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!

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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.

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The action RPG, brings Shiki, Rebecca, Weisz, Homura and other beloved characters from the popular manga for all to play on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC(Steam/Windows).

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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!

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The father of FINAL FANTASY, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and renowned composer Nobuo Uematsu return to deliver an original RPG story with FANTASIAN Neo Dimension. Experience an enhanced version of FANTASIAN, initially released for Apple Arcade in 2021, with brand-new features, including English and Japanese voiceovers and an additional difficulty option. PS5, Xbox Series X and PC versions of the game also offer 4K support.

In FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, assume the role of Leo as he journeys to recover his memories and solve the mystery of a strange mechanical infection destroying his world. Experience an original and modern take on the beloved turn-based battle system, with a wealth of unique mechanics and strategic combat that shake up the classic RPG formula, and explore a multi-dimensional universe come to life set against the backdrop of over 150 charming hand-crafted dioramas.

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In the Prologue Demo, players can experience some of the early-game narrative, explore social elements and discover the city as they get a head start on their adventure ahead of the October 11 launch. Progression from the demo will carry over to the launch version so players can get a head start on their adventures in the United Kingdom of Euchronia.

The Prologue Demo includes:

• The beginning of the journey to lift the curse of the prince.

• The first four dungeons.

• The ability to unlock seven of the 40+ classes called “Archetypes”.

• Meet six followers, including party members that will support the Protagonist’s journey.

• And much more!

Metaphor: ReFantazio is an all-new fantasy RPG from the creative minds of Persona 3, 4, and 5. Players will write their destiny and rise above fear as they step into a fantasy world unlike any other in a perilous race for the throne.

If you’d like to know more about Metaphor: ReFantazio, visit the game’s official website.

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One of gaming’s most beloved RPGs is getting a modern facelift when the LUNAR Remastered Collection launches in Spring 2025. The remastered versions of LUNAR: Silver Star Story Complete and LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue Complete were revealed during Sony’s State of Play. You can watch the announcement trailer above.

According to the PlayStation Blog, the game will feature updated graphics, sound, and quality of life improvements. These include wide screen support, enhanced pixel art, HD animated cutscenes and new English voice acting. Players can also swap between original and updated graphics. Battles will have speed options and there will be new strategy settings. Both games will have English, Japanese, German and French language options.

LUNAR Remastered Collection will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

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 Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a brand-new action adventure that follows Goro Majima across land and sea. One year after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Majima washes ashore on a deserted island amid the scattered remnants of a shipwreck. Unable to remember even his own name, Majima travels across the vast ocean in search of clues to piece together his lost identity, accompanied by a boy named Noah who saved his life. Before long, they’re caught up in a conflict between cutthroat criminals, modern-day pirates and other scoundrels over a legendary treasure.

New Adventures and Play Style

As Majima, players will assemble a one-of-a-kind crew while upgrading their ship, the “Goromaru,” battling enemy pirate ships and conquering seas and hidden islands alike. In combat, players can deliver explosive combos and aerial takedowns by dynamically switching between two fighting styles: dual-wield short swords or deploy pirate tools with the swashbuckling “Sea Dog” style or utilize speed, agility and flair to defeat enemies into submission with the infamous “Mad Dog” style.

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Dragami Games has announced that LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP is now available digitally for players in North America, Central and South America, and Europe on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. The game is available worldwide on PC via Steam. It is scheduled to launch for consoles in Asia on September 26, 2024. The game retails for $44.99.

You can check out the launch trailer below.

LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP is a remaster of LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW which originally launched for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and was a collaborative effort between Suda51 and James Gunn.

The remaster is developed by Dragami Games and produced by Yoshimi Yasuda. Its features are described as follows:

• Quality of Life Improvements
• The resolution of the game has been increased to full HD, and load times have been greatly
  shortened.
• The chainsaw action has been sped up with the introduction of the Chained Hits Hunting system, in
  which chaining multiple hits in succession increases the player’s attack speed.
• The input timings for Combo Actions have been adjusted, to better fit players’ expectations.
• Chainsaw Blaster action has been improved with the addition of auto-lock and auto-fire modes
  that can be toggled, and an increased maximum ammo count of 99.
• The player can now immediately use Combo Actions at the start of the game

• Additional Gameplay Content
• Separate from Original Mode, RePOP adds “RePOP mode”, which uses a unique and colorful pop art-inspired art style for damage effects.
• Unique new chainsaws with distinctly different features have been added.
• There are 30 costumes, more than the original game’s costume count. Combined with the addition
  of 4 new hair colors and 4 new chainsaws, this adds up to 750 different possible combinations.
• JULIET’S ROOM has been expanded with more features.
• A Time Attack mode with ranking feature has been added.

LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP is out now digitally in the Americas and Europe for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. It is out worldwide for PC via Steam. It will launch for consoles in Asia on September 26, 2024. RePOP will also launch worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2024. For more information, you can check out its official website.

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Added to the game 16 years ago with the release of Persona 3 FES, Episode Aigis -The Answer- (originally known as “The Answer” in North America) is a major post-ending DLC that expands the story of Persona 3 Reload. Delve into a modern version of the final chapter with over 30 hours of new gameplay, now with cutting-edge graphics, updated quality-of-life features, fresh animations and UI, and a rearranged soundtrack.

In Episode Aigis -The Answer-, after unraveling the mysteries of the Dark Hour, fighting epic battles through Tartarus, and all the unforgettable events of Persona 3 Reload, the S.E.E.S. members find themselves trapped in a never-ending March 31st. Journey through the Abyss of Time as Aigis, undertake new challenges and uncover the cause of this strange fate and the truth of what happened on that day…

If you’d like to know more about Persona 3 Reload or the game’s Expansion Pass, visit the official website.

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If you’re a FINAL FANTASY XIV Online fan, then Eorzea Café is a must-visit stop in Akihabara. You can check out the latest menus online here and make reservations for the Akihabara location here.

If you want to see a spoiler-filled review, then jump to the next paragraph below the photo.

I went to the Akihabara Eorzea Café location in July 2024 as part of my recent trip to Japan, and I booked my reservation 30 days beforehand on the Eorzea Café website. Unlike my prior visit in 2015 which required me to visit a Lawson’s store in Tokyo and navigate a Japanese-only menu to make a reservation (or just show up and hope for a free time slot), this time around the reservation was effortless to make and book in English through Table Check. After clicking through about if I had any food allergies and if I wanted to eat in the café or in an un-themed karaoke room, I was all set for my lunch time seating.

Finding Eorzea Café was fairly easy in Akihabara. The restaurant is just a few minutes’ walk away from the Akihabara metro station, and they smartly have large signs outside that let you know where to enter at and what floor to go to.

When you go up to the correct floor, you’re greeted by a reception area that also has a LOT of FINAL FANTASY XIV Online merchandise for sell that I looked through after checking in for my visit. As you can tell from the pictures, everything there is also available on the different SQUARE ENIX stores. The highlight for me was that it was nice to finally get to smell the different room diffuser scents in person. My favorite? Sharlayan. There is also a spot for taking photos with small signs to hold up and a place where you can write and post small paper notes for your fellow adventurers.

When the reservation started, we were escorted into the Eorzea Café itself. It is a decent sized room with a bar in one corner, TV screens that show game clips on a wall, and tables smartly arranged in the room. Relic weapons from A Realm Reborn adorn the walls (and they were there during my 2015 visit in fact!), and there are copies of the High-Precision Art prints on the walls for sale too. The middle of the restaurant shows off the different Primals and Jobs as stone coasters behind glass, some life-sized Moogle statutes, a FINAL FANTASY XIV Online themed-PC that you can buy, and more. Finally, there is FINAL FANTASY XIV Online music playing nonstop throughout that included everything from A Realm Reborn to Endwalker.

Overall, you could tell that a lot of heart and charm went into designing the Eorzea Café room itself, and it felt genuinely charming. While no one said it outright, this café location is clearly meant to take place in Gridania based upon the backwall design, and it felt like I was really stepping into a place unabashedly meant for FINAL FANTASY XIV Online fans. I was caught off guard by Flow playing midway through my visit, and I found myself catching more small cute details everywhere I looked. All that said, despite being there during the launch of the new expansion, I was a little surprised to not hear any music from Dawntrail despite the restaurant celebrating the expansion’s release.

Photos by author.

When I first sat down at the table, I was given a slip of paper to select my cover-charge included drink and coaster pair. The drink list included one for each job (including Viper and Pictomancer!), a set of drinks themed after the Scions, and a special Dawntrail beverage. There was also your standard sodas and alcohol options. You can also select coasters from the different jobs and Scions.

After placing that paper order, I leafed through the menu. Instead of physical menus like in 2015, it all now takes place on a tablet. The menu had an English language option, and it was easy to navigate through and order from. There are a lot of different drink, food, and dessert options to pick from, and you’re welcome to order as much as you want. There was also staff present who can speak decent English, though it was by no means universal among everyone who was working there.

