchestra performance in Los Angeles for the North American premiere, and then again to see the show in Munich, Germany a month-ish later, and I thought that I should play the game first.

A large part of why I wanted to see the concert in two places as far flung apart as they were is because I wanted to thank both Hamauzu-san and Suzuki-san for helping me discover my love for the piano through the wonderful music they created for the SQUARE ENIX game Lightning Returns: FINAL FANTASY XIII. I talked a little bit about how amazing the soundtrack was earlier this year for the game’s tenth anniversary, and I wanted to take the time to thank them both in person for helping create my real love for music. It’s hard to explain how important music can be to me now, especially since I listened to so little of it in high school.

The fact that I wanted to thank both of them is a large part of why I pushed myself so hard through my rehab. If I couldn’t function independently, then I wouldn’t be able to make it out to Los Angeles – let alone Munich – to see them both.

I even got both of them, and both Mr. Arnie Roth and Mr. Eric Roth, to sign my FINAL FANTASY VII Rebirth program – and you can see that in my final dish image for this week’s Cooking Eorzea.

You can check out my full concert review here. If you get a chance, you should really see the concert live and play the game. I promise you that you won’t regret it, and you can still even get tickets.

What about this column going forward?

I am definitely going to try to get back to doing this column weekly again when I can. I love cooking and Cooking Eorzea has been with me through so much of my life in California. It helped me handle my breakup after I moved here, and it gave me something to look forward to after the apartment fire I had. I can’t imagine not finishing this cookbook out: especially when there are simply so many amazing dishes left to try out!

If you’ve missed an installment of Cooking Eorzea, you can check out all the prior recipes here.

Recipe of the Week

The 49th recipe in The Official FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Cookbook and hailing from the Hingashi region of Eorzea…is Chawan-Mushi! With a hard difficulty rating, this Cooking Eorzea dish is one that looks deceptively easy to make, but in fact can be quite hard to create if you leave air in the custard or you overcook it on the stove top. This is also the start of the Sides section of the cookbook! It is crazy to think about how much I’ve made so far, and honestly…how much more I still need to create.

Chawan-Mushi also has a lot of different meat options in it, and it reminded me a bit of the Bouillabaisse I made way back in Week 27 because of that.

Anyway, here is what the dish is supposed to look like in the hands of a professional:

Featured Ingredient of the Week

This week’s featured ingredient is mitsuba.

It is also probably the second hardest ingredient I’ve had to find for Cooking Eorzea since I started writing it, right behind the mahi-mahi that I had to end up ordering in another state and cooking at a friend’s place. I spent my weekend searching every Asia grocery within a two-hour drive of my phone, and I could not find it anywhere. It turns out that while Italian parsley is quite common…mitsuba is not.

I ended up having to order it online and having it delivered to my home. It was either doing that or do a day trip down to Los Angeles to try to get my hands on some.

Mitsuba, also known as Japanese parsley, is known for its three leaves and for having a slightly bitter flavor.

Honestly, it was because of the sheer difficulty of obtaining it that it stuck out in my mind so much. I didn’t want to compromise on Cooking Eorzea by leaving this ingredient, even if it really is just garnish, out.

My Cooking Attempt

For my first installment in the Sides section of Cooking Eorzea, here are all the ingredients that I ended up using:

I first sliced up the chicken into bite-sized pieces.

I then removed the tails from the shrimp and cut them in half.

Finally, I quartered the scallops.

Once all the meats were set aside, I sliced up the shiitake mushrooms and thinly sliced the kamaboko.

After setting all of those cut ingredients aside, I made the dashi stock. First, I added water to a pot, added a dashi stock packet to the pot, and then brought it to a boil for three minutes.

Once the timer was up, I pulled the packet out and then poured the dashi stock into a measuring cup.

Setting the dashi stock aside, I placed the cut chicken into a small bowl, measured out sake and soy sauce into it.

I then let the chicken marinade for about 10 minutes.

During the 10 minutes, I cleaned the small pot I made the dashi stock in, and then added water to it, inserted a steamer basket into the pot, and then heated it up.

I then started to make the custard. First, I cracked three eggs and then added the dashi stock to the bowl.

I then added the salt, sake, and soy sauce to the custard. I then whisked it all together inside the bowl. I had to be careful to only whisk it just enough to make sure that the ingredients were blended together, but not so much that the custard had too much air and bubbles in it.

Once it was all blended together, I started to filter the custard mix from pot to bowl and back through a fine-mesh strainer so I could remove as much of the bubbles as possible.

At this point, I started to assemble the chawan-mushi dishes. First, I put a layer of chicken pieces down and then topped it with the shrimp layer.

I then added a layer of scallops on top and then a lawyer of shiitake mushrooms.

Finally, I added a layer of kamaboko on top.

I then poured the liquid custard on top of the multiple layers until it was just barely away from the top of the chawan-mushi cup. I also used a toothpick to pop any bubbles that rose in the liquid custard so that it wouldn’t interfere with the custard setting.

Once the bubbles were all popped, I added the lids to the chawan-mushi cups and then added them into the steamer basket. It turned out I could only fit three into the pot at a time, and so I had to cook the fourth one later on.

After replacing the pot’s lid, I let the whole thing steam cook for 20 minutes.

After the timer was up, I removed the chawan-mushi lids and saw that the custard had set.

I then removed the cups from the steaming basket, and then added a layer of ikura and a stem of mitsuba to each one to finish off the dish!

And here is the final dish for this week’s Cooking Eorzea!

The overall dish was incredibly savory, and I was surprised that the custard really worked well with the mixture of chicken and seafood. I couldn’t really taste the soy sauce or the sake, and the ikura definitely reminded me of boba bubbles while I was eating the dish. Unfortunately, the custard didn’t fully cook through, and so it was a bit watery at the end. The fourth cup, the one that I made after these three, I cooked for around 6-7 minutes longer, and that one cooked through.

Overall, it was a very unique and enjoyable dish, and one that I wouldn’t mind making for other people…if I could find mitsuba a little easier again.

Afterword

If I was to make chawan-mushi again, I would definitely let it cook for more than twenty minutes. I had no issues with the custard itself, other than I didn’t let it cook long enough. It was quite enjoyable, and I could see it being a fun side dish for people to enjoy.

