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About The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II

No longer threatened by the mafia organization Almata, the people of Calvard have returned to their peaceful lives. But one day, a shocking series of murders involving a mysterious crimson beast sets the wheels of fate in motion once again. Various factions spring into action – both those who abide by the law to uncover the truth and those looking to capitalize on any new developments wherever possible, no matter how sinister. With chaos once again looming on the horizon, the spriggan Van Arkride receives an unexpected visitor, prompting his own investigation.

Who is behind the murders, and what is their goal? The sands of time bring old and new faces together for this thrilling second installment in the Trails through Daybreak saga.

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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

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If you’d like to know more about Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana, visit the game’s official website.

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Take the fall for a murder and emerge from prison 10 years later to yakuza clans on the brink of a war that hurtles you on an intense journey of love, humanity, and betrayal. Fueled by your fists and unyielding resolve, fight your way through a bustling red-light district in modern day Japan.

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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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The Magazine Edition ($69.99) includes:

• Physical game
• Nepbike Magazine Art Book (64 pages)
• Poster set (5 fold-out posters)
• Nepbike Sticker Set (28 stickers)
• Official Soundtrack (10 tracks)
• Download code for the Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos Costume Set* (1x costume per set for Uzume Neptune, Noire, Blanc, Vert, 15x total)
  * Swimsuit Costume
  * Apocalyptic Costume
  * Race Queen Costume
• Reversible Cover Sleeve
• Exclusive Trading Card

Fans can also grab the Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos Deluxe Edition for PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch upon launch.

The Deluxe Edition ($49.99) includes:

• Digital game
• Digital Art Book (35 pages)
• Soundtrack (10 tracks)
• Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos Costume Set* (1x costume per set for Uzume Neptune, Noire, Blanc, Vert, 15x total)
  * Swimsuit Costume
  * Apocalyptic Costume
  * Race Queen Costume

The Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos Costume Set ($6.99) will also be available as a standalone DLC on launch.

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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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A new adventure with new protagonists and an original story in the world of “Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy and the Polar Night Liberator” is coming to PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch and Steam® as a “completely offline” title.

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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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 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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 In the demo, players step into the shoes of the Emperor Leon and, with his second son, Prince Gerard, start an epic journey that will span across generations as Leon, Gerard and subsequent emperors contend with the Seven Heroes – once revered heroes who, for reasons unknown, now seek revenge against the world. The demo concludes with a battle with Kzinssie, one of the Seven Heroes, setting the stage for the multi-generation story to unfold. As save data from the demo is transferable to the full game, players can seamlessly continue their adventure upon the game’s Oct. 24 launch.

In Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, players will embark on a multi-generation adventure to protect and expand their empire. With the free-form scenario system, the player’s choices will impact how the story develops, including who inherits the imperial throne with each successive generation. Developed by the team behind the 2020 remake Trials of Mana, this ground-up remake and standalone story will feature modern visuals, reworked strategic gameplay and various other enhancements that will delight longtime SaGa fans and newcomers alike, including the ability to switch between the classic soundtrack and a newly rearranged version, plus three difficulty modes that can be adjusted at any point.

If you’d like to know more about Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, visit the game’s official website.

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The Digital Deluxe Edition (PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch) will be available for $69.99 and includes:

• Digital game
• Digital Art Book (57 pages)
• Digital Soundtrack (49 tracks)

Fans who purchase the Digital Standard or Digital Deluxe Edition within the first two weeks of the game’s launch will also receive the FREE Gensokyo Safe Adventure Pack, which contains 10x equipment and 1x consumable that will help get the adventure started!

The Gensokyo Safe Adventure Pack includes:

• Rare Yang Crystal x 1
• Rare Meteorite Shard x 1
• Rare Crystal Flower x 1
• Rare Ancient Card x 1
• Rare Helix Ritual Tool x 1
• Rare Warped Ring x 1
• Rare Foreign Charm x 1
• Rare Snowflake Badge x 1
• Rare Thin Feathers x 1
• Rare Shell Rosary x 1
• Rare Growth Elixir x 5

Touhou Spell Carnival Story
Gensokyo — A remote land isolated from the Outside World, where humans and youkai live side-by-side.

One day, the shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine, Reimu Hakurei, spots mysterious pillars towering over various locations throughout Gensokyo.

These pillars signaled the start of the Spell Carnival, a festival hosted by Yukari Yakumo where one must put their Spell Cards on the line in battle.

In order to investigate the true intentions of Yukari Yakumo, who initiated the Spell Carnival so suddenly, Reimu Hakurei joins the fight for Spell Cards.

Key Features
Strategy RPG Meets Bullet Hell Mania — Battle in a grid system with a unique blend of real-time strategy elements and bullet hell madness! Hone your strategy skills by moving characters to grid-specific areas, grazing enemy bullets, and unleashing special skills in one simultaneous, action-packed battle!

Gotta Stay Prepped — Don’t just run into battle unprepared! Organize your party’s positioning on the grid, assign skills according to your enemies’ weaknesses, and choose wisely which Ace Spell Card you’ll use.

Need a Boost? — Players will occasionally see objects and Attributes during battle. Objects can block incoming bullets and provide additional effects once destroyed. Attributes can provide boosts and status effects. Use these boosts to your advantage, and maybe you’ll be able to collect extra loot from your victories!

Find Peace in the Hakurei Shrine — Explore the Hakurei Shrine through the lens of Reimu Hakurei! Keep tabs on any active missions, revisit sub-events, strike a pose with Photo Mode, and even talk to some of your favorite Touhou Project characters in Hakurei Shrine as you progress through the story!

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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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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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