July 2024 Menu. (Photos by author).

About 10 minutes after we were all seated, what I can only describe as a hypeman took the microphone and held a Cactpot drawing in Japanese after much excitement. Each seat has a number attached to it, and three numbers were drawn. Third prize gets one of a set of mini-tin badges, second place gets a Cactpot-themed mat, and first place gets a HoneyToast dessert. We won the second-place prize, and therefore got the placemat! Additionally, we also got a Dawntrail-themed placemat for attending the café. It was quite cute, to be honest.

While looking through the drink selections, I was struck by how much Eorzea Café clearly focuses on sweetness over anything else. I did not see any options for a spicy, bold flavoring or even a sour/tart focused-drink. Instead, all of the drinks have some type of fruit-based syrup or fruity involvement in them. I am also going to point out here that with each additional order item, we were given an opportunity to select a random sleeved coaster out of a basket.

In celebration of Dawntrail, there were a Golden Passion Soda and a Dawntrail parfait for sale. There is also a Monthly Drink Special based off of the Twelve going on, and I was there in time for Byregot, the Builder’s drink option. Between the two of us, we ordered the Byregot drink, both Dawntrail beverages, and the Pictomancer drink. We considered ordering the Viper beverage, but the three drinks and the parfait was enough sweetness already.

The Pictomancer drink came with three syrups to squeeze into the drink: sakura syrup, bulgar syrup, and passionfruit syrup. The syrups are clearly meant to invoke the Pictomancer painting elements, and the menu encourages you to make your own ‘masterpiece’ by squeezing them into the drink that is a purple haze syrup. I did as instructed before drinking it. I was…not impressed. The drink tasted like a mish-mash of cold super-sweet syrups, and I could not pick out any particular flavor from the four syrups that were now mixed together. That is unfortunate, as I loved the idea behind the drink, but I would never order it again.

The second drink we tried was the Byregot, the Builder beverage. This came with the same purple haze syrup as the Pictomancer, but this time it also had an energy soda and some candy to be added into it on the side. This was surprisingly good. The energy soda was citrusy, and it blended well with the purple haze syrup to add that right amount of sweetness. The candy ‘popped’ in my mouth as I drank, but it did not overpower anything else. There was no taurine bitterness like you’d expect from an energy drink, and I did not feel a ‘jolt’ of energy from the soda itself, which makes me wonder exactly what kind of energy drink they included in it.

Finally, there are the two Dawntrail drinks. The Golden Passion Soda has blue lychee and passion fruit syrups, soda water, champagne gold jelly, and a slice of lemon. This actually was my favorite soda overall. The blue lychee and passionfruit both clearly came through, and the soda helped to cut through the flavors and prevent it from being a sweet mish-mash like the Pictomancer drink. The champagne gold jelly came in small chunks that I kept sucking up through the straw that reminded me more of boba than anything else. Finally, the lemon added just the right amount of citrus flavoring to off balance everything else. I drank most of this in a few moments, realizing what I was doing, and then offered the rest to my partner.

The Dawntrail parfait is not a drink despite being listed in that section. It comes with champagne gold jelly, custard whip, mango fruit, sponge cake, orange sauce, vanilla ice cream, orange slices, white chocolate, French parsley, and a wafer. This parfait was not just ‘good’ in comparison to everything else, but a genuinely good dessert dish in its own right. The sponge cake mixed with the gold jelly, mango, vanilla ice cream, and orange sauce to create something that reminded me exactly of a breaded dreamsicle. It was sweet and creamy, and there was just the right balance of everything for the parfait. That said, the white chocolate and parsley was quite superfluous, and it did not add anything to the overall parfait.

As for food, I ordered the Adventurer’s Taco in honor of G’raha Tia, and my partner ordered the Mabimabi Fish and Chips. Both foods arrived fairly promptly, and we dug in. Unfortunately, the food was the worst part of the entire experience, despite both being a filling meal portion.

The Adventurer’s Taco is a single, plate-sized taco, and was served to me cold. It came with lettuce, taco meat, cheese, salsa, red onion slices, and tortilla chips inside of a flour tortilla. As I ate it with a knife/fork set, I found myself thinking that there was no seasoning added to the taco meat whatsoever. Serving this dish cold was also a baffling decision, as it did not help to cohesively blend the flavors together. Instead, I could taste each food ingredient on its own even while being eaten together. It did not taste bad, don’t get me wrong, it just was extremely bland and mostly flavorless.