This is where I start with the ‘thank yous’…Even if it has been awhile! I want start off by thanking Victoria Rosenthal for writing The Ultimate FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Cookbook. I also want to thank the staff over at Insight Editions for giving me permission to use the photos from their book to show how these recipes are actually supposed to look. Furthermore, I owe Brandon Rose a special thanks for creating the logo for this series on short notice. You should check him and his works out over on X.

Finally, I want to thank both Hiromichi Tanaka and Naoki Yoshida for producing FINAL FANTASY XIV Online in both iterations of the game. When I wasn’t spending my recovery playing FINAL FANTASY VII Rebirth, I spent a lot of it in Eorzea.

Next Week

Assuming I don’t get injured again, next week’s dish is Thanalan’s Cheese Risotto!

As I am sure you won’t be surprised by…I haven’t made this dish before either, and so it will be a brand-new experience for me to explore!

Please tune in to see how it goes!

Have you made chawan-mushi before?

Have you been to the FINAL FANTASY VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour?

Let us know in the comments below!

The post Cooking Eorzea Week 48: Chawan-Mushi (FINAL FANTASY XIV) appeared first on oprainfall.

When I first saw Thunder Ray I thought it looked like a decent Punch Out! style boxing game. I was always a huge fan of games like this, so my interest was piqued enough that I wanted to try this out for myself. I mean, we have a man here that has bested all the best fighters on Earth, so now the universe wants to challenge him! Let’s see if I found another great arcade style boxing game, or did I just got punched in the face?

Graphically, Thunder Ray looks great. The fighters featured in the game are all huge in scope and size. You will encounter huge robots, mutants, a witch and even a tiny alien that looks harmless at first glance. These characters are greatly detailed and each has a variety of special moves that are very well animated. The game runs at a solid framerate on the Switch, and this is a good thing seeing as you are expected to dodge attacks with quickness and precision.

The game features at total of 11 fights. Eight of these are in the main game and the additional three are in the Origins DLC included in this package. Each fight has different gimmicks for you to overcome. Some fighters will cast spells or have magical barriers, while others may give you status effects like confusion that reverses your controls, or poison which – as you would figure – constantly drains your health. This makes it very important to either block, duck, or dodge whatever these foes throw at you and counter attack. Once you knock your opponent down three times you win and Ray will end them in an over-the-top and gory fashion. But if you get knocked down, you lose and will have to try the bout again. The real problem is the controls here feel very heavy at times, and I had a very hard time dodging some of these. The last bosses in each mode gave me a ton of trouble even on the easiest setting.

With so few fights found here I feel the value in this one is being able to master these controls and get through the game on higher difficulties with better ranks – which I guess is the goal of most games made in this style. I still think the price tag on this is bit high at 1999¥ for this Asian release of the game. There is some meat on the bones here, but once you get used to the controls you can breeze through the first eight fights in right around 30 minutes. Now how many hours you’d have to put into this to get that good really depends on the player, and I’m too old and don’t have that kind of patience anymore.

Overall I think Thunder Ray is a decent game for players who enjoy this genre of game. The difficulty here was a bit too much for me personally, but I know a lot of players really enjoy a challenge in a game like this. Still, I think the price tag is a bit much for what you get here, so I would wait for a sale before stepping in the ring.

Review Score
Overall

Game was provided by the publisher for review.

The post REVIEW: Thunder Ray appeared first on oprainfall.

A while back I had been in the mood for some otome and when 9 R.I.P. was announced for localization, I decided I would review this one. I didn’t know much about it going into things and typically I am extremely picky about the otome I’ll play. But, it sounded like it was a longer game than most and had a lot going on, so I was intrigued enough to take on this review. Was 9 R.I.P. worth the time investment? Or was it simply a failed horror show not worth the price of admission? Keep reading and find out my thoughts.

The main character of this one, Misa Isshiki, is at a loss for what to do with her future. She recently received this career path survey at school and is expected to fill it out with her plans. Misa lives at home with her mom and her older sister, as her dad passed away when she was little. Misa’s sister, Tsubasa, followed her own path in life. Now their mother expects Misa to follow the route she wants for her. Ideally, she wants Misa to become a doctor like her father and constantly pressures her to do as she wishes. Being lost in life and unsure what to do with this survey, not to mention constantly pressured by her mother, Misa ends up spirited away to one of a few different dimensions.

In one route, Misa ends up trapped in her school in a sort of limbo realm full of the dead. In another route, Misa finds herself in Hell. In a third potential spiriting away, she ends up a ghost herself. And finally, the last potential outcome is being haunted by spirits in the regular old mortal world, still a human herself. Regardless of the outcome, Misa Isshiki is expected to go through the challenges awaiting her and ultimately figure out what to do with her life. Each of these four routes contains two different potential romance options for you to get to know and you’ll make various choices along the way. In these initial common routes containing two love interests each, make the right choices and whoever you’re closer to by the end is the one Misa will end up falling for. After this, you’ll be lead to their specific route where you can get even closer with them, or find yourself doomed should you take a wrong turn.

9 R.I.P. has a lot of overlap between routes. I found myself tired out pretty early on. You’ll often be revisiting routes and have to skip over the various common route content you already saw to get to the choices you have to do differently. Despite that, this otome was relatively straightforward. If you leave on the option to see when you’ve raised a character’s affection, or you constantly check the status screen as you make choices, you’ll find it easy to go in a decent direction. However, I did find out that you can reach more than one good ending in a lot of the routes and trying to go back to get the best ending can prove difficult until you figure out how things work completely. Not to mention the game also has this insanity meter in some of the common routes, but I found it extremely difficult to even raise it naturally during a first playthrough. It wasn’t hard to avoid a lot of the bad ends. Also, these bad ends aren’t a true full ending like other otome with bad endings. They don’t have their own special bad end CGs or anything like that, it’s more of an abrupt fail. I got a few bad ends to see how they went, but typically I just went back through the game’s log and rewound a smidge to wherever things went awry. You’ll know relatively quickly when you make a bad choice, since most of the routes don’t make it too hard to figure out.