The Mabimabi Fish and Chips didn’t fare much better. The chips (‘french fries’, really) were regular cut and crispy, but they tasted unsalted and unseasoned. The fish did taste like fish, but they were fairly lightly battered without any seasoning added to them. The sauces (tonkatsu, tartar, and ketchup) included with them were fairly unremarkable as well. That said, it was a filling meal portion for this dish as well.

Despite my partner’s initial reservations on if we would be able to really spend an hour-and-a-half there, we did. Because we had ordered the parfait and split it, we did not order any additional dessert. Instead, we just hung out and chatted while enjoying the music and decorations. When time was up, we filed out into a line and paid. The checkout process was unremarkably smooth, and while they had a stamp rally going on at the time, we definitely did not order anywhere near enough to warrant us winning anything from it.

Ultimately, I am giving this place a four out of five stars. That is odd, considering the quality of the food at…well…a restaurant. For me, the ultimate question was: Is Eorzea Café worth spending your time at when you’re visiting Japan? For fans of FINAL FANTASY XIV Online, the answer is yes. The process of getting a reservation is simple with multiple time slots during the day, it is simple to get to the café location, and it is painless to order from even if you don’t speak Japanese. The theming is incredibly on point too, and I loved being immersed in a place that is tied to a video game that I adore so much. I just wish the food itself was better, unfortunately. I am guessing this is meant to make sure the place appeals to as many people as possible by making the palette as simple as possible. All that said: my trip to Eorzea Café was easily slotted into my overall time in Akihabara as our lunch meal, and I am personally glad that I did so.

Review Score
Overall

Have you been to Eorzea Café? What do you think of the food and drink selection there?

Let us know in the comments below!

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Once again, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve added to Week in Gaming. A few weeks ago I wasn’t doing any major gaming and was making barely any progress playing Persona 3 Reload on and off. This past week I’ve been playing Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid which I’ll be writing a review for in the future, so I won’t be discussing that yet obviously. And other than that, I’ve hardly done any other gaming this week. However, just yesterday my wireless earbuds I finally bought arrived. The sound balancing in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance was so wonky and out of whack, I finally took the plunge and bought my first ever pair of wireless earbuds. I’m no audiophile but, wonky bad sound balancing is my main, potentially only, gaming pet peeve and I play my Switch a lot now days, mostly docked. After looking through the budget options available, I started watching a few different pairs of Anker Soundcore earbuds on Amazon. Most of them have great reviews, they’re relatively budget friendly depending on the pair and there’s a Soundcore app that works with each pair and includes various settings.

Originally I found very little if anything about people’s experience using wireless earbuds on their Switch without an adapter, since the feature’s been added to it by Nintendo. I got input from some people who said it worked great undocked with their wireless earbuds, even cheap pairs. But considering I mostly play docked, and for undocked gameplay the Switch has a headphone jack, that info wasn’t the most helpful. Although, getting confirmation they could work without lag and reading all the good reviews about the earbuds, I finally took the plunge and spent $30 on Anker’s Soundcore P30i model. Unfortunately, I did end up with a pair without a low-latency game mode option in the Soundcore app, I believe I thought all of the sets I was watching had it. Regardless, I’m now quite glad I bought them anyways.

I’ve never had wireless earbuds before and after testing them out a bit yesterday, I found out that there isn’t this horrible game ruining lag like people seemed to think, or have stated there would be in what little I was able to find on the subject online. People claim Switch has bare minimum bluetooth support which won’t pick-up settings and that without a game mode or adapter they’re terrible and lag horrendously. After testing it for myself, I think they’re quite good honestly. Feeling like they have to lag and expecting it, I think I’ve noticed or feel like there may potentially be a minuscule eighth or quarter second lag possibly, something around that at least. But I’m not having any major issues. The place where I believe I can tell for sure there is some slight delay, is just when going back to the menu, or back to a game from the menu, and then once the sound starts up after that quite minute delay, it seems to be fine. I’ve messed around switching between game thumbnails quickly in the main Switch menu, I’ve selected stuff quickly in menus and did some fishing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons when I got on last night for the fireworks event, and they seem pretty good still. I did start to wonder in ACNH if there was more lag than I thought. I thought I was starting to notice that very minor delay ever so slightly. But again, the fact that after researching it, it sounds like there has to be this horrible lag no matter what, I may simply be expecting it and that’s making me believe I’m truly noticing it. I should also probably mention, my Switch is connected to a small standard HDTV, not a smart TV. That may help lessen any potential lag as well.