I really enjoyed my time with 9 R.I.P. Though, I do believe it was somewhat lacking in comparison to other Idea Factory otome. I mean, between all the events going on, most routes don’t have a ton of romantic parts. It’s kind of lightly dispersed between other happenings. Also, the horror wasn’t anything major. Some of the love interests in their initial common routes were cheerier and lacking in scary moments. And the ones that were more horror filled still weren’t anything crazy. I think my favorite of all the romanceable partners you can go after was definitely Koyo. His route was really fun honestly, mostly the beginning common route shared between both him and Sena. I had a hard time picking between them at first, but after going after both of them, Koyo was definitely my favorite.

I think the atmosphere in this otome is the best thing about it. It has a really good soundtrack, especially all of the ending songs. Hibiki, one of the love interests I was least interested in, I think actually had the best music theme of all of them. Each guy has their own unique music theme which will play often. While I’m on the topic of the game’s music, I should discuss the different extras in 9 R.I.P.‘s menu as you complete routes. It doesn’t have a significant amount of extras, there aren’t any additional stories following up on endings or anything like that. Still, like other Otomate titles, there are some special extras. The main extra content you’ll unlock from finishing routes are these voice lines for each guy. They each have a menu with different voice lines, some of them featuring aspects of your time with them after the story ends. In addition to that are the standard otome extras, like how you can listen to the soundtrack, check the glossary of terms from throughout the game, or look back at images of Misa with the different characters from throughout the story. You can also of course revisit specific chapters you’ve gone through to make different choices and get other endings, even starting with an already filled affection meter if you’d like. And finally, you can re-watch various videos as well, mainly the end credit music bits for each love interest.

I didn’t happen upon too many issues. Performance wise, 9 R.I.P. played smoothly for the most part. There wasn’t a true abundance of grammar mistakes or typos. Honestly, I now expect there to be some in all of these localized otome, they’re never flawless. Nonetheless, I do think Idea Factory International is a ton better at the quality control than certain other companies that localize these games. The biggest error I found was in the videos menu. The bars with the name of whatever should be the highlighted video you’re going to watch didn’t match up with what was pictured in the center and what the video ultimately ended up being once selected. I’ve provided a picture above of this issue. You’ll see the bar I had selected says it’s Sena’s video but in the center it shows it’s Koyo’s. That specific menu was pretty messed up and was the biggest issue I ran into.

When I went into this, upon looking up how long the game was – seeing as it’s already out in Japan – I was expecting it to be a bit longer than it actually is. But with so many different love interests and multiple endings for all of them, it still has quite a lot of content. I spent over 35 hours on this otome and completed six different routes, plus unlocked various alternate endings. I still have a couple more routes to go. In the end though, 9 R.I.P. was a fun time. It’s nowhere near the spiciest otome you can play, but the atmosphere and music is fantastic. If otome are your thing, you’ll enjoy yourself. I do believe it’s worth the price of admission. 9 R.I.P. releases on the Nintendo Switch Oct. 15, 2024.

Review Score
Overall

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It’s not often I associate “comfy” with murder, but when it comes to the Famicom Detective Club games, that’s the word that comes to mind to best describe them. Sitting down with one of the 2021 remakes is like curling up in your favorite chair with a cup of your favorite warm beverage and just vibing. After close to 30 years, would the newest entry in this series, Emio – The Smiling Man, give me the same feeling while also delivering a great mystery?

Rather than focus on the supernatural and ghosts, this time around our intrepid Boy Detective finds himself investigating the murder of middle school student, Eisuke Sasaki, that ties into a local urban legend. Emio – known as The Smiling Man because of the characters in his name – supposedly appears before crying girls while wearing a paper bag on his head emblazoned with a smiling face. If the girl laughs, he leaves her alone, but if she cries, he strangles her. So why, this time, would Emio appear before a boy, and why would he use a rope instead of his bare hands? And what relation, if any, does it have to a series of unsolved murders from 18 years ago?

Despite being the newest entry in this series in decades, Emio – The Smiling Man plays exactly like its predecessors. It carries over the visual style and voice acting from the 2021 remakes, which themselves retained the point-and-click adventure style gameplay of the original Famicom releases. You have a choice of several options in each scenario, including calling out to nearby people, talking to them, examining the surroundings or specific areas with your cursor, taking items, using your phone, and thinking about the situation. Each of these actions is meant to put you in the shoes of the protagonist and engage in the case the way a real person would. Unfortunately, it also results in a lot of cycling through options searching for the correct course of action. There were at least three times when I had exhausted every option and couldn’t figure out how to advance, so I just kept hammering my choices until something finally happened. There was also at least one instance where the correct option was to investigate a specific area, but I clicked the wrong part of the object and did not trigger the next event. These weren’t enough to ruin my enjoyment of the story, but it did lead to a lot of frustration.

Fellow Utsugi Detective Agency members – Shunsuke Utsugi and Ayumi Tachibana – return from previous titles, and this time you not only follow the protagonist, but you finally get to see Ayumi in action, as well. Throughout the investigation, you’ll keep notes to review, including important names and information you uncover about each person of interest. Periodically, the protagonist and Ayumi will review their notes, testing your knowledge of the case before deciding where next to go in the investigation. Having them both pursue different avenues of questioning gave the game a bit more breathing room to explore the story from multiple angles, as well as introduce a broader, eclectic cast. My personal favorite was Tsubasa Fukuyama, Ayumi’s former classmate and current middle school teacher at Eisuke’s school. Other notable newcomers include Junko Kuze, the serious detective in charge of Eisuke’s case, and Daisuke Kamihara, her jovial and easy-going partner. Each character is brought to life by some absolutely fantastic voice work, and Megumi Ogata especially deserves some kudos for her performance as the protagonist. She was a joy to listen to.

As for the story itself, I found this entry very engaging, with enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep me guessing for a significant chunk of playtime. The pacing was breezy and scenes never felt like they overstayed their welcome. That being said, the ending left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied, with one too many contrivances hampering an otherwise strong narrative. There is also an epilogue that ties up a few loose ends that packed an emotional punch, but the game rightfully warns you that it deals with some distressing content, so just keep that in mind if you’re at all sensitive to some of the broader issues explored in the main story.

Emio – The Smiling Man was a comfortable, familiar experience that both benefited from that familiarity and suffered from it. I loved revisiting this world and the characters, and the overall excellent writing was engaging and entertaining; however, retaining the same point-and-click nature of the previous games lead to some frustrating play sessions and unintuitive courses of action. The presentation was gorgeous, with beautiful background art, detailed and emotive sprites, excellent voice work and an amazing soundtrack. It took me roughly 20 hours to finish the game, and while the Fukuyama’s Report Card extra does give some minor incentive to replay for a higher grade, there isn’t much else, which makes it slightly more difficult to recommend at the $50 price tag, especially since you can get the twin pack of the first two games for only a few dollars more. To be clear, I really enjoyed my time with Emio, and if you liked the previous Famicom Detective games or really enjoy mystery visual novels, then this is a surefire title to grab. Due to its dated gameplay and shorter length, if you’re more of a casual enjoyer, I’d wait for it to go on sale. If you’re unsure where you stand, there’s a free demo available so you can test the waters yourself.

Review Score
Overall

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I had a blast with Persona 3 Reload when it released earlier this year, so I was pretty excited to get my hands on the DLC episode. Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis -The Answer- is a remake of The Answer portion of Persona 3 FES, and although I had fun with that back in the day, I was looking forward to seeing what improvements this remake would bring. Let’s see if this met my high expectations for it.

The story here follows the SEES group as they get caught up in a time loop. The group is soon visited by a mysterious stranger named Metis. She is an android like Aigis and claims to be her sister. She attacks the group saying the quickest way to end this and save her sister is to end their lives. The group fends off her attack and they are soon lead to a desert of doors. This place is called the Abyss of Time, and the group will have to explore each of these doors and unravel the mystery of this place, if they wish to break this time loop and continue their lives.

While I don’t want to delve too deep here since there are a ton of spoilers for the main story, I feel this story is a great supplement to the main one. It delves deeper into the characters’ pasts and how their Personas awakened in the first place. You really feel like you know more about these characters you already loved by the end. The overall story message is a good one as well, but I think that is something players should discover for themselves.

Graphically, this is a huge upgrade from The Answer on PlayStation 2. Everything here looks on par with what was found in the base game. Metis looks amazing now and you can even unlock some new looks for her via quests from Elizabeth. I really love the redone Persona 3 FES opening for the DLC episode here. That was just a nice throwback to the saga now being complete in the remake. The game ran smoothly on both of my PCs and I didn’t have any issues with this port.

I have to say, I really enjoyed the new music tracks they made for the DLC. My favorite is the new back attack theme “Don’t.” It really drives home that the group is tired of fighting and ready to move on. The English cast once again does a great job bringing these characters to life, and Metis’ new voice actress is a welcome change from the one found in Persona 3 FES. She just gave her a lot more personality, even if a lot of this is her fawning over Aigis.

Combat here is just the same as the base game. Everything is turn based, hitting a weakness will down an enemy and give you an extra turn. You can shift to other party members when hitting a weakness as well, which gives you plenty of flexibility in downing an entire field of foes. The Theurgy Skills skills return and can really turn the tide of battle if you find yourself in a tough spot. One thing I did notice, is the bosses are much harder when facing them on the Normal difficulty. They really thought out ways to really push you to your limit, such as giving a boss a slash weakness but letting them have the evade slash skill. Things like this, and the fact that they just seemed to hit harder, pushed me to my limits a few times during my exploration.

Exploring the doors is much the same as Tartarus. Floors are randomly generated, shadows roam freely and if you can attack them from behind you gain the advantage. After so many floors you will encounter a boss. There are usually two boss fights for each door, and the story will progress once you hit the bottom. The Monad Doors make a return here as well, but they are a bit different than in the main game. Here they will appear three at a time, the difficulty increasing from left to right. The higher the difficulty you choose, the better the rewards will be from winning. These battles are not easy though, these are some of the toughest fights Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis -The Answer- has to offer, so proceed with caution.

Overall, it took me right around 25 hours to complete Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis -The Answer-, and I had a good time with it. I love Persona 3 Reload, so getting more of what I love is always a good thing. However, I think Atlus should’ve sold this DLC separate from the pack of stuff they have it included in, since $35 is a bit steep for this content if you have no interest in the other costumes or music tracks. That being said, this is a quality release with great graphics and a good amount of story content. Players that are big fans of the base game will want to jump in ASAP, you’re going to have a great time. Everyone else might want to hold out for a sale, but I still think this one is well worth your time and coin.

Review Score
Overall

DLC was purchased by the author for review.

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After a long time, it’s finally time to review DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia. Following the release of Rio Reincarnation out west in 2019, this writer has been eagerly awaiting the next entry in the DATE A LIVE visual novel series. The reason for this being that in terms of presentation, I would argue that the visual novels have amazing storytelling moments that you just wouldn’t get from the anime. Here we are, five years later, and the question that I’ve asked before is back: How does it all hold up after all this time?

Right off the bat, I have a warning for curious onlookers. I highly recommend you play the first three visual novels prior to this. Thankfully, this is all available in one purchase via Rio Reincarnation on all storefronts as it is a triple pack. That means you can play Rinne Utopia, Arusu Install, and Rio Reincarnation. Sadly that’s not the only check on this list. I do recommend that you watch the first three seasons of DATE A LIVE, and the movie Mayuri Judgement. If you meet all these requirements, read on!

Repeating what I said earlier, it’s been five years since the last DATE A LIVE visual novels came out. Back then it felt like a novelty to be able to finally forge your own path with your favorite girl in the series. The sheer joy I personally felt being able to see Kurumi in a wedding outfit for an ending was immaculate. Not only that, I could do it three times across the aforementioned titles. Each ending then felt like a culmination of fan desires to love their girls even more than Shido could. It’s because of this that I felt renewed excitement for Ren Dystopia, coupled with the recent success of the series as it got its fourth and fifth seasons.

While that was the initial allure of the visual novels, if you dare to dig deeper (and you should), you’ll find something even better. I’m talking about the visual novel exclusive scenes with new girls that pack more emotional depth than anything else in the whole package. It’s how characters like Rinne, Marina, and Maria specifically climbed to my top girls list in the series. Those girls made the journey to achieving the true end all worthwhile. More fuel for the Ren Dystopia hype train.

That’s all well and good, but now we have to talk about the game that’s out now. If we take a peek under the hood, any person that owns the first three visual novels will immediately notice something. In terms of the UI, overworld map, art assets, and music, virtually nothing has changed. If it wasn’t for the title screen being different, and Natsumi being the first girl you see out the gate from when you start the game, I’d be doing double takes to make sure I launched the right game. The common route also plays out nearly identical to that of the other games as well.