I still need to do some additional testing, try them in Theatrhythm Final Bar Line perhaps, the only rhythm game I have on Switch, or in a shooter such as Splatoon 3 and/or Perfect Dark. I did try them with online multiplayer last night in ACNH, I joined a friend for that weekly August fireworks event. That might be my favorite seasonal event in the game. And yeah, like I already said, I’m not noticing any major lag. I do think and hope they’ll work for now, for the reason I bought them. In the future though, when I have more cash to spare for wireless earbuds, I’m hoping to maybe upgrade to the P3 model, or just any other well reviewed Soundcore wireless earbuds that actually have the low-latency game mode my current pair is missing. Oh that’s another thing, despite reading that my Switch wouldn’t pick-up any special modes set on my earbuds, the Soundcore app lets me connect them to both my phone and Switch at the same time. When I’ve messed with what settings they do have, the surround sound, various equalizer options, etc., my Switch picks it up and it works just fine.

Anyway, the reason I’ve decided to discuss my wireless earbuds experience this week, with a docked Switch, is because I had such a hard time finding any info about it myself, when attempting to research it beforehand. I figured I should put this out there for anyone else who wanted to know I suppose. Maybe one of you will find this info useful. And if not, well it’s the only gaming I can talk about this week. I’ll keep making Natsu-Mon progress and hopefully I’ll be able to write my review soon. – Jenae

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

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

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Character Description of Metis: A mysterious android who claims to be Aigis’s “sister”. She appears before the S.E.E.S. members who are trapped in a never-ending March 31st time loop and leads them to the Abyss of Time that has appeared in the basement of the dormitory. Her unique Persona is Psyche, specializing in physical, wind, and ice skills.

If you’d like to know more about Persona 3 Reload, visit the game’s official website.

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The Digital Deluxe Edition includes:

• Swimsuit Costume Set
  • The Swimsuit Costume Set is available for the following playable characters:
    Older Neptune, Neptune, Pippih, Jagaa, Reedio, Noire, Blanc, Vert, Nepgear, Uni, Rom, Ram
• *Digital Art Book (31 Pages)
• *Digital Soundtrack (15 tracks)

*The Digital Art Book and Digital Soundtrack included with the Digital Deluxe Edition can be viewed and listened to in the Gallery in-game.

Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution Story
In a world of powerful rival Game Makers…

Within the Game Maker world, in order to acquire Shares, Game Makers have started to wage a battle for supremacy.

And so, a new Game Maker steps into the fray, attempting to endure the battle for survival in Gamindustri.

Key Features
Game Studio of The Year — Play as the main protag, Older Nep, and grow a previously defunct gaming studio to success. Building a game studio requires strong developers, cutting-edge video games, and the expansion of your market. Choose wisely and become the biggest game studio of the year!

Build Games & Boost Your Party — Boost your party stats with the help of creating games through disc development and choose creators to work on your next hit game!

Vroom, Vroom in Style — Ride through dungeons in Gamindustri and sell your games on your trusty purple motorcycle. Older Nep can also challenge pesky enemies for pinks (aka special rewards) or test your racing skills through time trials!

Party Management 101 — Supervise a party of four to lead your company to the top! But there may be other game studios ready to take you down. With a revamped battle system, chained attacks, and transformative specials, Older Nep and friends are ready for victory!

If you’d like to know more about Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution, visit the game’s official website.

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Symphony of the Night – Dracula X Chronicles version

A little while ago I replayed the Dracula x Chronicles version of Symphony of the Night. Mostly the same experience as the PS1 version, I have to say, I don’t mind the small changes between the two. The voice actors are the most obvious difference, but I was never as obsessed about them as others across the internet. I particularly like the extra Maria boss fight, and I wish the developers had added more beyond this. I recall hearing that the Saturn version of the game had additional areas, or at least the data for them was left over, so I wouldn’t have minded seeing the original developers’ ideas fleshed out. I guess I’m always wanting more in these instances.

Anyway, I can blitz through this pretty fast, even faster than Aria or Portrait, which is why I just went ahead and played it in a sitting or three.

One thing I’ll mention, I always took issue with the unique weapons and how rarely they drop. I also never liked how some enemies drop equips that are already available in the castle. Similarly, I never like it when castle items or weapons found later are worse than items found earlier. I just never understood the logic behind such decisions.

Equips other than weapons were never special either. I do always get a kick out of the Crystal Cloak, though, and how the sprite artists made it semi-transparent. I’m impressed with the imagination it took to do so every time I see it. It’s a personal favorite.

I’ll be done with this by the time this contribution gets published. As for what’s next, I’m leaning towards more manga and LN reading than gaming, so I’ll see you over on that weekly post. – Drew D

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

You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!

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