To understand why this is a problem, you need to look at the original release dates for the games. Rinne Utopia, Arusu Install, and Rio Reincarnation all came out in 2013, 2014, and 2015 respectively. Furthermore, they were incorporated into a triple pack. It made sense for those games to be very similar given the release cycle. However, Ren Dystopia releases a whole five years later, and as a standalone that sits at the very same price point as the triple pack of all things. Noticing all this before talking about the routes is cause of concern from not just a reviewer point-of-view, but a fan of the series as a whole.

Let’s talk routes. Ren Dystopia incorporates nine main routes, one for each girl from season three. Natsumi is the sole new character of this bunch. However, Origami, due to the third season, got a writing makeover. You may be telling yourself that this is going to be a serious time sink. However, this is not the case. Each route is an hour and thirty minutes of reading at moderate pace. In addition, it also features the exact ridiculous story with minor differences. The following is what you can expect without important details. Someone will open a box, make one wish, wish affects the next day, sleep, repeat until three wishes are made. While some wishes are more romantic than others, there’s hardly that relationship building charm that existed with previous games. It genuinely feels like I’ve been handed multiple 4-koma pages rather than a visual novel.

The reason why this is all so upsetting to me is because of the game’s true ending. An ending that does require you to do all of the nine routes. Nine routes that are significantly boring to sit through and aren’t satisfying to complete. However, if you to manage to power through these routes, you’ll receive something magical. An ending that properly demonstrates what could have been from the writing team. It’s an ending that almost brought me to tears, and yet I almost missed it entirely. I want you to envision the meme of the guy almost mining the diamonds but quits before he hits it big. That’s the meme that embodies this game. It doesn’t matter how much I love Kurumi, Origami, Kotori, and even Natsumi. Ren is the star of the show and she deserves better.

DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia is a truly head-scratching game. A game that looks and plays no different from its predecessors. All the while presenting fans with very underdeveloped and uninspired routes. While the Live2D models look great and the voice acting is phenomenal, it just can’t carry the weight that is everything else. Even the True Ending, which is some of the writing team’s best work, can’t save this. Ren deserves better. The reader deserves better. Especially when the company is asking for the same amount of money as the triple pack that came before it. If you do happen to own this title, please work your way to the true ending to get your money’s worth. The fact that only 9% of readers, at the time of writing, have seen it drives me insane. Otherwise consider waiting for a sale.

Review Score
Overall

Game provided by publisher for review purposes. Standard edition of the game retails for $39.99 USD.

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Manga:

Solo Leveling

Since I had recently watched the first half of the first season of Solo Leveling, I thought I’d re-read (binge) some of the manhwa to compare. I think I’m leaning toward writing a review once the entirety of season 1 debuts, which, as far as I’ve heard, should continue this fall. When I talked about the anime a few weeks ago, I had mentioned how the adaptation more closely follows the manhwa rather than the light novel regarding its story details and character depth, or lack thereof. Having re-read the first thirty some odd chapters, I only reconfirmed what I already knew. Still a fun, quick read, yet it reaffirms my desire to see more from the anime. I can hope, right…?

Also, as I had said previously, the art of the manhwa definitely outshines the anime’s visuals. A sharper, deep style really makes the manhwa pop, whereas the anime looks too similar to other anime productions. Yes, the anime captures Sung Jinwoo and his exploits fairly well, but I can’t help but think it also has a common, general feel to its production, versus the manhwa which just has more vividness and a raw or feral edge to its visuals.

I’ll go into more detail comparing the aesthetics of the manhwa and the anime when the time to write that review comes. I’m also hoping the second half of season 1 sees a visual improvement, for as of now, my re-read of this manhwa is only demonstrating to me what could have been. – Drew D.

What anime are you watching? What manga and light novels are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Anime & Manga entries here!

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Light Novels:

Spirit Chronicles Volume 5 – The Silver Bride

In preparation of my next review, I spent this week wrapping up my read of Spirit Chronicles Volume 5. I had expected a long-awaited return to previous storylines, a bit of development with the major isekai event that happened in Volume 4, and I had hoped we would have more time with some of my favorite characters. Unfortunately, my high hopes were not quite met, with only brief moments with my favorites, more setup than substance, and an unexpected storyline in the second half of the novel.

Well, I’m happy about the long awaited return of Celia, a mentor and the first friend of our hero, Rio. She plays a strong role in Volume 1, but is then sidelined until now. Four years have past since Celia and Rio had last interacted in the story, which actually seems a bit ridiculous given the vast abilities and resources Rio has had for some time now. Anyway, they have their reunion, Celia is upset with life, and Rio essentially brute-forces a solution, because he can now. Crude, yes, yet somewhat entertaining, though this volume features more conversations rather than action. Also, these convos are rife with classism, arrogance, entitlement, and plenty more that can make for a stressful impact on readers. Lastly, since the story is back to where the series started, plot points and characters introduced in Volume 1 are now being dredged up again, though I doubt they’ll linger for long, assuming the next volume plays out in similar fashion. – Drew D.

What anime are you watching? What manga and light novels are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Anime & Manga entries here!

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I discuss plot points and details of storylines and character arcs which could be considered minor spoilers. Also, one spoiler which could be considered a major one, the one the cover also depicts, must unavoidably be discussed, though I shall do so while revealing as little as possible.

In three volumes of Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles, by author Yuri Kitayama, we readers have been introduced to a vivid story of survival, emotional turmoil, endurance, and self-discovery painted upon a fantastical backdrop of magic, hierarchies, and strives for power. We have watched the unfolding story of Amakawa Haruto, who is born again into a new world as his soul is merged with that of the orphan Rio. And over three volumes, we have experienced this new Rio’s exciting, dramatic journeys as he crosses kingdoms and countries, meets new people, and forges lifelong bonds, all the while facing inner struggles and enduring growing pains and those of the heart.

From glimpses of Haruto’s past life before his death to the instant of his merging with Rio, we have witnessed their two souls becoming one and the progression of this new life from that fateful moment. We have watched as the new, merged Rio leaves the slums, completes his academy days, and later befriends Latifa and the Spirit Folk. And after traversing the isolated Yagumo Region and learning more about his past in this fantasy world, we are now ready to see Rio, at last, return to the Strahl region.

Yet upon his return, a world-changing event begins. A prophecy predicted ages ago has begun; individuals from Haruto’s world have been summoned as heroes to this fantasy one. Almost immediately, these heroes become affiliated with the major factions of Strahl, and will play vital roles in their politics and power struggles to come. Such a tremendous event will undoubtedly upheave the current balance of noble society and will have long lasting ripples across the kingdoms and this world.

As for Rio, he soon becomes entangled with an unforeseen consequence of this prophetic summoning of heroes. It seems three innocent bystanders were caught up in the summoning along with their companion and intended target. With that fated hero nowhere to be seen, the three find themselves alone and helpless. Soon after, they have an unfortunate encounter with slavers. Before long, Rio happens to cross paths with these slavers, who foolishly threaten him, and when hearing a call for help in Japanese, his once-native tongue, he swiftly intervenes and releases the three from their brief capture. It is soon thereafter Rio discovers that one of these individuals, beyond possibility, beyond belief, is Ayase Miharu. The very Miharu that was once Haruto’s closest friend, first and only love, and who had mysteriously disappeared shortly after starting their first year of high school. How, in all possibilities and potentialities, is Miharu, Haruto’s Miharu, standing before this version of Haruto now? And what destiny awaits her and her two companions who now must work past all tumult and begin new lives in this magical world?

Spirit Chronicles Volume 4 – Eternal You offers quite the story. Intrigue and mystery abound as this volume introduces another isekai instance, though this is a summoning rather than a rebirth into another world. Also, this summoning was predicted, observable, and immediately influential, and so poised to change many aspects of the regional political and militaristic landscapes. Despite all of that, this volume’s main storyline is mostly a microcosmic focus on Rio and his three new companions. Similar to Volume 3, in which there is a distinct focus on the orphan Rio half of the new Rio; his history, family, and relationships; Volume 4 focuses on the Haruto half. A past life full of memories, feelings, and relationships come to the forefront of Rio’s mind and his Haruto half is not making it easy for him to acclimate, process, nor reconcile. It sets up for a wonderful inner journey, as he figures out how to best take care of and prepare the three newcomers to life in a new world.

Regarding the three newcomers, we are privy to a wealth of character development as high schooler Miharu, along with middle schooler Aki and her elementary school stepbrother Masato, must now adjust to this foreign world. As Rio is the only one who speaks and understands Japanese, he begins teaching the three the common languages, and prepares them for the transition from modern day Japan to a world where magic, slavery, and medieval rules are the norm, including a harsher take on survival of the fittest. And during this time, we see the range of emotions experienced by the trio, from stress and fear, to resolve and determination for the chance of reuniting with their other summoned friends.

Overall, the story is mostly pleasant and enjoyable, if a bit predictable in the latter half, while the character development is impressive. Introducing three new characters and providing strong background and personalities is quite the task, yet author Kitayama again displays remarkable skill in doing so. Although the three do possess shades of archetypal personality traits, these traits are added to and expanded on in meaningful ways. This is mostly through their reasoning over their situation, coming to terms with it, and what goals they wish to set for themselves. As for Rio, the Haruto half of his character is also further expanded upon, as we are first reminded of why Haruto’s personality was the way it was up until now. And, presently seeing him work through old feelings and new circumstances provide praiseworthy immersion, though, I am detecting hints that his inner turmoil will be resolved and set aside quicker than I’d like. I feel there is much potential here, but I fear a resolution will be swift and lacking, so I do hope I am wrong. Regardless, what we’re offered in Volume 4 all makes for an intriguing chapter full of memories and rekindling feelings, as well as deep background and new growth. Lastly, I very much appreciate the way in which author Kitayama has the story and characters lend themselves to set a tone or inkling that this volume is the cusp of major events to come. It’s a wonderful setup for a hopeful return and continuation of those overarching storylines that we’ve seen in development since the first volume.

The achievements of Spirit Chronicles Volume 4 – Eternal You are many, mostly through a satisfactory story enhanced by notable character introduction, development, and poignancy of their emotions and feelings for one another. However, this volume is made tougher to grade due to a few standout narrative decisions. On one hand, you have the interactions between Rio and Miharu; a familiarity full of vivid feelings, as a bond between the two is slowly formed anew. We are provided wonderful moments of solid storytelling, reminiscence, and the building, or rebuilding, of a long ago relationship. On the other hand, because this storyline and its characters demand so much attention, most everyone and everything else from the previous volumes is, again, sidelined. A major complaint of mine with Volume 3, author Kitayama has chosen to marginalize too many of the storylines and characters introduced previously for a second consecutive volume. Although I can reason out and understand the decision, as there are limits to who and what receives attention in a single volume, I think adding to an already full cast and story have made things even more crowded. I understand that not every character will be crucial to the plot, and many are needed to fill story or narrative gaps. My present fear, though, is that Aki and Masato, who are already treated as side characters to Miharu, will soon receive the same treatment as so many of the other side characters – as in, we won’t hear from them for such long stretches of time that they challenge irrelevancy.

Another issue I have with Volume 4 regards the execution of what should be a significant character moment, one in which Rio shares his thought process about how he will treat relationships beyond friendship. Rio essentially makes the hard lined decision to not, at least for now, pursue any kind of romantic relationship. My issue is that I feel this needed to be expounded upon, since it’s a major decision for him going forward. The reasons, while sound, are also simplistic and come off as blunt. They lack emotions, even though the reasons themselves are fueled by emotions. Not to mention, it’s all wrapped up in a paragraph or two. It’s such a core moment for the character, yet the delivery fails to impact. Furthermore, the decision clashes with the unignorable sense of a harem eventually forming, as discussions about Rio and romance are terribly plentiful. Whether this is meant as a pause to the discussion, a red herring, or an actual resolution, the scene ultimately falls flat, leaving me with a feeling that nothing has actually been decided on at all.

A final criticism of mine relates to the speech styles of the new characters, in that they all sound, or read, far too similarly. This is due to their dialogue having been written with near identical syntax and diction, including slang, abbreviations, and such. Understandably, characters that come from similar backgrounds may sound the same; however, it’s to such an extent that it becomes difficult at times to tell who is speaking. Also the overly similar speech makes certain moments of dialogue between characters awkward and unnatural. If I were to speculate, perhaps this is a translation issue, in which the translator or editors failed to re-introduce the differences in word choices or structure. Elements like nuance and implication can be easily lost in translation, and so I do expect an effort to be made to retain them. Or, perhaps this is a misstep by author Kitagawa, failing to have each person speak in their own way. Sure, you can argue that similar characters, those who live in the same community or environment, and who share similar experiences may naturally share speech patterns. However, the extent to which this occurs is both too much of a stretch and, as a result, awkward to read. At its worst, it resulted in my loss of immersion on some occasions. Having said this, these and the issues I discuss above were thankfully not enough to stop me from having an enjoyable read overall.

Spirit Chronicles Volume 4 – Eternal You is a tough one to grade. Its strengths are praiseworthy, which include a wonderful reunion and palpable feelings between Rio and Miharu, and a pivotal plot moment, the summoning of heroes, which will hopefully bring new energy and conflicts to the storylines to come. Also, this volume offers some of the best character development seen in the series thus far. Unfortunately, its issues cannot be easily ignored. These include the neglect of previous characters and storylines, the way in which Rio makes his big decision concerning romance, the questionable decision to add even more characters, and the narrative missteps. None can be easily dismissed, and so in its entirety, I rate Volume 4 a 3.5 stars, though I will say that it only just misses a 4 star rating. This volume is an easy recommendation to those who have found enough to enjoy in this series, as well as those who, like myself, may have found themselves questioning whether or not to continue reading after the previous volume. Simply put, Spirit Chronicles Volume 4 – Eternal You has more than plenty to like, and I am hoping that the tones I’ve picked up throughout the read, those beckoning of major conflicts, reunions, and excitement foreshadowed, do indeed come to fruition in Volume 5.

Review Score
Overall

English translation of Spirit Chronicles Volume 4 – Eternal You and all volumes of Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles by J-Novel Club. Digital versions of Spirit Chronicles Volume 3, and all volumes, made available through affiliate shops like Amazon.

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Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid is not a game I had been watching or was expecting to do a review for. However, when I was informed we had a copy for review, I decided I could use a relaxing summer game to play. Last year, I took on a different game for review that I had hoped would be my relaxing summer game, and it was not that, whatsoever. But Natsu-Mon looked like it could actually be what I hoped and thus, I decided to take it on. I spent 32 hours playing this game throughout August and I’m now finally ready to give my thoughts.

The game takes place during this kid’s summer break in 1999. Satoru is an elementary school kid whose parents have been running a traveling circus troupe. They stop by Yomogi Town where they’ll next be setting up the circus and doing shows later that summer, in the middle of August. Satoru is pretty much left to his own devices while enjoying his summer break in Yomogi. Right from the start you’re sent out to explore the town.

The game is an open-world adventure where you control Satoru and do all kinds of stuff. See, your ultimate goal is to study whatever you want for your summer research project, which all the elementary school kids in town find themselves doing for summer homework. To complete this project, Satoru is provided a study set, which includes a sketchbook and colored pencils for making a picture journal to document his adventures. Throughout the game you can either activate the sketchbook documenting whenever you want during the day, or let it happen automatically when you go to bed each night. Either way the pictures appear on their own, but you can choose how in depth the text goes about the latest events and choose a stamp for the corner of each picture. Satoru draws scenes for events he finds significant that occurred during the day and also all fish and bugs he catches are documented when you newly catch one. Fish, you never really know what you’re catching before reeling them in. You can kinda guess based on the shape or size of their shadows, but otherwise it’s a bit of a mystery. Bugs, you’ll know if they’re brand new ones you haven’t caught yet because new bugs will have white circles around them, and old ones you’ve caught previously won’t.

You’re mostly free to explore and discover stuff at whatever pace you like, since you can change the time speed in the game’s settings to a much slower pace, or a quicker one. One of the circus members, Tokotoko, will collect you each night at 5 for dinner, and also you’ll have to go to bed by 10. If you send yourself to bed before you pass out at 10, you can get up early and do the radio exercises at the local shrine. You’ll get a stamp card to fill out each day that you go. Also, between those hours of 5 and 10 at night, you can’t explore the whole map like you can before dinner, only nearby areas closer to the Ashitaba Guesthouse where you’re staying.

Some of the activities you’ll find yourself spending your August days on are: fishing, catching bugs, climbing stuff, swimming and even helping the local elementary school kids investigate mysteries around town. The fishing rod you won’t get until a few days into the game, and there’s also an acorn shooter you can buy with money you earn. You can sometimes find coins out and about to fund your purchases, but it’s usually mere pocket change. You can get more cash by locating and collecting various colored diamonds in the area and selling them at one of the available shops. Plus, there are other various items laying around worth a bit less, like the numerous plastic and glass bottles laying at construction sites or near rivers. Eventually, you’ll also find dig spots where you’ll either get junk in varying degrees of quality you can sell, or fossils to donate to the local museum. You can donate these fossil pieces to the museum, in addition to very specific rare fish and bugs whenever you manage to catch them. Satoru will get paid for the stuff you donate to the museum too.

I had a lot of fun exploring all over the place, climbing stuff, finding new secrets and investigating the mysteries throughout Yomogi Town. There’s even a neighboring town called Tonari Town. You can take a train between the two towns, or you can take a bus to numerous bus stops across the map as you find and activate them. Also, in the beginning of Natsu-Mon, you won’t be able to climb very far or run for too long at once. Satoru is limited by his Sticker Gauge. This Sticker Gauge is essentially a stamina meter. There is a limited number of stickers you’ll be able to collect and you do this by completing the different tasks available in the game. You’ll get stickers for donating rare bugs to the museum, for playing with a little ghost girl a certain amount of times, for locating very specific ancient treasures, and many other goals found throughout the two towns and surrounding areas.

Atmosphere wise, the game is quite pleasant. There isn’t a lot of music in the game, mostly you’ll be hearing the sounds of nature. For example, the sound of nearby ocean waves rolling in, or the cicadas buzzing on trees. Every now and then though, at certain spots on the map, a bit of pleasing music will play in the background. Visually, the game is a very simple cartoon style. You’ll also see stuff cut-in now and then as you get closer. Although, I’m not sure if this is simply an aspect of the game no matter what, or if you’d also see it on PC. This review is strictly covering my experience with the Switch version of the game.

Ultimately, I truly enjoyed the time I spent on Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid. It was fitting to play this game slowly throughout the month of August and it was definitely the carefree summer adventure I was looking for. One last thing I’d like to mention, while on the normal time speed, the game days can seem to move a bit too fast to accomplish much. Despite that, I really do suggest enjoying the game at your own pace and playing it as carefree as possible. A new game plus mode is included, where you can transfer your sticker energy and quests you’ve already completed over to a new path. I wouldn’t worry about getting everything possible done in one playthrough. Also, the game has a $15 DLC expansion with more to do and some extra story revolving around a radio station. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have that DLC and can’t tell you whether or not it’s worth the cost. But, if a relaxing slice-of-life summer adventure in a Japanese town back in 1999 sounds like a fun time to you, then I do highly recommend this game. I should also mention that while I did spend 32 hours on the game, I spent most days on the relaxed time speed. So, your playtime with this one may vary and you’ll have to decide for yourself if you think it’s worth $40 for the base game.

Review Score
Overall

Review copy was provided by the publisher.

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I decided to take a look at JAST’s latest release, Dreamlike Love with Seira. I really loved the art style and I was really in the mood for a quality Nukige visual novel, and this looked liked it would fit the bill. Let’s see if this one was up to my high expectations.

The story follows a man named Haruto Watari. He is a salary man and works very hard every day with little to no recognition of his work. He keeps having dreams of a room full of doors, but they are all sealed up, until one day when one of the doors opens up. Upon entering this door he finds a mansion and inside, a beautiful maid named Seira. She calls him “Master” and says he is owner of this place. She is there to serve him and give him the support he so desperately needs. After months of meeting her every night in his dreams, he begins to feel much better about life, but will his dream continue or come to an end? Only time will tell!

The artwork in this short visual novel is just outstanding. Seira’s outfit looks amazing with plenty of fine details, but the random shots in her different color undergarments are even more detailed and extremely hot! The H-scenes are top quality as well – this is some of the best art I’ve seen in these in quite a while. The backgrounds are nicely done as well. While they are nothing special they have lots of fine details and add to the overall immersion in the story.

The music here is nothing to write home about, but it fits the atmosphere of the story: very somber dreamlike tracks during the dreams and more upbeat themes during his grueling hours at work during the day. Seira is fully voiced and the actress, Hana Kagehotaru, does an amazing job at bringing her to life. She has one of the sweetest voices I’ve heard in a visual novel. She gets really into the H-scenes as well, so you probably wanna dig out some headphones unless you want to share their glory with those around you.

Overall I really enjoyed my time with Dreamlike Love with Seira. The story, even if it is short, is impactful in many ways since it deals with how we run ourselves down in real life and just want some support. Seira is adorable in every way and most readers will instantly fall in love with her. The artwork here is outstanding and is backed up by the amazing voice work. This one is easily worth the $6.99 price tag, and I would recommend it to any Nukige visual novel fan looking for a short and sweet read.

Review Score
Overall

Game was purchased by the reviewer.

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Manga:

Otaku ni Yasashii Gal wa Inai!?

I can’t quite remember how I first encountered this title, but I’m glad I did. Otaku ni Yasashii Gal wa Inai!?, or Gal Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!? is a high school slice-of-life manga depicting the relationship between an introverted, yet kind otaku, named Seo, and two gyaru. While Ijichi is your typical outgoing, energetic gal, Amane is cool, stoic and secretly an otaku herself.

One of the main themes of this manga is how differences in character or interests don’t need to be a wall or hurdle for a friendship to form and blossom. Another, more subtle, theme is how assumptions based on looks, style, or interests can be ignorant and shortsighted. Each character has their own personality and background, and although common interests and circumstances do help to initially form the friendship, the story allows these three to maintain their distinctions while growing, both individually and in their relationship. And sure, some of the common high school tropes come into play, like popularity, attraction, social hierarchy, as do the typical situations of festivals, exams, and summer vacation. Yet, this manga does a nice job of using these tropes merely as a step before moving forward to genuine character development and charming relationship building.

I will say, Seo, our male lead and titular otaku, is a bit trope-like and typical, especially when compared to the two female leads, so hopefully more background or more diversity in his character is introduced soon. As for the girls, they really make this manga. I love how Ijichi is so much more than the stereotypical gal, frequently breaking away from the expected. Amane’s stressing with fitting in, being social, and hiding her interests out of fear is relatable, and her coming out of her shell, similarly to Seo, is a pleasure to see.

No news of an official English release yet, though the fan-translations over on mangadex are satisfactory. Fun, funny, yet gentle and good-natured, Gal Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!? is an easy recommendation. – Drew D.

Hajimete no Ojou-sama

Hajimete no Ojou-sama, The First Times’ Lady, is a lighthearted rom-com centered around sheltered princess Ojou Kotone. Ojou, in order to experience life beyond her affluent, yet limited upbringing, is eager to learn more about the world and is ready to experience many new “firsts” for herself. Determined to be more self-sufficient as well, the story begins with her first hurdle of using a train ticket machine.

Suguru Sewa, a typical high schooler, sees Ojou having trouble and bluntly guides her through the process. Then, he witnesses Ojou’s next struggle of getting though the ticket gate. Seeing how helpless she is, Sewa can’t help but keep an eye on Ojou for the time being.

When they part ways, Sewa doesn’t think he’ll meet Ojou again, only to be shocked that Ojou has transferred to his high school and same class, all in order to continue her efforts of independence and learning about the world outside her affluence.

Hajimete no Ojou-sama is pretty obvious with what it delivers, yet it’s done notably well. This short publication has plenty of humor, from slapstick to innuendo, and lots of charm, too. Ojou is cute and a bit air-headed, but hides deep thoughts and feelings. Seeing hers and Sewa’s character development is a highlight of the manga. As is the ability for this duo to make the mundane and everyday into something much more. As I said, this one’s short, only 21 chapters, and I wouldn’t have minded more. Cute, funny, even uplifting too, I very much enjoyed Hajimete no Ojou-sama for its bursts of humor and lighthearted fun. – Drew D.

What anime are you watching? What manga and light novels are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

You can read previous Week in Anime & Manga entries here!

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